Trekking to Tyler and Restaurant Review

Redbud flowers

Tyler, Texas is the ‘Rose Capitol of the World’ (or Texas depending on who you read and just how you see your home state). It’s about 135 miles south east of Fort Worth and a pretty drive, particularly if you take the back roads (US Highway 80 to US 64 or to US 110) instead of Interstate 20 and don’t travel during ‘drive times’. Since the Rose City Artisan and Flower Market was going on and I wanted to see meet two people whose work I admire, we hit the road. Although the wildflowers weren’t quite at their peak, Lady Bird Johnson’s idea to plant them along the highways has made for colorful viewing. We saw a few flowers, but what I enjoyed the most were the redbud trees and the crabapples. Redbuds aren’t red, but rather a hot pink to mauve; the crabapple blossoms are a bright, light pink. It’s been a wet spring so the lush green grass that added a nice base to these brightly colored trees.

Hopping to Perth

Top to Bottom: Kangaroo with joey in pouch,
Child and joey, Cynthia feeding kangaroo

Caversham Wildlife Park is great fun simply because you hand-feed the kangaroos and wallabies, whisper in the ears of the dozing koalas, and chirp with the birds in the aviaries. This is a well maintained park with lots of area for the animals to roam. Many of the birds are housed in aviaries, but some are still maintained in cages. My favorite part is feeding the kangaroos and wallabies. There are signs that warn you not to touch the joeys in their mothers’ pouches, but in nearly every case, the joeys are happy to come hopping up to you reaching for a mouthful of food from your hand.  As with years past, there were several mamas with babies in their pouches; sometimes all you could see of the joey was a foot or a tail. The grass is really green where the kangaroos and wallabies are, and our shoes really needed scraping once we were finished in the enclosure. There is also a 'farm animal' exhibit that we had to experience. We got chewed on by kids (they particularly liked Dave’s shoelaces), rubbed on by the nannies, and ignored by the chickens. I did get to scratch some rabbits, but the park personnel wouldn't let me in

Top L to R: Bustard, Dave and kid
Bottom L to R: Barking owl, Koala and Dave

the stalls with them. It seems you have to be no older than five to actually get in the pens. The birds in the aviaries weren’t too thrilled about being visited, particularly since it is spring. The males were downright hostile and the females were grumpy. As we walked through one area, we heard a dog barking. We followed the ‘woof, woof’ and found that it was not a dog at all, but a barking owl. And if that wasn’t strange enough, the lion’s roar we thought we heard was actually a bustard. Caversham hasn’t changed substantially I visited about 15 years ago, but Whiteman Park, which surrounds it, has added a several other things to do, including a train ride and a place to eat.

King's Park and Botanic Gardens is a great place to while away a day. In the spring the  

flowers are gorgeous and the temperature isn’t too so warm as to keep you from walking

L to R: Banksia, Yellow flowers,
Kangaroo paws

through the entire park. The first place to go is to the Visitor’s Center for a good map and to find out if there are any areas that are restricted. This year there were all sorts of areas, both parking and touring, blocked off because two celebrities were visiting. England’s Prince Edward had come to Perth, as had Katy Perry; it was hard to tell just who park visitors were trying to spot. Such excitement and all we wanted to see were some native plants! The park has added a ‘tall trees’ walk that, much like what we experienced in Tasmania, takes you up near the top of the trees and provides some great views of the city. Spring means that the flowers were in bloom and the bees were zooming around them. My favorite flowers were the banksia with their spiky blooms and leaves. Although I should have expected it, there were sections with plants from around the world, including a group of cacti from California.

L to R: Bee on flower, DNA Tower, Gala

Eventually we made our way to the Firefighters’ Memorial and to the DNA Tower. The tower resembles its namesake. At the bottom are signs telling about the characteristics and function of DNA; platforms half-way to the top have information about the flora and fauna in surrounding area. Once on top of the tower, there are more views of Perth and the nearby mountains.