carver and the reptiles

Even though my parents visited us this past week, we didn't do too much tourist stuff. My parents spent most of their time either working around my house or on my grandmother's house. Everyone but my dad did get away Thursday morning when we visited my grandmother. That morning we stopped by the George Washington Carver National Monument and Reptile World Zoo. I didn't really get pictures (the reptile zoo didn't allow them anyway) but I still have some thoughts about the experience.

First, we visited the George Washington Carver National Monument. It is laid out like a park, and has one museum-like structure that we visited. There is more to the park, but that was all outside and we didn't relish walking NJ around in the heat.

I have always held a high opinion of Carver because the things he did were to benefit others rather than himself, especially his work to aid in the plight of the share-croppers. As the museum was created to honor Carver, it did a good job of improving my already good opinion of him.

NJ was drawn to one display that had nothing to do with Carver, but had a lot of buttons. He would push a button, an animal would light up, and we would hear the sound that animal made. That display probably entertained NJ for ten to fifteen minutes solid.

Not far from Carver's monument is a place called the Reptile World Zoo. It is essentially a large steel building housing an animal enthusiast's collection of reptiles. These are mostly snakes, but also include a wide assortment of other reptiles, some birds, some tarantulas, and I am sure some other things that I forget. For a museum that appears very small on the outside, there were quite a few animals.

NJ was a bit interested in the animals, but he was also spooked by a lot of them. Several of the snakes there were larger than he is and that made him uncomfortable, which makes sense because there was only a thin layer of plexiglas between him and them.