Christmas Break Day Trip

The kids got out for Christmas Break on Wednesday afternoon. While I would have preferred they stay in school until today and not go back to school until the 7th instead of the 4th, (3 weekends/2 full weeks off sounds way better than 2 weekends/2 half weeks/1 full week off) I have no say over the school schedule. I decided to deal with my disappointment and planned a day trip.

We've gone west, south and north/northwest on our day adventures. This time I decided to head east. I invited the cousins to go with us, but I think my plans didn't sound that great. Even my kids were grumbling. I kept telling them to trust me because we haven't had a disappointed day trip yet.

First stop, The Salt Palace in Grand Saline.  This is a very tiny museum dedicated to the Morton Salt Mine in Grand Saline. The woman said the salt vein goes 10,000 feet deep and right now they mine at 750 feet deep. There should be enough salt for the next 20,000 years. The pictures show huge front end loaders and basket cranes in the mine so it must be huge.

grumpy children


B with his free salt rock.

You can see the unenthusiastic faces on my children. Well, except for B. I warned A that I was taking pictures for the blog and she needed to smile. She will learned her lesson because I'm putting this picture on the blog even though she is making an awful face. J is closing his eyes on purpose, but at least he smiled while he closed his eyes. I will admit that this was not much of a destination. The woman answered questions when asked but wasn't much of a tour guide!

After Grand Saline we headed to Tyler to the Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum. I wasn't sure what else there was to do out that way until I googled things to do in Grand Saline and clicked links until I found this blurb. I knew I had to go. By the time we got to Tyler I was ready to turn around and go home. Traffic was way worse than Dallas and the address wasn't quite correct. After a couple or 13 u-turns on a very busy road, we finally arrived.

Animals dressed up for Christmas


A looks nervous


Boys getting attacked by a lion




Look at the monkeys!

At least it was worth it! Free admission, cool dead stuffed animals. Monkeys playing monopoly. What more could you ask for.

We suffered through more traffic in Tyler, grabbed some lunch at Chik-Fil-A and headed to our next destination, the East Texas Arboretum in Athens.


the school house


hiking through the woods


on the suspension bridge


running and more running, B was antsy after the car ride




cool seed pod

What a nice place this was. Definitely worth the stop. I can't wait to go back again in the spring so we can see the place in bloom and check out the museum.