One Saturday in mid-March, we ventured over to the rodeo carnival. Bill had to work the Wednesdays that we saw livestock with grandmothers, and this was his chance to experience the show with the girls.
Our mission was to ride a ferris wheel. Two of our story books — Hello, Chicago and M is for Monkey — include ferris wheels, and I had been talking them up. The carnival had THREE ferris wheels, including a “little” one in the “kiddie” area, so we expected it to be easy.
Much to our surprise, the grand wheel required riders to be 52″ (4-1/2′) tall, and the little ferris wheel required riders to be 36″ (3′) tall, even with an adult. In fact, every single ride had a minimum height requirement. With Cate just under 32″ and Sam just over 33″ tall, the only ride we were eligible for this year was the carousel.
So we took our ride card and rode the little carousel… twice. Cate was discomfited by the herky-jerky motion of her first horse, but she selected a sleigh bench for the second trip and enjoyed going “dizzy” (round and round) on it immensely. Sam’s inaugural rounds were on a stationary horse, which she thought was great, and she tackled a horse on the second round.
Sometime before our second ride it started to rain, so we bought some funnel cake and walked back to the rail station to head home.
The following Saturday, when we asked the girls what they’d like to do, they both declared for riding the carousel at the livestock show. At first, we explained that the show was over until next year and we’d have to do something else. But then it dawned on us that there’s a carousel at the Houston Zoo between the giraffe yard and the Children’s Zoo.
Armed with our 2014 membership card, we set out for the zoo. We were delighted to discover that the Wildlife Carousel is absolutely marvelous. New in 2004, it has four rows of animals including a frog, a bear, several lions, tigers, gorillas, a caterpillar sprouting wings, a couple of Rice owls, and even the only known carved wood carousel armadillo.
We’ve been on the zoo carousel at least once every weekend since then. Here’s a video clip of Daddy Bill with two very happy girls: Cate is astride a lion, and Sam’s riding a log with a couple of baby gorillas.
Enjoy!