Across from The Reptile House, they have the frog pond. The house John grew up in had an in-ground pool where the lining had eroded away. We did not have the money to repair it, so it basically became a giant terrarium with turtles and bullfrogs. Some time later, it was filled in and converted to yard space. The frogs had probably escaped or died by then. Hopefully?

The entrance to the Reptile House is being restored. For years, it had two columns on the back of turtles with a reptile engraved arch.

The Reptile House is a pretty dense packing of exhibits. Most of the reptiles are fairly small, and they do not need huge enclosures.

In Kate’s opinion, this is pretty much how John eats his food, especially cupcakes.

We are not sure why the Yellow-spotted Amazon River Turtle is in the Reptile house and not the Amazonia exhibit, but it is. You can see the front leg position for swimming is kind of like the doggy paddle.

Here you can see the flippers of the Fly River Turtle moving in unison, like a sea turtle.

The Reptile Discovery Center (no longer The Reptile House) is a big attraction, so it gets crammed with people. A lot of those people are very small and very loud. At this point, I am pretty sure all the reptiles are now deaf.

And, out front was a huge Aldabra Giant Tortoise. This is probably Rulon, the 520 pound male tortoise. They are not quite as large as the Galapagos Tortoise.

To be continued …