Cleaned apartment and cooked dinner in the morning. In the afternoon went to Alligator Farm. We all liked it. David Wayne especially liked the gavial. Went to an Akron store - bought a sheet for David Wayne's bed. Tried to buy a dress but couldn't find one I liked. Ate supper at home and then went to Chinatown. Bought chopsticks, paper flowers, and a cute decanter. David Wayne got an alligator bank at the farm and a whistle at Chinatown. Very tired that night.
Ah, yes, the Alligator Farm. I'm pretty sure this was my favorite place to visit. Below is the front of a tri-fold brochure Mom saved from one of our visits. (Yes there are two missing apostrophes.) The gavial, or gharial, is a crocodile with a very long skinny snout with almost no taper to it. The back of the tri-fold brochure (shown below) has drawings showing some of the differences between various types of alligators and crocodiles.
As I recall there were all kinds of alligators and crocodiles, but the best part was feeding time. What an incredible free-for-all of teeth and tails and splashing water. I'm pretty sure I saw more than one small alligator get chomped by a larger one, and probably a few legs get bitten off as well. In case it's not mentioned in an upcoming letter, the Alligator Farm was the first place I wanted my grandmother to see when she came to visit us. Disneyland? Meh. Let's go to the Alligator Farm!
The bank I got at the Alligator Farm was apparently the first of 20 to 30 banks I got as souvenirs of our stay in California. I still have many of them, and if I run across the one from the Alligator Farm I'll post a picture of it at some point.
Per Wikipedia, the California Alligator Farm was shut down in 1984 due to poor attendance.
I don't remember anything specific about Chinatown.
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