Every once in awhile, you just need to get away! And get away we did, all the way to Austin, Texas. I might be a southwestern girl at heart after a fun filled 4 days there. I've technically been to Texas before, back in college when Nate and I were interning with Crossroads, but the extent of our visit was a traffic jam in Houston (we were driving in an '88 non-airconditioned Ford pickup with vinyl seats...need I say more?) so you could say that it did not leave a great impression on me at the time. But Austin is like a whole other part of Texas...
So since Nate had a conference/training for work Monday through Friday in Austin we flew out the Friday before to get 3 days in before the training started. We haven't gone anywhere, just the two of us, in well over a year so with grandparents dividing up the time watching Drew, we knew he was in good hands and we just had fun and enjoyed our time together.
When we got to Austin on Friday, we spent the day on foot exploring the city. It is very pedestrian-friendly and we like to walk so this worked out well. We saw the state capital building and ate dinner in the 6th street restaurant district (I can't even remember the name of the restaurant but it was some great Mexican food!)
Saturday: In the morning we woke up bright and early and picked up the rental car. Since we only had it for two days, we crammed a lot in that time. We drove to San Antonio that morning and did the "River Walk" which was lots of shopping and restaurants all along the canal/river that winds through the city.
San Antonio was so beautiful! Although this was the "touristy" area, it was still fun to just walk outside in the warm sunshine, eat lunch together and explore.
And of course we had to remember the Alamo. It was kind of anti-climactic as it just sits right there in the middle of all the shops and restaurants but was still fun to visit.
View from the top of the River walk, along a pedestrian bridge.
Nate had a folder full of google-mapped "detours" to a lot of state parks. I was the delegated teller-of-the-directions while he drove. First stop...Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. See that picture above? He is clearly in his element, hiking of course!
Landa Park has a natural spring that feeds into a pool where everyone swims. The water was crystal clear and if I'd had my swimsuit, I think I would have jumped right in too.
The next stop on the way back to Austin was McKinney Falls State Park. Since Texas has been in a bit of a drought these past few weeks, the falls were dry enough to walk around on. We hiked a few more miles through this park too and kept happening upon more beautiful scenery.
Like these very old cypress trees along the creek. There are some amazing swimming holes in Texas!
For example, this one, where people were jumping off the rocks and swimming. It was HOT, like 90 degrees and once again, I wished I had my swimsuit so we could have done the same.
For dinner, we headed back to Austin and ate at a fantastic local taco stand. Nate snapped this blury picture of all the people out and about and the skyline sort of in the distance.
Sunday:
Once again, we headed out bright and early so we could make it to two state parks. The first was Hamilton Pool Preserve with a hike down to yet another swimming hole.
This one was beautiful too...and this time we did have our swimsuits with us but it was still a little cool to swim at this point in the morning.
So we just admired the waterfall.
And of asked a nice couple passing by to take a picture of us.
The trail continued on down to the Pedernales River...such a beautiful place also!
The view from the hike down (I appear as a prop in most of these pictures because Nate had the camera in his hands for most of the hiking and would frequently say,
Go stand over there so we can get some perspective on the size of that tree! and such)
After Hamilton pool, we drove through more of the beautiful Texas hill country. I really felt like I was in Texas when we saw a few cows by the side of the road and the roads had names like
Texas Ranch Road 27 and
Texas Ranch Road 32 (which was more than a bit confusing and might explain why we ended up slightly lost but ultimately in the birthplace of Lyndon B. Johnson at which point Nate declared he'd always wanted to visit anyway.) However, we found our way back...
...to Pedernales State Park. It was getting hot outside, so we stopped by the Pedernales River (the other end of it this time) and decided to go for a swim.
Nate went all in...
While I opted to hang out on the beach.
We crossed to the other side of the park to hike down to the falls, which, like all other falls we hiked to on this trip were a little short on water.
But still provided an awesome view of the river basin and rock formations.
We drove back to Austin and had barbecue for dinner in the Barton Springs area of Austin, a great park with a natural spring that forms a lake and creek, with lots of good places to eat along the way.
I don't know who Uncle Billy is but his barbecue sure was great!
Monday:
In the morning, Nate had to go to the training so I had a whole day to myself. That hasn't happened in quite some time! It was heavenly. In the morning, I enjoyed some Starbucks and once I was well caffeinated, went for a run along this beautiful path pictured above. As I mentioned before, Austin is very pedestrian friendly and they have an awesome trail/running path that goes on for miles all along the river.
The view from the rooftop pool at the hotel where I sat and read all afternoon...once again, a few hours to myself! Nate joined me on his lunch break too.
After Nate's meetings, we walked for several miles along the lake trail again that evening. When we sat down for a bit on the pedestrian bridge, this girl treated everyone to some beautiful piano music, as there was a piano just hanging out on the bridge. I noticed about 3 or 4 of these pianos all along the trail for people to play on a whim.
We ended the night by waiting patiently on the bridge (along with about 100 other people) for the bats...yes you read correctly. A whole colony of Mexican bats migrate to Austin in the spring and hang out under the Congress Avenue bridge all season long. As in 1.5 million of them! It sounds kind of creepy (particularly if you don't like bats) but was definitely interesting to see. And also explains why there is not a mosquito problem along Town Lake.
This is certainly not my picture but you get the idea...lots of bats. A strange tourist attraction for sure! I asked Nate if we could purchase some bats for our backyard so the mosquitoes don't attack me this summer. He looked at me like I'd lost my mind and informed me that you can't just buy bats. So what we really need is one of those bat houses that attract them...I think they will make a nice addition to our backyard this summer.
Now I won't lie and act as though, even though Nate and I had a great time, that we didn't miss our little guy a ton! Five days is a long time to be away from him and I was anxious to get home and kiss those sweet cheeks.
And while we were gone, he cut his two front teeth and learned to stand on his head! I guess a lot happens in the life of a baby when you're away for even a few days. We are so thankful to Nate's mom and sister Kelsey and to my parents for watching him while we were away!
