Overnight trip to Austin

We went to Austin last weekend for a quick trip.  This is about a 3 hr drive from Dallas. It is a great town with a lot to do.  We stayed downtown which was fun as they close down one of the streets on Saturday night and there are people all over.  Live music in every bar.

On Saturday when we got there, we went directly to Hamilton Pool.
 

Swimming was closed at the pool due to the flooding that they had earlier in the year.  We were able to walk a trail to the Pedernales river and go swimming.  The air temperature was 103 so it was refreshing even though the water temperature was ~85 degrees. 

We then checked into our hotel and walked up to the Congress street bridge where millions of bats come out at sunset.  Below is a picture and a video (Not sure if this made it but you can see clouds of bats in the distance).  The smell as they flew by was strong.

 

The capital building was quite nice at night and day.

 

Live music for dinner.  A good jazz band.

 

 Sunday we finished off with a drink at Lake Travis.  Austin is a lot more hilly than Dallas.

Fun with Liam

We had only one more swimming day at the lake but Grandpa and Liam played a lot of badminton and we went to the Medina Railroad Museum where Liam was allowed to control the whistle and bells of the train.  Now he is thoroughly enjoying DC.  Tomorrow we will go back to the Natural History Museum because, on our previous visit, we were so exhausted from walking around all the monuments that we only watched IMAX films.

The Little Princess

The kids were reading a new book last night - The Little Princess. 

Catching Up

We had a great time in Vegas with Jeff and Missy celebrating our 50th birthdays this year.  Temperature outside was 115F during the day so we spent a lot of time in the pool.  A friend from San Diego got us free blue man tickets which was a fun show.  We won on the first night which made for a good weekend.

We found another nice park in Plano.  It has a nice wooded section following a creek.  There was signs that the water along the trail was above our heads in the storm.  As the creek was 15 feet lower in a ravine it gives the sense of the dangers of flash floods.  Also nearly stepped on a copper head snake.  It turns out there is a bike trail to the park from our apartment so we did this this weekend.

We attended July fourth at the Laos temple.  They had about a two hour firework show and concert.  The grand finale was great.  I think fireworks are cheaper in Texas.

Tui has started work,  She starts every day at 6:00 so I have been getting up at 5:00 and making coffee.  She got her first paycheck yesterday.

Today we went back to our favorite place, the Dallas Arboretum.  Lots of new flowers.  The Crape Myrtle really is blooming well in Texas.

 

 

 

Great Visit with Kalyani, Hannah, Jo and Susie!

Here are some highlights from Kalyani's visit last week. So nice to see them.

 Reflections on the EMP

 Pondering Chihuly

 Good way to cause a family feud is to rent a triple kayak!

 This year's sockeye run through the Ballard Locks.

 BOB.

 Tough Girls.

 A quick dip in Puget Sound (or, now who's tough?)

4th of July Parade

Kids had a great time in the Santa Monica Main Street fourth of July parade on Saturday.

And then we went to lulu's Mexican Restsurant for lunch after. 

 

Happy Birthday, Ben

Happy Birthday! to my wonderful, funny, thoughtful, smart, playful, baseball player.

The day of your birth was a joy for me. (Well, except the C-section part.) (Oh yeah, and then there were the 5 years of mornings that started at 4 AM.)