AUSTIN

Austin.

There's just something about Austin - isn't there. These days it seems to be THE place to be. It's a pretty fast growing city right now.

It's 'very liberal' we hear a lot.

More like 'electic' to us.

Until now, the closest we had gotten to Austin was driving through with Pastor Jerry last year on our way home from Georgetown. Austin is very pretty at night with all the lights.

We've been here since Saturday and sure are enjoying our stay. Perhaps spending time in a house for the first time in five months MAY have something to do with it - ahhhh the LUXURY of a bedroom and bathroom.

Our van - nicely parked in the suburbs of Austin. Getting pretty lonely I'm sure as we enjoy being in the home of our good friends, Nancy and Brian. 

AND - there is a park just behind their house - we checked it our pretty quickly upon our arrival.

Cassia was pretty starved for a playground - we didn't visit any in Mexico.

This is what pure joy looks like.

It took us until Tuesday to feel up to doing some sightseeing. We were enjoying just hanging around a large indoor space and being fairly lazy - with a few visits to the playground each day of course.

With a nice warm day forecasted, we all decided that Tuesday was a good day to get out - Zilker Park was our destination.

Along the way, Brain took us on the scenic route through Austin. The west side is very upscale - definitely the largest area of HUGE houses I have seen. 

We sure enjoyed being passengers, let me tell you!

Our first stop was the highest point in Austin - Mt. Bonnell. 

Following a short hike up the gravel path there is a view of the Colorado River.

And a view of some very exclusive homes along the river.

Feeling pretty good again and enjoying the sunny skies.

Brian, our tour guide for the day.

P r e t t y  swanky.

At the top we were rewarded with a view of downtown Austin.

Our next stop was Zilker Park - a very large metropolitan park in Austin, not far from the downtown.
We were headed to the Nature & Science Center. It was a very good idea to go - to get out into nature, get Cassia seeing some fun things - the bad news? It's Spring Break here, so it was very very busy.

The neat entry across from the parking lot.

 Cassia by the stream. 

 Cassia in the Dino Pit.

Since Cassia was told that morning that there was a playground at the Park -  she had that on her mind. We headed back to the truck and continued on to the playground - only to find the parking lot full and the playground even fuller. We decided to forgo and carry on. With all the activity we decided to stop and get something to eat. Just up the road was a string of restaurants. Knowing the town, Brain took us to Shady Grove.

 Shady Grove - looks like it has been there forever with this sign - right?!

Ahhhh back to good ol' American food AND good ol' American prices. Ouch! Not quite what we are used to - Mexico sure did spoil us as far as food prices are concerned. Thank goodness Brian had a coupon - or a groupon that is.

It was a pretty busy place even for 3:30 pm on a Tuesday afternoon (Derek and I actually didn't realize that it was so late in the afternoon). I imagine that it is busy most of the time. It looks like that kind of place. Here it is on the Roadfood website.

A girl and her horse.

Hey .... our NEW pad. We all laughed that we could just move right in. This Airstream trailer was parked out back. We debated if someone lived there or not. Derek was the brave one to open the door and peak in - Christmas storage....

Does that mean it's available?

Since we had some time to kill we decided to head back to the very very busy playground. By this time it was just after 4:00 pm. Our thinking was that the crowd MAY be clearing out this close to dinner. 

Wrong! Just as busy - but we waded in anyway.

We can't deny a little girl from a playground visit now can we?

Just as Landa Park in New Braunfels has a train, so does Zilker Park - the Zilker Zephyr.

Here comes the Zephyr now!

By 5:00 pm or so we left the park and headed just down the road to meet up with Nancy. We of course has eaten not more then an hour ago or so - but feeling bad for Nancy we decided to meet her at the Brew Pub. Stop for micro brew beer - sign us up!

Our second restaurant of the day -- Uncle Billy's Brew & Que --- yaaa our first brew pub since back in the USA. 

Cassia in the midst of eating - errrr drinking her first float - and root beer at that.

A proud dad looking on.

 And here they are!!! Nancy and Brian - our generous hosts for the week! And for those of you following 'a life made simple' - the face of Brian behind the 'commenter Brian'.

Mmmmm -- sampling the mighty fine beer that this place produces.

Sitting here in a LIVING ROOM on a SOFA with my legs up - writing this post - priceless!

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: I just found this site through facebook tonight - Life in 120 Square Feet - pretty small, pretty neat. Makes me kinda think I should have titled our blog - Life in 89 Square Feet - ha ha. If you are up to living small this site will help you get on your way - or give you a bit of inspiration anyway.

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