Days 1-3 - Everything is bigger in Texas...Keep Austin humid!

So we rolled out of AZ earlier than we actually thought we would.  We ended up making it to El Paso (the armpit of the TX! - No offense meant to anyone I might know from there).  Just a sleepover, and then back on the road the next morning , headed to Austin.  We last saw triple digit temps around Tuscon, and did I mention that only 20 minutes down the road from home, I remembered that I had left 8 cans of beer in our freezer that I had planned to bring along for the trip!  We had to call a neighbor to go pull them out before they exploded!  Hopefully he took a few home as tax?  Then 5 minutes later we drove over a 5 gallon bucket paint can lid on the freeway!

It's probably a good thing Maori didn't come along as there wasn't much room for her!

We got into Austin around 4:30 pm on Friday evening.  Let's just say, Austin traffic sucks!  I realize it was a Friday afternoon rush hour, but it was gridlock for the last 5-10 miles or so.  Personally, I don't think having the frontage roads really helps the cause, but it's the system they have there.  But I did get a few horns honked at me... multiple times by the same 2 cars after merging "kind of" last minute!  I think one lady actually took a pic of my license plate.  So we'll see if I become famous in TX soon!

As we cut across the hill country from I-10 to Austin, we drove by a bunch of wineries in
Fredricksburg, TX.  It was a German/Bavarian themed town.  By the time Bish said "we should pull over and walk around" I couldn't find a parking spot in downtown.  So I ended up pulling over a bit later at a Walmart and we walked around in there to stretch our legs.  Do I know how to show my family a good time or what?  Wally World in BFE, TX!

Did I mention it was friggen HUMID in Austin?  At least El Paso was a pleasant climate.  Austin was 95 and muggy both days we were there.  We spent most of Saturday walking around sweating, at least until the weather rolled through and it dropped about 10 degrees and 40% in 30 minutes!

"Keep Austin weird" seems to be the common theme in the city.  It didn't seem that weird to me, but then again, I lived in California for 14 years of my life!  Friday night we went downtown and stood on Congress Bridge to see the 1.5 million Mexican Free Tailed bats fly out from under the bridge at dusk every night to go eat 10 tons of bugs (supposedly) throughout Austin.There were a lot of people standing on the bridge, and we got there about 10 minutes before they started coming out from under the bridge.  It was honestly pretty cool.  We had real Texas BBQ for dinner that night at Coopers.  We all agreed that the beef ribs and Pecan cobbler were to die for!

Bish and Slackettes on Congress Bridge waiting for the bats to come out.

On Saturday we headed back to downtown Austin to enjoy the humidity.  We did a quick tour around UT-Austin on our way.  It was a pretty campus, and had a lot of Longhorns everywhere for some odd reason?  All the street signs that are on campus are burnt orange, so that way you know you are on the campus!  Darby and Bish found a pretty cool digital scavenger hunt type of experience in downtown Austin.  Bish made reservations for it, and then we met up with a guy who explained the concept to us, gave us an I-pad and satchel with problem solving tools in it.  Then the fun really began....the geo-referencing aspect of the I-pad didn't work too well.  The data transfer/caching portion didn't work too well.  So we spent 30-45 walking around lost because the tablet kept telling us we were in the wrong place.  After Danica "not doing it right" Darby gave it a shot.  After she got all grumped up because it "wasn't working right," I gave it a shot.  As we stood still for 5 minutes, the map showed us moving in a variety of different directions...all while we were standing perfectly still!

Hook em Horns!!!

Our next plan was to go see the Capital building of Texas.  Kind of ironic that we've lived 20 miles from the Arizona capital for 11 years, and have yet to make to go see it, or have any interest in seeing it,  Yet we are in the state of Texas for 3 days, and decide to go visit the state capital!  It was a very pretty building and surrounding gardens.  Lots of statues/memorials, and the best part was the inside was air conditioned!!!!  Bish had read about some cool neighborhoods just South of the river, so we next ventured down to Ziker Park, and more importantly to Barton Springs Pool!  With all the sweating, stickiness, and humidity,  the girls decided that swimming for a bit would be a good way to cool off.  Boy did they underestimate just how much they'd cool off!  Barton Springs Pool, is a portion of Barton Creek that has been damned up.  Did I mention that it is only early June and the water was cold as hell for us Arizonans?  Per one of the lifeguards, the water temp was 68 degrees, give or take 3 degrees!"  No wonder the Slackettes screamed after jumping in!  The water did feel pretty refreshing, but I'm glad I only dipped my feet/legs in at that temp!  It's sad to say, but my feet were freezing after being in the pool for 20 minutes!  I honestly thought I may have frostbite on them!  I guess 68 degrees is much closer to freezing (32 degrees) than I realized!

Homeless guy sleeping in the grass in front of where we parked!