We started out on Friday morning with "Meet the Teacher" at Kaiya's new pre-school. She was so excited to go, and had so much fun. Here she is raring to go!
Kaiya and Daddy outside the school
We dropped Kaiya off at my mom & dad's and took off for Austin. That evening we went to see one of the coolest things I have ever seen. About 3 million Mexican Free Tail Bats live under the Congress Avenue Bridge and every day at sunset during the warm months the bats swarm out and fly over the river. It was seriously amazing, pictures cannot do it justice.
Do you see the black smudges in in the sky in these pictures? They are BATS!
The bats seriously kept pouring out from under the bridge for over 15 minutes, it was absolutely amazing.
A beautiful sunset from the Congress Avenue Bridge
I don't know exactly how this started, but whenever Jamie and I go places, one of our favorite things to do is to take pictures of ourselves pointing at/interacting with odd things. Here is Jamie pointing at a sign with a picture of Ann Richards on it that is on the bridge, and making a lovely face.
That night we had dinner at "Chuy's Hula Hut" which was very fun, and scrumptious. We ate on a giant pier over Lake Travis, with a lot of intoxicated people (including one lady who somehow dropped her credit card over the side into the lake, and had half the staff trying to fish it out with a seriously long net).
We definitely enjoyed the atmosphere, it was Tiki-riffic
The next day we slept in (ahh...the novelty!) and had lunch at Stubbs Bar-B-Que where we had a very unique experience...
There are a couple of rooms in the upstairs seating area, and when we were poking around for a place to sit, we stuck our heads into a side room, and there was a meeting of Texas Nationalists, which is apparently a group that thinks that Texas should secede from the United States. It was mostly older, very conservative looking people, and several of the men were wearing 10 gallon hats. Well, if that wasn't enough, then a couple of guys in their early twenties with tattoos and mohawks came in with their dad, and they were wearing shirts that had this on the back:
So, Jamie and I are sitting in the corner, and can see the whole restaurant, and as the Texas Nationalists walk out of their meeting they walk right past these guys, and I have to say, I was getting a little nervous. But as these old white guys in 10 gallon hats walked past the punks wearing gun shirts, the punks got a little nod or hat tip from most of the Texas Nationalist people. All I can say is that Texas is an odd place, and I love it. Then a few minutes later, some other very normal looking people got into a very boisterous discussion with the gun punks about secession. Seriously...only in Texas.
After our meeting of the minds at Stubbs, we went to the LBJ Presidential Library, which was pretty interesting. I have never been to a Presidential Library before, and I really enjoyed the display of gifts he received from diplomats from other countries, and all the things about Lady Bird Johnson. First Ladies are fascinating, don't you think?
Jamie enjoyed meeting the life-sized LBJ, and giving him the boyscout handshake
After the library, it was time to get ready for WICKED!!!! Yay!!! I was so nervous that something would happen and we wouldn't be able to see it (which is what happened when we had tickets in Dallas). But we made it! Yay Yay!
Then on our way back, in the parking garage, I had a reaffirmation of why I don't wear high heels...
Yep, this is me, almost having to duck under the clearance sign in the garage...It wasn't just my cute new shoes though, I had Texas hair as well, that gave me another inch at least.This was also our first trip with the new camera, so I did some experimenting, and came up with a few pictures I am actually kind of proud of:
Overall, this was a wonderful trip, and I really love Austin. It is a fascinating combination of uber-liberal college town, and very straight laced governmental city. I can't wait to go back again, girls weekend anyone???
