Day Trippin - Land of Enchantment - A Place Apart

No, not New Mexico, today we went Enchanted Rock State Natural Area!  On my quest to look at rocks this is one of my favorites.  It is a huge, pink granite rock that is about 425 feet that you can climb all the way to the top!  It is actually a large batholith that has been exposed due to erosion.  I won't bore you too much geology stuff just because I am just now realizing that there are only a few of us that get excited about a rock.  Really, I thought this stuff was exciting to everyone but, hubby has just recently told be differently.  hmmm, I didn't know.  In any case, this formation is a batholith and was due to a volcano and its magma. 

We went to the park rangers office that has the whole history of the batholith and the who, what, where, when's and all about erosion and what to look for.  I will say that Molly was not interested so, not too much time was spent here.  Raymond and myself have been here a few time pre-Molly so it was okay. 

Start of the hike...lots of sass and energy here.

There are two different trails you can take.  You can climb up the rock or you can hike around the rock, we chose to hike up the rock.

Going strong.

Getting steeper.

 It is not too bad but it does get to be very tiring carrying 30 lbs on your back, meaning Molly only wanted to walk for a little bit before she starting saying "my legs are tired".

And we are done.

Lots of drama, here.

After all this hard work, we had a picnic and headed home.

Day Trippin - Keeping Austin Weird

This day trip was a bit different because, well we go to Austin everyday.  However, this day trip was to find murals.  We were a bit short on time so we only went to the obvious before we headed for lunch.  The Greeting from Austin Postcard Mural is a tourist favorite mural so we just had to find it.  Of course there is very little room to take a good photo for an amateur like myself but, in any case, I can check this off my bucket list.

This mural, Hi, How are you? is down around the UT campus.  It became famous when Kurt Cobain wore a t-shirt with the mural on it, but it was done by Daniel Johnston who was a musician and an artist.  This was done for one of his albums and a local music store asked him to paint this (or something) on the side of their store.  The record store is no longer there but the mural has stayed with the support of local Austinite's.

MOOOOOO!

Okay maybe not so much a mural but, you know I love this cut out things.  This is at Phil's Ice House that has a playground and Amy's ice cream at the restaurant.  We had burgers here and finished it up with a diet coke and was able to get out of there without getting any ice cream.  I know, how could I?  This is a childhood passage that I just robbed my daughter of.  Next time, I promise.

When we were at the Greetings for Austin mural I walked across the street in hopes of getting a better picture.  Molly wanted to take a better picture too so she came with me.  My hilarious husband told Molly and I to pose for a picture.  I did not know what was written beside us on the wall, only when I went to look at the pictures.  

First Day of School

Molly's first day of her new school PK-3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don't ask me why she can't just look at the camera and smile. 

 

Road to Galveston

Don't get mad, Raymond......

I just couldn't resisit.

Happy Mardi Gras?

I am not sure why these were made in August but, does it really matter? It is so stinkin cute!

Day Tripping - Luling - A little slice of nice

This Sunday we headed out to Luling.  Luling you say?  Why?  What is there to see or do.  Well my friends, there isn't much but it was calling my name.  My roadside geology books did not have anything going on this way, it pretty much starts getting flat going west but, a quick search on the web told me that oil was found here and that those oil pump things could be found everywhere.  So, if you need a reason why we went to Luling, we went to see oil pumps.  Just look at them, they are so cute!

Luling is known for their watermelon crops and they have a huge festival every year and since I am in a phase of not wanting to deal with crowds we settled for the farmers market.  We bought a jar of jelly and of course a watermelon.

The farmer told us to check to see if a watermelon is good, you have to thump it.  If it sounds hollow and vibrates, it is good.  If it is a dull thump with no vibrations, it is bad.

 We also stopped at an old mill that is right on the San Marcos river.  It is a place to enter the river and there is a free museum.  From what I gather it used to be a mill for cotton and corn.  Molly really runs through these type of things so I didn't do much reading but it was fun to wonder through the building, especially because we had the place to ourselves.  There is also this building that you can rent out and I think it would be a perfect place to have Molly's quinceanera.  You know I am planner, I should start now.



San Marcos River



We ended our trip with some BBQ.  This place was rated as one of the best to go to in Texas.  We agreed that Llano was better.  It was okay, cheaper than Llano that was for sure but not as good.

My book of questions came along and I asked Raymond - "If starting now you could have $500 a day until you next touched me, how long do you think you would avoid physical contact? "

I will start off by saying that Raymond is a toucher.  He would really have to concentrate.  His response was that he couldn't do it if it involved Molly because she doesn't understand and it is important that she have physical contact.  With me he thought if he tried real hard he could do it for 2 weeks BUT only if I knew what was going on.  He thought it would be too hard if I didn't know what was going on and didn't know how long he could go without a touching.

Pretty nice huh?