Sunday, May 30, 2010

Back From Austin

Yes, the start to our trip to Texas was a bit crazy however the last little bit that we were in Austin was uneventful.....good news! David finished up his last bit of business on Friday and we flew out of town on Saturday. We were lucky to spend more time with Uncle Charles.

On Friday evening David, Madeline and I went to try to see the bats come from under the Congress Street Bridge. If you are not familiar with this, it is an absolute amazing sight! The bridge, in downtown Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America with over 1.5 million bats! To get an idea of what it looks like when 1.5 million bats come out at dusk you gotta click here to see a youtube video and wait to see the swarm in the sky. This video is pretty much what we saw last time we were in Austin. Unfortunately, only a handful of bats were out on this trip. It is my understanding that in May the mothers prepare for birth with them giving birth in June and so this most likely was the reason for poor viewing (I believe the prime times are in the months of July, August & September). Oh well...but the above picture is of Madeline and David awaiting the bats. (We have the same pose last time we were in Austin and Madeline was still in a stroller).

Before flying out on Saturday morning, Uncle Charles took us to breakfast and we were able to see him, Merl and another friend, Carol. It was the perfect send off before a long day of travel. We thought we were flying Delta again on the way home and I was a little leery after our experience with them on the way to Texas (and especially since we were taking 3 flights to get home!) however, it turned out we were on Continental (nothing like waiting until the last second to look at your itinerary). We did not have any problems getting home and arrived on time at about 10:30pm. I love to travel but nothing feels better than that first night in your own bed after being away! Needless to say, all three of us slept like rocks.

Today, I was a bit bummed. I wanted to dig into yard work and enjoy being home however, I had to get out and about to plant flowers at the cemetery and replenish our grocery supply so I did not return home until late afternoon. However, when Madeline and I got home David had already mowed the lawn and took care of some of the work around the house that needed to be taken care of. Although I was antsy-pantsy to keep working David forced me to enjoy the beautiful day and so, this afternoon we used our pool for the first time this season. Yes, I think the neighbors thought we were nuts when we were opening our pool in weather that required us to wear sweatshirts. However, knowing we were traveling we were no dummies! And so, this afternoon we enjoyed our pool, graduated to the hot tub, David grilled out for dinner and the Coronas and lime never tasted so good! What a great homecoming!

2 comments:

Craig and Phyllis said...

So glad to hear that your trip home was NOTHING like your trip to Texas!!!

I'm off to watch your video of the bats!

Craig and Phyllis said...

Oh my, I'll take our over-population of Canada goose anyday instead of all those bats!!