Barton Springs

We just came back from Barton Springs. We spent about 3 hours floating around this giant natural swimming pool. It is a little cold, but perfect for a hot day like today.

See pics.

Volente Beach at Lake Travis

Today we met up with Sarah and Charity again and drove out to Lake Travis. (But first stopped for some authentic breakfast tacos - a favorite here, fabulous!)

The lake is huge, and the drive there is gorgeous. We went to Volente Beach, a very small Waterpark right on the lake. It's similar to SunSplash for you Roseville folks, but overlooking the water. We had a nice relaxing day in some awesome weather. Check out the pics. Tomorrow we plan to check out Barton Springs Pool, a natural spring on the river, then back out to Elgin to spend the day exploring.

Friday Night on 6th St

We met up with my cousins Sara and Charity to hit the town. We saw live music, hung out in mellow bars and even got to see a hoodlum get maced. Check it out.

-michael

Music brought to you by MichaelAndSharon.com

I Added music to our site yesterday. I thought it would be nice to have a sound track while reading about our life adventures. You can always turn it off if not.

Comment on this post and let me know if I should keep it.

-michael

Friday - Live at the Plaza

All summer long, they have live music at the plaza in front of the civic center. Today Ter'ell Shahid was playing, it was a great show! After that we hung out in the 2nd street shopping district and had lunch at a great little place. Michael was just excited because there was a half a dozen wi-fi signals to choose from. We think we'll bring our clients here ...

Holy Guano Batman!

Austin has bats.

"In 1980, while reconstructing the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, bridge engineers had no idea that new crevices created beneath the bridge would make an ideal place for a bat roost. Even though they had lived there for years, it was headline news when bats suddenly began moving in under the Austin bridge by the thousands. After the novelty of this unusual occurrence had worn off, the public began to react in fear. Many activists within the Austin community began petitioning to have the colony eradicated. "

Then...

"About that time, a group now know as Bat Conservation International, stepped in and began an educational process about the bats. They educated Austinites to the fact that they are gentle and incredibly sophisticated animals, and that they eat from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects, including mosquitoes, each night."

I got this from http://www.io.com/house/batstory.html

As always, we took lots of picture and movies.

Lucy's in the Sky

Last night we visited Lucy's in the Sky - a little restaurant/bar out over Lake Austin. It's very reminiscent of Sacramento on the river. We saw lots of wildlife, including cute little turtles and a swan. We watched the sun set, and took pictures of our own version of "Miles away from ordinary ..." (You know the Corona commercials.) Very relaxing. And hot, but good. The funny thing here is most locals wear jeans! After we left the restaurant, we ended up driving around Austin's best hills (on accident, we got lost.) It's exactly like the Hollywood Hills, at least what I think they would be like. Beautiful, unbelievable mansions, and gorgeous winding hills. When we retire as millionaires I wouldn't mind living there!!

Morning in Austin

We spent the morning driving around downtown again, had breakfast and walked a bit. The weather is nice, not as hot as Sac, but humid - you get used to it very quickly.

We're headed out to Elgin now ... we'll keep adding photos. :)

First Night in Austin

Well, we made it safe and sound. My back did ok for the trip - it helped that we had 3 stops along the way. It's 1 am here - we decided to check out the town right away, mostly because we were hungry. Downtown is AWESOME!! It's Tuesday and there are all kinds of people and live music all over. It's fabulous. The air is definitely humid, but not unpleasant. It really feels like Hawaii. There was a nice cool breeze as we sat outside and had burgers. Much more pictures to come tomorrow, time to call it a night!

River Daze

We took a trip down to the river Sunday afternoon. The water was cold, the current was swift, but it was beautiful! I'm glad we had the doggie life vests; so are Sam & Bear. They understand the way the water works though, and didn't venture too far down the river before coming back. Quite a workout though! (For them, not us, unless you count the hike down there.)

We're off to Austin tomorrow. We'll be sure to post lots of pics and updates! Check the gallery for more pics...