Where in the World?

After a lazy morning, we ate lunch at North by Northwest near The Arboretum area of NW Austin. We then headed down to Zilker Park. This is a wonderful place full of paths for walking, jogging and bike riding. There are many open spaces combined with forests and streams. Our first stop was the Zilker Botanical Garden where we browsed around a cactus and succulent plant show while a light rain shower fell.Afterwards we walked around the Austin native plant area and drifted towards the Oriental Garden. It was quite lovely, peaceful and full of different textures. Many of the ponds had carp that were over two feet long! We walked back up the small hill towards our car.

Our next stop was Congress Ave. which was a short drive down Barton Springs Road. I was in need of a latte and late afternoon snack. During our coffee, my sister and youngest nephew who were also in Austin called asking if we would like to go for a canoe ride near Barton Springs Pool. This was a fantastic idea. Erica and I rented a canoe. My sister and nephew rented one person kayaks. We paddled together down Barton Springs to Town Lake (the Colorado River) and east towards the Congress Avenue Bridge.

After paddling about 25 minutes we turned around because thunderstorms seemed imminent. Before we got back to Barton Springs, the rain had begun albeit slowly at first. As we paddled quickly we were able to watch many turtles diving for the deep as we glided by. We also saw many ducks and geese along the way. By the time we got back to the rental place, the rains were torrential and we were soaked completely before we got back to the car.

After a change of clothes, Erica and I went to Satay for a Thai dinner. The food was fantastic. I really recommend this restaurant. We drove to back to the Congress Ave. Bridge to watch the bats. Unfortunately the bats didn’t really get going until close to 9:00 p.m. We could only see a few hundred at a time flying at breakneck speeds under the bridge. Typically, in summer you can see about 1.5 million of them flying up and out around sunset. Tonight was not one of those nights. It was still fun though.

Michael