A "friend"-ly visit

I haven’t written in my blog for a while. (last Thanksgiving) I’ve been trying to think of what to write about, and a few of my friends gave me some ideas: make it a non-travel blog, write a different journey, write about my experiences in Texas/Austin, about life, etc. So, be prepared to see interesting trips, silly and trivial thoughts, and whatever comes to my mind. Since it HAS been a while since I last written, there’s a lot I need to update you on, but I won’t bombard you with it all at once.

Recently, my friend Kerrie made it to Austin, TX, on her way to San Diego, and I’ve been touring Austin with her for the past week or two. I don’t have any pictures to share, since I’ve been to most of these places, and I also forgot my camera. I’ll steal some of her pictures once she downloads them, and share them with you.

We went to Barton Springs Pool which is a natural spring, and as cold as the Pacific Ocean. Well, the temp of the ocean in San Diego (60’s), opposed to in Vancouver area (40’s). It was nice. No waves, we were able to float and chat, and stay cool. The difference was that instead of seaweed floating on the water, it was moss. LOTS of moss. There was a point where there was so much moss floating around us, that we attempted to move to a more clearer area. Still moss, but not as much. Afterwards, I took her to lunch at an awesome place called Austin Java. GOOD food.

One of the things that Austin has besides independent coffee shops/restaurants, live music on every corner, and a health-y atmosphere (almost everyone jogs here), they are famous for their largest urban bat colony. Yes, those rat-looking creatures with wings. The bat colony made a home under one of the bridges in downtown area, and every night at dusk, the bats fly out from the same spot of the bridge in a black/grey ribbon. I took Kerrie to that bridge to watch, and the whole side of the bridge where the bats come out from under it had people lined up at the railing to watch. Austin also has a park at the bottom of the bridge for people to sit and watch from. When it was dusk, the bats were punctual. They dumped before they flew out, and it was “potent”, as Kerrie described it. We watched 3 ribbons of bats coming out from under the bridge, and came together as one big ribbons as they flew higher. They didn’t fly above us, so we were good. The stench was not as bad, and we didn’t get any of the guano (bat poop) on us. Neither did the observers at the bat park.

The next outing we had, we road tripped to San Antonio. This is the second time for me, and the first for Kerrie. We went to the Alamo and The Riverwalk. The Alamo tour had a LONG line, so we just took pictures of the Alamo, and then spent the rest of the day at the Riverwalk. We took a boat ride tour of the Riverwalk, but most of the time just window shopped and caught up on what was going on in our lives since we last saw each other in San Diego.

Right now, we’re just relaxing at a Coffee shop, and enjoying a sunset view over Lake Austin, while playing on our computers. This is a day of rest for both of us. Be ready for more stories. To be continued….

Leona