Jacob's Well

If you asked Connor what the best day of vacation was, he'd probably say this one--the day we ventured out into Hill Country to Wimberley, Texas to find Jacob's Well. I'd seen a picture of it on Pinterest and he'd remembered it. The well is an artesian spring and you can read about it here. It took a bit of hunting to find it...the GPS got confused and the signage is clearly in Texan...which is to say, "its non of your God damned business where anything is".

The well sits on top of a water filled cavern system that has claimed the lives of 8 divers. Its apparently not a cave to dive unless you are very experienced. We were lucky enough to happen upon two divers just about to enter---one of them for his first time. I got a quick video of them ascending from the well and you can see it here. Watch for Connor underwater with a mask trying to see them come out.

The big fun here was jumping into the well from the rock ledges above.  Throughout the time we were there, Connor slowly worked his way up to the higher rock.  Part building up courage and part nagging us to let him do it...by the end of the day he was jumping off the top.   You can see Bob jump here and Connor jump here.  (Connor's jump isn't from the big rock here....but that still shot below is his last jump of the day as we were walking out.)

It is a great place.  Kinda hidden and special.  I hope it stays that way. 

Thank heavens.  A sign.

Our first view

Approaching the deep!   The rock bed is so slippery--very hard to get your footing due to algae.

Connor jumps in from the high rock.

The life aquatic

Going Batty

As ridiculous as this sounds, going to see the Congress Avenue Bridge Bats is on my "bucket list". It has been since I saw a story about them a few years ago on television. Got to cross this off the list! They say that this is the second largest bat colony in North America. They're Mexican Free Tailed bats and like all bats, are totally amazing creatures. Not only that they're the only flying mammal but in what they do for us. Without them the insect population would explode and damage crops and potentially do other harm such as spread diseases like malaria or West Nile Virus. Without them, pollination would decrease dramatically. We viewed the nightly exodus from a boat tour and it was so very cool. The boys loved it and it was a totally unique experience. Several people have asked me if it smelled...after all there are 1.5 million bats under that bridge. But I didn't smell a thing. The squeeking - eeking noise from all of them was pretty loud though!

Dressed to impress my batty friends

Bat Boat

People lined up on the bridge to watch them emerge

They enter and exit from those expansion joints and there is an 18 inch space between the bottom of the bridge and the underside of the road surface where they live.

Remember The Alamo

On our way out of town we made a quick stop at the Alamo. Couldn't imagine saying we went to San Antonio but we missed it. Of course, all I could think about was Pee Wee Herman and the basement. It was a speed visit but it's a beautiful and interesting place.

Museum of the Weird

An Austin oddity, we visited this place today and it was a fun/weird/creepy way to kill some time. There are shrunken heads, skeletons, big foot impressions, two-headed taxidermied animals, movie monster models, a giant lizard, hissing cockroaches, and a bit of a carnival freakshow to wrap it up. Blockhead Benny puts his foot in a raccoon trap, his tongue in a mousetrap, a giant nail in his nose, and fish hooks in his lower eyelids. Connor, of course, loved it. This pics are not great as the lighting was bad, but you'll get the idea. Weird was had by all.

To Call These Donuts Seems Inadequate

For breakfast today we visited Austin's Gourdoughs. I'd heard about this silver Airstream trailer donut purveyor from my friend Kristen and we'd scoured the online menu. They make these incredible things to order while you wait--a wait that is so worth it. We chose the 6 we just had to taste and the four if us could only eat about half of everything. We had:

Flying Pig
Old Dirty Bastard
Funky Monkey
Mother Clucker
Black Out
Dirty Berry

The Flying Pig was the best of these beauties that are the size of salad plates. If you are in Austin this place is an absolute must. Don't forget your insulin.

First Roller Coaster Ride

A picture is, indeed, worth a thousand words !

Toothsome Texas

Connor has lost three teeth in two days. It's disturbing. They're falling like dominoes. The tooth fairy better figure out where we are tonite or there will be repercussions!

Say Hey, Pool Day!

The boys and I spent the whole day at the Westin La Cantera's Lost Quarry Pool while Bob played golf. It was a great and relaxing day. Connor is pretty self-reliant and I pretty much let him run free. Connor is also turning the corner a bit and he was happy playing in the small walk-in pool with other kids while I watched. We would have stayed until dark except for the big thunderstorm that rolled in at 5pm.
Great day.

Blanco Lavender Festival

On our first full day in Texas we headed to Blanco -- a small town 45 miles NW of San Antonio-- for their lavender festival. Blanco is the self-described "Lavender Capital old Texas.

I have a lavender problem and it needed to be addressed.

The festival itself was nice. About 75 -100 artisans, lavender purveyors, vineyards, etc on the grounds of the old courthouse. I purchased lavender honey (which I've wanted FOREVER and hemp lavender mint lotion. (It's Hemp History Week! Who knew? Free the hemp!)

After that we headed to Hill Country Lavender Farms so that I could see those big purple mounds of blooming beauty. Uh....not so much. It was disappointing. The lavender in my front yard is more glorious.

No matter. It was fun to go to the boondocks and buy local products.
And it all smelled fantastic! There were purple potties, lavender ice cream, lavender lemonade, lavender cookies and a bison head with a lavender bow.