Bats & Bar-B-Q

We just had the greatest non-weekend, weekend getaway! (We had planned for it to be a weekend getaway, then decided that Corey should just bring his work with him and we should make it a middle-of-the-week getaway to try to avoid some crowds.  This summer, instead of a "summer vacation" we have planned a few smaller trips for our family, and last week was the first of those.  Our main point-of-interest was Schliterbaun in New Braunfels, but we decided to get a hotel in Austin (about 45 minutes away) and have fun in both towns.  It turned out to be a great plan!  We fell in love with Austin.  

When I knew that we would be staying in Austin, I asked friends what we should do while we were there.  Most of their responses involved food and restaurants (and yes, we tried many of those out).  Seeing the bats at the Congress Ave. bridge came up a lot too.  It just so happened that we were staying across the street from that bridge, so about 8:00 pm we headed over to watch 1.5 million bats leave their home under the bridge and go out for their nightly flight. 

~ the bat sculpture outside of our hotel ~

~ the kids waiting on the bridge for the bats ~

(See the State Capitol in the background?)

Allie was not sure that she wanted to see the bats.  Well, in fact, she was sure that she DID NOT want to see the bats... but she managed to remain on the bridge with her family.

~ Jack waiting for the bats ~

(All those people in the park were waiting to see the bats too.  We heard that the top of the bridge is the best place to watch them though.)

~ Corey & Cooper ~

Cooper had fallen asleep just before it was time to go, so he was a little sleepy.

When they started coming out, they just came in droves.  For minutes on end bats exited the underpass and flew into the sky.  It was amazing (and kinda gross), and I am glad we did it!

After we watched the bats, we headed to a late dinner.  My sister, Emily, and her husband, Allan, lived in Austin a few years ago, and they love a Bar-B-Q restaurant there called The Green Mesquite.  The tables at this restaurant have photos under the tops, and they had placed a baby picture of Cooper there years ago.  We wanted to try one of their favorite restaurants, and we were on a mission to find "Cooper's table", so we ate dinner at The Green Mesquite on Monday night.  The big kids found the table with Cooper's picture on it right away.  It was empty but dirty, so we asked them to clean it for us, and we had a yummy dinner looking at the cutest little bald baby ever.  :)   

More on our trip to come...