Austin Road Trip

Over Labor Day weekend we decided to drive down to Austin to visit my brother David and his wife Ashley (my other sister Dorothy was going to be there too). On the way there we stopped at my Uncle Grey Horse's and Aunt Sissy's house. Joyce Norman (Sissy) is my dad's sister. They live right outside of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was a nice way to start our trip to Austin and a great short little drive that we could accomplish in the evening after Jared got off work.

They loved getting to see/play with Claire. It was a really good, short little visit.

On Saturday morning we packed up early and hit the road. The ride down to Austin was pretty uneventful. Traffic wasn't too bad until we got past Waco, TX. However, we made it in to Austin right about the time we thought we would and David and Ashely were preparing a delicious feast for us at their house. They have the cutest house and they have done such an amazing job decorating it and making it home. In fact, I loved it so much that I have now enlisted Ashley to start a Pinterest board dedicated to redecorating my house. : )

On Sunday we got up and had some breakfast tacos (which were pretty yummy) and then headed to David and Ashley's church. Their pastor teaches at a different campus, so they stream video of him in onto this huge screen - he is literally life-sized and digital. I spent most of the service out in the hallways trying to get Claire to fall asleep, so I missed most of the preaching, but it was a neat little church. From what I can tell it is really missions-oriented.

After church we had lunch with Ashley's mom and one of her sisters at Tres Amigos. Jared and I had fajitas that were pretty delicious. Also, Claire got loved on by everybody there.

Next we relaxed at David and Ashley's for a little bit before packing up and heading out to the Sutton's ranch. It is called Loma Grande and is in Llano, TX (right outside of Austin). On the drive to the ranch we saw a huge plume of white/gray smoke. Texas has had a horrible hot/dry summer (I think one of the worst since the 1800's) and they have a fire ban and water restrictions going on. There are wildfires breaking out all over the state and this was a new one that had just started. It was nuts. In fact on the way back in to Austin we had to turn around and take a detour that was about half an our out of the way to avoid a road that was closed due to smoke (making visibility poor).

That evening at the ranch we got settled in our rooms (this ranch is palatial) and then went out on an electric cart to tour one side of the property. This was the side with free-range deer, cattle, and wild pigs. Claire got to go strapped in to a front carrier and she LOVED it. She giggled every time we hit a bump or the wind blew her hair. That evening we had a late dinner of Opey's bar-b-q and salad.

The next morning we were up bright and early, so we went to see the deer operation. They have a really neat handling facility and all of the does are sectioned off and penned with their fawns by sire. There was also a pen with the young bucks. They are trying to determine which to use as breeding bucks and which to release into the free-range parts of the property. It was really neat to see and the baby deer were so cute.

After that we relaxed at ranch house dos for a while (yes there is more than one house at the ranch and an enormous barn). Then we went to the rifle range and shot at some targets for a little while and then drove up a big hill to the top of the property where there are some amazing views of the surrounding area.

We headed down, had lunch, and then headed back to Austin (which took longer than anticipated due to the smoke mentioned previously). Dorothy needed to head back to Dallas, so she took off at this point, but the rest of us headed to downtown Austin to see the famous bats of Austin. Apparently, it is the largest colony of bats in North America and they take flight daily around dusk. It took a little longer than we though, but they did eventually take off and it was a sight to see. I have never seen so many bats at one time. As they flew out from under the bridge they looked like giant swarms of insects. We got some video, but the bats are so small that it doesn't really do it justice. I recommend that if you are ever in Austin you go to the Congress Street bridge and see the bats.

Swarms of bats

The haze is the smoke from all of the wildfires.

On the way home we grabbed some burgers and shakes at Hopdoddy's (an local restaurant - Keep Austin Weird) and then called it a night. Jared and I got  up early the next morning, packed, said our goodbyes, and headed out. It was a really great trip and I am so glad that we got a chance to visit David, Ashley, and Dorothy in Austin.