Day trip to West Cave nature preserve

We found the West Cave Nature Preserve on the web - Texas Hill Country nature preserve will leave you breathless! Our expert-guided tours take visitors from an arid savannah through a limestone crevice into a sheltered canyon of lush plant life. At the head of the canyon stands Westcave, with a stunning 40-foot waterfall replenishing the emerald pool below. - West Cave .

$25 for the family and a guided tour. It was hot - temperature of around 104f!! About an hour for the tour where you walk down into a ravine (and back up at the end - NOT for the faint-hearted). In June the waterfall is more dripping than rushing but it is good for the kids to learn all about the plant life and the pool is stunningly pretty and a bit of respite from the intense heat.

 
Darcy looking really interested with the trip!

Cedar Park Rodeo

23/06/2013 Today we went to the Cedar Park Rodeo - only found out about this on Saturday (half way through a 3 day event). The final day was the bull riding so we booked tickets and went along for the 16:00 show/event.

I was surprised how empty the place was - less than half full. The show was made up of 40 bulls and riders competing to stay seated for 8 seconds or more and then the best 12 ride again.  To be honest, it gets a bit repetitive and there was a lack of other entertainment although the clown in the red bucket had his moments. And, of course, there was the obligatory kiss-cam (dive to do up the laces)!

Darcy managed to count 12 people hurt including one guy stretchered off. The half time interval was a bunch of 4 or 5 year olds riding sheep, which was amusing but at the same time a little disturbing.

 

Sometimes the bull wins! You may not spot this but the guy who looks like the Isle of Man symbol (above) is actually on his head after being thrown.

 Cedah fitting right in as a local Texas gal!

And some sheep riding!

I took some video on my phone but the fool that I am meant they are all upside down. I will try and flip them then upload.

Our Home

After arriving in Texas in April the first thing I had to do was find a home for the family to live in.  Luckily my friend Jez had come over a week before me so I managed to stay in his condo whilst I looked for a home. Cae and I had already shortlisted about 10 properties and we had visited the area a couple of times so we knew the schools that we wanted Cedah and Darcy in.

We finally chose a house in Cedar Park.

The furniture arrived two days after the family so that was good timing and we are now settled in.

The estate has a communal swimming pool, children's play area and lots of wild deer wandering around - this is at the communal pool area.

I will add some pictures of the pool area over the next few days. Here is the pool.

May 2013 - Just bought my BBQ - fantastic!  It's dual fuel - one side gas the other coal.  I have been using it regularly and even managed to cook a Paella  on the gas side.

Austin City Capital building visit

Sunday 9th June and looking for something to do.... we decided to go to Austin City and have a walk around.  We drove down and parked in the Austin Convention Center car park which I happen to know of as I went to a conference with my company and knew it was a great place to park and walk from.

We walked up Congress Avenue which leads right up to the Capitol building. The first interesting thing we came across was a brightly painted giant guitar.... Austin is a huge music town and there are lots of these guitars (decorated differently) all over the city - part of a Gibson exhibition .

Further up the street we came across the Majestic Cinema, built in 1915 and the first cinema in Austin - you can find out more about it here.

At the end of Congress Avenue is the Capitol building... it's free to visit and most of the rooms are open to the public to walk around - some pictures below.

We spent a couple of hours in Austin and walked back to the car via 6th Street which is worth a visit in the evenings as the bars and clubs are full of live music.

San Marcos Tubing

Sunday 16th June 2013, we decided to take the kids to San Marcos - about 30 minutes south of Austin. We'd  found a place where you can hire rubber tubes and float down the river for a nice relaxing sojourn on the water! So we invited our friend Jez and set off about 10:00am.

When you arrive at San Marcos Lions tube rental, you go to the office and hire the tubes and pay for the bus return, which enables you to get back from the end of the river (great idea)! You can hire tubes with or without a base.... obviously the adults went with the tubes with a base, all of course hoping not to get wet!!

After a few minutes we all managed to group together and drift off down the river holding on to strings attached to the tubes (you can also hire 10ft lengths of string to attach to other tubes to form a convoy).  I was expecting it to be a fast flowing river but it's not, it's leisurely and takes about an hour - you pass plenty of wildlife on the way down the river, including sunbathing turtles and humans barbecuing.

An hour later we arrived at the rapids (no pictures as I didn't take my phone - was too scared about falling in). We took it in turns to go down - Cedah went first and she managed to get down all three; I went next, just about managed to stay in the ring but got totally soaked - lucky the water was warm; then Cae, followed by Jez and last but not least Darcy.

I spotted Jez whizzing down the rapids without his tube - he'd been thrown out! I then saw Cae looking for Darcy, who'd managed to get herself stuck in a corner of the upper part of the rapids and kept going round in circles! After a couple of attempts I'd realized she wasn't going to get out of it so I swam across the other side to help her. I have to say I am proud of the way she handled the situation - she was not scared or tired, she just kept on trying to get out of the cycle!  I lifted her out of the water, grabbed the tube and deposited both back into the water nearer last rapid drop and pushed her off. This time she succeeded in getting down the final stage.

All in all we had a great time and realized that if we had taken a barbecue then we would have stayed longer and made a day of it. When you hire the tubes it's for the day so you can go up and down as many times as your body allows!

Welcome to The Fridays Blog

Friday 28th June - really warm today, hottest since we have been here. The car was recording  42c 108f.

Saturday 29th June - Looking for something to do - hopefully we will come across something.