It’s really hard to resist a polite “would you like one?” from a little kid with puppy dog eyes and a big grin. I do have to admit their follow up statement of “NO FREE HUGS!” got a few grins (and one aghast look that I knew of). Faith of a child, yes? So awesome to see it happen!

It didn’t take long for us to find out that the church across from where we were standing was offering free snow cones. Our boys really wanted them badly, but of course the syrup is loaded with food coloring. They took the plain ice snow cones without too much fuss, though. It was hot so we were thirsty!

To make up for their not being able to have any of the snow cones from last night, this morning we made syrup so we could have our own at home. Here’s what we made…

Cherry Vanilla Syrup
Based on this recipe

1 bag frozen cherries, 16 oz.
1/2 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Pulse the frozen cherries and any bits of frozen juice from the bag in a food processor until the pieces are a consistent, fine size.

Place the cherries in a saucepan with the water and sugar and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes or until it’s slightly syrupy. If it’s too thick, it might be hard to use for snow cones. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve, pushing the syrup out of the solids.  Allow to cool, then mix in vanilla.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container for later use.

Lemon Syrup
Based on this recipe

1 cup of lemon juice (we used 9 lemons)
Finely grated rind of 5 lemons
2 cups sugar

Put the sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice in a nonreactive saucepan. Stirring frequently, cook the mixture over medium-high heat. As soon as the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture has come to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer briskly, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has thickened to a syrupy but still pourable consistency.

Pour through a fine-meshed sieve into a glass jar. Allow to cool. Store in the fridge. Makes about 2 cups.

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How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psa 119:103

J and N didn’t know where we were going at first and then they got pretty excited when I told them. They have good memories of their last cave trip so they were looking forward to this one.

I managed my claustrophobia very, very well. I even got over my phobia of high ISO settings on the camera. Even if I did have a flash, which I don’t, they probably wouldn’t have let me use it. No flash other than the “normal” kind, no tripods, no monopods. I think the camera managed pretty well.

Here are a few of the photos but most of them are on Flickr, along with any descriptions I can remember.

This is what you see as you are heading down into the cave:

In the 30s, the cave was turned over to the government. The state of TX brought in the Civilian Conservation Corps to clear out all of the mud in the caves and convert it to allow for the public’s visits. The CCC built the above building along with an administration building and an observation tower.

We were 2nd to the last to make it to the 11 am tour! We made it out of the bathroom with literally just a minute to spare!

From inside the cave entrance area:

Gratuitous “let mommy take your picture” pose and smile:

Yes, gratuitous. They really were worried about getting left behind. The tour guide would turn off the lights behind our group as we went along and kept an accurate head count continuously. He said that three years ago, on the last tour of the day, a guide managed to forget 17 people and locked them in the cave. They got to the entrance using their cell phones as flashlights and were able to call 911. Needless to say, the guide doesn’t work there anymore.

Layers of limestone:

Crystals:

This is a man-made wall that now covers the original cave entrance:

The “room” where we stood was the most used one in the caverns. It served as a meeting room for Apache Indians living in the area and they also hung out to build tools and weapons. During the Roaring 20s, a local who owned the property turned the caves into a speakeasy and the room was used as a dance hall. When the government took over, the CCC built the wall because this entrance allowed too much mud to enter the cave when it rained.

The ceiling, showing layers of limestone:

I did miss the chance to photograph a cave cricket. “Completely devoid of pigmentation because of its environment” as our guide stated, “I’m not preaching evolution folks, this is called adaptation.” He used that phrase “I’m not preaching evolution” a lot.

The lighting in the cave wasn’t bad.

It turns out a few years ago that someone got hurt and sued the state. So they swapped the 40 watt bulbs for ones with higher wattage. Unfortunately, that caused fungus to grow around a lot of the lightbulbs.

There were very few stalactites in the cave and no stalagmites at all. The reason was that the cave was built by rushing water running through relatively “soft” rock. The fast moving rock wouldn’t allow any stalactites to form or grow very long except for the highest parts of the cave.

The black markings on the ceilings were left by bats. Before the speakeasy and CCC days, a colony of Mexican Free-tailed bats lived in the caverns until the noise got to them. The markings were left by the oils on their feet. Dirty feet? Yeah, me too.

From the Rainbow Room, which looks that way because of the colored lights. When the CCC found the room, the guys thought they’d discovered a diamond mine and filled their pockets with crystals. That’s all they were, quartz crystals. This was the boys’ favorite room, by the way.

The “cowboy boot” on the ceiling of the hallway that lead to a chamber where the Confederates used to store gunpowder. They also used the bat guano to make gunpowder. But since the cave was so wet (way beyond damp), the gunpowder couldn’t have worked too well I think.

Back outside, having navigated the cave, the boys imagine themselves in a skateboard park:

In and around what was the administration building, now housing an exhibit that explains the CCC and what they did for Texas parks:

We were going to go hiking on the trail which was a little over a mile but J was tired and hot. “Didn’t we hike in the cave? Wasn’t that a hike?” Point taken.

Investigating the observation tower:

It doesn’t look like they used power tools to fell and mill the wood since it’s covered with hatchet marks:

Words about these stairs: the boys would say “cool”, mom would say “textured” and abba would likely say “rickety”:

Time for us to buy a toad house or two and build a bat box.

Since that didn’t work out, we headed over to Wild Basin Preserve. Yes it was hot but we wanted to be outdoors, so outdoors we went! Good thing we were armed with Clif bars and bottles of water.

The facility is open to anyone and all they ask is a suggested donation but I forget the amount. With the recent rains, the stream that runs through the preserve was pretty and the little water fall was flowing (note: it’s really a few feet high is all). Anyway, here’s some of what we saw.

Itty bitty meadows of tiny white flowers here and there:

J running ahead of me, way behind his brother, trail map in his hand:

It was my main view:

The water falls were small, like I said. But where do you draw the line between a stream running and water falls?

“MOM! Take our picture!”

“We have to go there now!”

Once, I did get ahead of him. Just once.

I have no idea why he’s grinning. I’m not sure it matters!

Funky.

See? It’s that view again.

J and I got a kick out of the rollie pollie.

I thought it was cute.

The sturdy hand holds to help ford the stream:

I don’t get it.

J saw this picture and said “that looks dangerous!”

Hehe

A few more photos here.

Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory: whodathunk it? When I asked some moms if they’ve heard of bird observatory/water treatment plant in Austin they’d never heard of it. I’m not sure I remember where I heard of such a thing either. Thanks to Google, we found it and got directions to boot.

We brought our binoculars, a bag of Pirate’s Booty, bottles of water and our quiet voices. You’re supposed to whisper to keep the birds from flying off, they say. I think someone yelled before we got there, though. But that’s ok, it was fun anyhow and for several reasons.

1) The drive.

How can one not be tempted to take a dirt-ish road? Especially when one is in a truck. This is what the whole drive was like: literally one lane, narrow and at times bordered on either side by water. “Mom, don’t turn too much to the right!” was something heard often from J in the back when we were driving. It didn’t take long for them to realize that mom was driving something like 5 mph and it was fun to stand up and feel the bumps and dips as we went along. Actually, I could end the list with that. That was too much fun!

Wait, what, no hike? No hike. You’ll see later.

2) The scenery.

It’s not every day you get to drive through a water treatment facility. Well, unless you worked there, I suppose.

The water was pretty and bordered by lots of trees and pretty plants which is probably what attracts the birds in the first place.

This plant looks almost like that wild plant that grows in the Philippines that people would cook and eat:

3) The birds.

Well, we didn’t get to see the endangered black-capped vireo. We did manage to see a few of these guys which are new to us:

Grackles, but female ones only (not sure why):

They seem to be yelling at each other (yes, shot through a window, I’ll explain later):

A few sparrows (didn’t catch on camera) and lots and lots and lots of swallows!

The swallows (I think that’s what they are) were all over the place, swooping across the little lane we were driving/bouncing around on.

They made sure there were lots of homes for birds…

…and bats!

It didn’t take long for us to get to a structure that was built for bird observation. My youngest noted right away that it was seldom used owing to the fact that there were spider webs all over the place.

There was no way that I was going to stick my finger near this orb weaver so you could get a good sense of scale. While I know they’re not aggressive, believe me when I say this thing was huge and so apparently well fed.

There was no shortage of predatory insects at all.

This guy wanted to hitch a ride. I think he knew the yellow jackets and giant spiders were waiting to get him.

Incidentally, this was Joshua’s door and I didn’t flick it away for him (he used his brother’s door instead). I used to be a lot less afraid of bugs but the bug-fearing people in my life have rubbed off on me. I mean, I know these spiders rarely get people but when you see them having a family reuinion it’s hard not to shake the camera as you snap. It’s a symptom of the heebie jeebies.

So. Why no hike?

1.) Snakes. Alright, admittedly just one snake. But this was a water treatment facility and as soon as I see a snake skitter into the water across our little driving path, my first thought was “water moccasin” and “aggressive” and “no more hike for me today.”

2.) Bugs, bugs, bugs.

No, these weren’t biting bugs at all. The shot above was taken just a couple of minutes after we got back in the car when we realized we didn’t feel like sitting in the bird observation structure with the nasty bugs (and possibly snake but I didn’t want to draw the boys’ attention to the big hole in the ground). We rather liked sitting in the truck and bouncing at 5 mph.

But we opened the window at some point and a whole bunch of these bugs flew in. It quickly became obvious why the insect-loving swallows, grackles, bats and dragon flies were hanging out in major population numbers. This place was a massive buffet! They just had to fly around with their mouths open and they were guaranteed a full belly. As soon as our windows opened, those bugs saw their ticket to living a full life expectancy (probably a matter of just days, though).

The boys didn’t enjoy that part much at all. I did obligingly open the windows once more to “let the bugs out” only to let in their extended family. What’s on our truck interior fabric is no fancy pattern, those are bug guts.

That being said, we did have a good time. The boys got a tiny thrill when they realized that we would have to back up a long way if we ever met oncoming traffic. We even ran into a group of homeschoolers we knew while we were there. I’m sure we’ll head back there just for kicks since it’s really close to the airport and it’s free.

Oh, here’s stuff we wanted to see but certainly didn’t get to:

Maybe next time

Taken while on a walk at Circle C park (pics later). The boys are calling for me to hurry; they see a way to cross the creek and I better hurry. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice movement and see the inside of this tree hollow just moving.

Texas Hill Country is just awash with wildflowers right now.

You just have to deal with this when you wade through the wildflowers and grasses:

We stopped for a moment at this place and found it’s very dog-friendly.

The Wild West isn’t complete without a prairie schooner, is it?

They had several fields of wildflowers being cultivated. But if you cultivate them are they really still “wild”?

We drove into Fredricksburg, grabbed a lunch to go then headed back out. We found a spot where we could eat outside but Sprocket found something…

She has good reason to look worried. The picnic area was crawling with these guys:

They are HUGE. I wasn’t about to put my hand or toes near them so you could get a sense of scale. They were all over the place and had even worn a path in the dirt with their comings and goings. There was also this, which I got by judiciously avoiding the ants:

And I finally remembered to get a picture of these guys, drive-by-shooting style:

After lunch, we hunted for peaches in earnest. We were trying to find a certain peach stand. We couldn’t find the right one, but there was no shortage of peach stands this year. We even had the bonus of ice cream!

Austin was wearing its Sunday best, the temps and humidity was perfect, the blooming flowers perfumed the air and it was just gorgeous. Just gorgeous!

And I had the camera the whole time…woohoo!

No, I don’t remember what he was yelling.

Green had exploded all over Austin.

We saw funny things…that’s just Austin.

I love my boys. They’re handsome. Yes Lola, that outfit was money well spent.

Of course, Sprocket came too.

The boys had to do their own thing now and then.

I just love this: happened upon four modes of transportation in one frame:

Wow, they wanted me to take their picture!

We happened to see a whole troop of cedar waxwings eating berries off a tree.

They suddenly took off because of this guy:

I told you it was gorgeous, right?

And yes, there’s more on Flickr.

Besides peacocks, flowers:

But, really, we loved the peacocks:

And flowers:

Kinda wonder what life is like from the perspective of a lady bug. Landscapes must look very, very different.

I don’t think this is “officially” a white one, but we overheard it was just a juvenile (lensbaby!)

Aaaaand…ACTION!

I wanted photos of NM but he was sick and I didn’t think it was a good idea. He needs to kick the ball around for me some more so I can take photos of him on the grass.

***

Speaking of kicking the ball…the boys didn’t win their first game yesterday but the second was forfeited. A wise one said “This isn’t the way I wanted us to win.”

*Nod*

It was especially sad considering the opposing team got lost after driving for 2+ hours. Ref gave them 1/2 hour then another 5 minutes before he called it.

A warehouse full of different jump houses? Right up my boys’ alley!

Can’t tell, can you?

We were with some of our friends from church so the boys had friends to play with. They were so sweet and let me have fun with my camera. I’m learning how much practice I need (and at the same time how hyper-critical I can be).

Toboggan-style!

The following day we headed out the Mary Moore Searight Park again. We’ve come to really enjoy visiting that park and we hadn’t yet exhausted everything it had for us to see.

This time, we had our friends with us again so it did help that it was a stroller-friendly park. Most of the photos I took from our trip were of our friends (they’re on Flickr here) but I do have this funny one to show you of a squirrel doing a cheetah impression:

Hubby took most of the photos that morning. He caught this little guy:

It’s very pretty, isn’t it? These make me want a field guide for North American plants, not just animals:

But while I had the camera, NM sighted this guy, which we identified as a Greater Roadrunner. I can’t believe how close he let me get. He did keep finding things to eat, so that could be why he braved our presence.

It’s almost like he’s smiling for me.

This guy we identified as a Turkey Vulture:

There were actually about four or five of them circling above us.

Some other creatures we haven’t found in any of our guides yet:

J spotted this and hubby took a photo for me:

I’ve learned these trees are called Mexican Plums. They’re all over Austin and are blooming right now. So beautiful!

J’s take on our hike:

I liked the bugs and the roadrunner we saw. We saw a roadrunner in our backyard the day after. I did exercising stuff on the sides of the trail. On that day my mom was taking pictures of all this stuff. And my dad was taking pictures of the beetles. My mom was taking pictures of stuff and the roadrunners. There were actually two roadrunners and I spotted one.

NM’s take on our hike:

We walked. I saw a roadrunner and other things. The most interesting thing I saw was a roadrunner. The roadrunner was walking around and eating while we were watching it. I don’t know what it was eating. I also saw dry, brown wood. I collected some to build a camp fire. I spotted a beetle because I was ahead of everyone else because I was running. I enjoyed the walk.

Gen 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.