me and three: Lakeside Park

Monday, 2 September 2013

Lakeside Park

Today it was time for Zilker Park, the epicentre of outdoor recreation in Austin. Except we finally got there and it was too hot for the choo choo, and even for the icy-cold pool, so instead we headed to the Austin Children's Museum to get out of the noon-day heat.

To be honest, I get a bit fed up of Children's Museums after about an hour, and after an hour we still hadn't finished the ground floor. Kids love them though, which is fair enough, and Austin's is a good one. After another hour we finally managed to drag the three children away for a late lunch and much needed sleep.

And while three out of four slept, Toots and the Don explored the Zilker Botanical Gardens, 31 acres of lush gardens on the south bank of the Colorado River.

And when everyone woke, to the Zilker Zephyr miniature railroad we went. It was still hot, but a bottle of coke/water and some popcorn made the 2-mile, twenty five-minute train ride along Barton Creek and Town Lake more enjoyable.

Not a bad snap by Tiger

We had also planned on popping in to Barton Springs Pool, a 1,000ft pool supplied with very cold but very clear water from the Edwards Aquifer, but in the end we ran out of time. That, and the fact that it's only about 68F (20C) year round, meant we decided instead to have a swim tomorrow morning in the darn site warmer hotel pool. Besides, we had a boat to go on and bats to see...

Looking very much like a special effect from a B movie, a funnel cloud of up to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats swarms from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. The bridge is home to the largest urban bat population in North America, who leave at dusk away from the sinking sun, in search of food from the surrounding farm lands. The boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake was a great way of finding out a bit more about the city and the bats, and was probably also slightly safer than standing with four young children on the pavement of a bridge with 1,000 other people. Slightly safer.