High Points of Austin

The only problem with buying the Honda Pilot on Monday was the need to wait until the weekend to take it out for a long drive.  Brandon and I were itching all week to jump in the car and drive.  The kids wanted to too.  Lydia kept asking me to "drive FAST" whenever we went to the store.  The mile drive on the highway wasn't enough for her, and I kept promising that we would go fast on Saturday.

So Saturday morning we loaded up the kids and some supplies for the day and went for a drive to the state capital, Austin.

We'd originally been willing to go to Austin to buy a new vehicle so it was only fitting to drive there with our new "red car."

We had another reason for going to Austin.  Months ago my sisters gave me a gift certificate for Red Robin and the one in Austin is the closest one.  Unfortunately, we never could find it.  I think Brandon is starting to doubt my google.map skills (but thankfully not my navigating skills.)  We finally just went to Wendy's.  I'm just glad that we didn't have to drive around looking for dealers/private sellers.

We had lunch and even treated the kids to their first ever Frosties.  (They had all been really patient as we'd circled around on the expressway multiple time to try to find the Red Robin.)

Then we went to our next stop - the State Capitol Building.  We'd heard that the building was the largest capitol building in the country - even bigger than the national capitol.  We figured if we went and saw the biggest there would be no need to see all the other state capitols later. (Though we probably will.)

While walking around the grounds we decided this is must be the Austin version of Temple Square.  There were people taking wedding pictures, statues dedicated to the early settlers, and families like us who just wanted somewhere free to take their kids.  We found this fountain/drinking fountain and had a lot of fun playing with it.  

Then we went inside the building to enjoy the air-conditioning.  We had to go through some metal detectors which was a new experience for the kids.  Charlotte was very distraught when I put my diaper bag in one of the tubs so it could be X-rayed.  She was very relieved when the man gave me back my bag.

The kids liked being able to look all the way up through the rotunda at the star in the middle of the dome.

Then the kids wanted to climb the stairs to get higher.  We went up 4 flights of stairs in all.  The kids climbed every one by themselves.

This is the view from the top balcony.  Being up here was really really scary for Brandon and me.  The little columns around the railing were spaced pretty far apart.  So far apart that our kids could have easily slipped right through them. Normally we are pretty laid back parents, but we were super tense up here.

In fact I didn't dare get out the camera until all the kids were safely up against the wall.

We left that area, breathed a huge sigh of relief, and found an elevator.  We wandered around some more and ended up in an underground complex behind the capitol.  There were huge sky lights that let in lots of sunlight so we didn't feel like we were underground.

The kids loved visiting the capitol because there were so many "lone stars" every where.  The kids had fun finding them all.

We had a bathroom break and the girls proved yet again that they have no fear of public toilets - though they probably should.  We went back outside and continued to walk around the building.

Charlotte liked finding all the letters on the information plaques.  She thought they all said, "Charlotte Skye" and "Lydia Brake" (Lydia insists her middle name is brake.)

Derrick was happy to play in the dirt between the stones.  He also liked running around.  This trip was kind of a test to see if we could go site seeing without a stroller.  Once Baby D joins us we wont have room in the back of the Honda for the triple stroller.  So it's days with our family are numbered. The kids did so well without a stroller that I think it's time to put the triple stroller up for sale (sob).

We took a little break and Brandon taught the girls how to roll down a hill.

Here is another picture of the capitol.  I like this one because I like how I don't look pregnant from the back.  Sometimes I wonder what people think about us when they see our three little kids and my pregnant belly.

This was a statue dedicated to the children of Texas.  We added some of our own.

This is looking down at the inside of the underground office complex.  These bars were much more toddler friendly.

Everyone was getting pretty hot and tired so we went back to our car to go find our next destination.  It started to rain as soon as we were in the car.

We had planned on going to Zilger Park and finding somewhere to cook hot dogs and possibly swim in the natural spring water of Barton Springs.  But the downpour kind of canceled those plans.

Which was okay because Lydia and Derrick ended up falling asleep anyway.  We also hadn't been totally committed to the Barton Springs idea because it would have cost us $9 to go there and we weren't sure how toddler safe it was.  So we just drove on the road through the Zilger Park area and called it good.  It reminded us of Salt Lake's Liberty Park and the Sugar House area combined.  

Here is a view of driving over Lake Austin with some of downtown Austin in the back ground.  There were lots of kayaks on the river - but they were all hiding under the bridge so they wouldn't get wet.

It had stopped raining by the time we made it to our next destination.  Which is good because we were planning on hiking to the top of the highest point in Austin, Mt Bonnel, which rises to the dizzying height of 770 feet above sea level.  I'd done a little bit of online reading to find out how hard of a hike it was going to be.  Everything kept referring to a climb up "a lot" a stairs.  I figured we could do it, but I was still worried.

We'd driven up most of the "Mount" in the Honda, but I wasn't sure how much was left to climb on foot.  I imagined several switch-backs of stairs.  Instead this was the only staircase and we were at the top in no time.  (We found an info plaque that said there were a total of 106 stairs.)

I was a little winded when I got to the top, but that was probably from a combination of carrying Derrick, carrying Baby D, and the humidity.  The girls were just fine.  Charlotte even smiled for the picture at the top.

Here are the kids with the city in the back ground.

We'd brought some food up with us so we had a partial dinner at a picnic table.  

Brandon took Charlotte and Lydia on a little hike down a path.  Charlotte got scared so he brought her back to me.  Then he and Lydia went exploring.  They went down a steep trail and when they got to the bottom she said, "again Daddy!"  She's our little adrenaline junky.

Then we took all the kids for a walk down a regular trail.

Derrick loved playing in the gravel.

Derrick also loved exploring the trail.

The girls did too.  They were so cute to hold hands most of the time.  (And yes, Lydia's shirt is on backwards.  She's so proud of the fact that she can dress herself that I didn't want to ruin her fun by turning her shirt around.)

This is the view from the other side of the "mountain."  Brandon said the houses looked like Tuscany.

Another picture of me - I really like how I looked. (Aside from the tennis shoes that I wore so my feet wouldn't swell up.)

The kids liked looking over the edge.  This wasn't as scary as the capitol because there was more of a buffer zone between safety and sudden death.  Still, they were under strict command to not go to the other side of the cable.  And you can see we kept a hand on Derrick.

The trail led back down to the road.  We had a choice between the lesser of two evils.  1. Walk back to our car along the busy road, or 2. go back up the trail and then down the stairs.  We picked option 1. because it wasn't uphill.  The girls were really good and held our hands the whole way back (which wasn't that far anyway.)

Probably the funniest part of the "hike" was a conversation we overheard as we put the kids back in the car.  A man was getting out of his car and he said to his daughter, "no, this isn't like the mountains in Utah."  That was for sure.  

We decided to try to find somewhere to make dinner.  Our map had a municipal park listed on it that wasn't too far away.  We drove over there and got to test out the Honda's abilities to handle steep hills and sharp turns (it preformed awesomely).  Once we got the the park we found out there was a $10 entrance fee to use it (It was right by the lake so the fee made sense.)  So we just turned around and enjoyed the drive back to the main road.

We were about ready to give up and go home when we spotted a little rugged area with several cars parked in it off the side of Loop 360.  We went over there, parked, and started cooking our hot dogs.

There weren't any picnic benches so we just ate in front of the car.  Yay for bringing the picnic blanket.

After we ate we went for a little walk to see what it was we had stumbled upon.  It was a little river with waterfalls and pools.  There were several people swimming in the water.  We would have joined them, but it was almost dark.  Coming back here to swim is on our list of things to do one day.

We took the kids on a little walk along the edge of the river (with strict instructions to stay away from the edge.)

Then we got back in the Honda and drove the hour or so back home.  The kids all fell asleep on the way back.  And that was the end of another one of our adventures of getting to know this new state of ours.