With Liberty And Justice For All

Today was our second day in Austin and we had a lot planned. When we were in Denver, we decided to visit the Colorado History Center and go to Voodoo donuts. Well, we decided to replicate that trip in a sense and started our day with a trip to The Bullock Texas State History Museum. As luck would have it, the first Sunday of every month is free admission day (we got the date right in Denver too when it was free admission) and we explored the museum. Now, we like history and the museum was massive, well designed and clean, but it wasn't very interactive. We loved Colorado's history museum because it was interactive and engaging throughout. Long story short, we breezed through the museum because there was too much to read and headed to Voodoo donuts. We figured some good donuts could salvage the start to our day.

The real event planned for the day however was a kayaking trip down the Colorado River. However, Austin is kind of weird and they refer to the river as a lake. There's a cool little spot down by the river where you can rent kayaks and paddle boards so we got ourselves a double-seater kayak and set on our way. Why we decided to get a double-seater I'll never know, but we someone managed to not flip it over. Even though Kenzie didn't get the memo that I was ready to hone my kayaking skills for the next summer Olympics, we didn't end up just going in circles. We were in the water for over an hour and then decided the heat (it's been 95+ with humidity each day) was too much and headed back to shore. My craving for food may or may not have also influenced our decision to prematurely end our kayak extravaganza.

With our kayaking trip behind us, we headed back to our hotel (Hyatt Place if you need a good hotel in Austin) and escaped the heat. Per the usual, we chose another Mexican restaurant for dinner and it was yet again another great choice. Each restaurant we've visited has had superb guacamole (we're gonna pitch a TV idea to producers so we can have a guacamole tasting show).

Now, if you've ever visited Austin or researched about the city, you would know that bats make this place famous!
No joke, there's a bridge on Congress Avenue where millions (so the locals say) of bats live and then come out for feeding at sunset. Hoards of people line the top of the bridge and more fuel in along the trail beneath it. Then out of nowhere, all these bats start dropping out of the bridge and flying out over the river and buildings in unison. Unfortunately, I don't have a super fancy camera, so my iPhone quality pictures don't do this spectacle any justice (there is a pic on the left though). If you're ever in Austin, definitely go to the Congress Avenue bridge at sunset to see this!

Tomorrow is the day we are most looking forward to though! Almost daily we watch Fixer Upper on HGTV because it's our favorite TV show. If you haven't watched it, I'm sorry for you and you need to ASAP. Anyways, we are going to Chip and Joanna's property tomorrow! Check back tomorrow for some awesome pictures from their property!

-Andrew