Inner Space Cavern

Inner Space Cavern is up in Georgetown, TX, and I recommend the drive. It's hot this summer and the caverns are cool year round. Tours depart every 30 minutes, and you get to see many interesting formations and learn all about the place. They even give you a few seconds of pitch black in one area of the caverns, which is something you don't experience often. See their website for more info about tours and prices.

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Mueller Lake Park

What a serene place to spend an afternoon walking or reading. The Mueller Lake Park is a brand new park that's part of the new Mueller development off of Airport Blvd. It's so close to town that it's a great place to go when you don't have any plans but just want to get out of the house.

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McKinney Falls State Park

McKinney Falls State Park is one of the most beautiful areas around Austin. It's just a hop and a skip from downtown, so you don't even need a whole day set aside to enjoy this place. However, the park isn't free- it's $5 per person for entry.

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Walnut Creek Park

This park is in north Austin, and is a nice place to do some walking or biking. If you're walking though, watch out for the bikers who come through pretty fast on the trails. Of course we have no sense of direction so always end up lost for a while whenever we go walking in a park like this. If you get lost easily too, you might want to bring some breadcrumbs to mark your trail.

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Kite Festival

We've been neglecting this blog for a while, but now we're back! On Sunday we stopped by the annual Austin Kite Festival at Zilker Park. This festival is held every year on the first Sunday in March. Basically everyone hits the park with a kite, and there are also a few contests and such. You don't have to fly a kite, though- you can just go and watch. It's great to look up and see the sky filled with kites.

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Trail of Lights

The Trail of Lights is an Austin tradition. It's 1.25 miles of Christmas displays and lights in Zilker Park. It may almost give you a seizure, but it sure is a fun walk. Lots of cute stuff for kids, too. Go between 7 and 10 PM, and get there by the 23rd because that's the last day.

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St. Edward's Park

We decided to check out St. Edward's Park while the weather still so nice. It's a small park, the entire trail is maybe 2 miles. On Sunday afternoon there were very few other people there. It's pretty, peaceful, and a nice easy hike/walk.

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Mt. Bonnell

Mt. Bonnell Park has an amazing views of Lake Austin and the hills. I could sit here all day.

View of the Pennybacker Bridge from Mt. Bonnell, which is an Austin landmark. See some other great photos taken at Bonnell on Google images.

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Lady Bird Lake & The Hike and Bike Trail

I'm just warning you: There's kind of an obscene amount of photos in this post. It's just hard to narrow it down when every photo I took is so nice. This whole weekend was so gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky. After lunch we decided to walk it off by walking the hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake, which separates South Austin from downtown. This is probably the most popular spot in town to go for a walk, run or bike ride. Click here to see a PDF map of the trail.
Duck sighting on the lake:
Canoes on the lake, going under one of the several bridges:

Pedestrian-only bridge across the lake, part of the trail:
Statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan:

Spot on the trail for dogs to get in the water:
The entrance to the trail from the Four Seasons:

A dock on the trail. There are plenty of little docks and side areas off the trail where you can sit and take a break. Turtle sighting!
Bridge on the trail:
Entering one of the bridges:
Can you see the rainbow?

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Windy Point Park on Lake Travis

Visiting this park is worth it just for the amazing drive to the park. It kind of reminds me of driving up route 1 past Malibu. Fresh air, breathtaking views, extravagant homes, and occasional moments where you feel you are altogether too close to the edge of a cliff. Worth every minute. It was pretty cloudy when we went, so you can only kind of get an idea of how beautiful it is from these photos.

The water is nice and not too cold to go for a swim. You can also boat and whatnot on the lake.

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Austin Zoo

The zoo is in a park-like setting; and there's a great variety of animals. I haven't gotten this close to animals before at an American zoo.

The monkey below was very child-like in his attentions to his stuffed animal. He would cuddle it, look at it, pet it, and was completely oblivious to the visitors watching him from just a couple feet away.

This squirrel monkey (eating watermelon below) is my favorite kind of monkey. I don't think monkeys can possibly get cuter than this. I fed a baby one part of a banana on a trip to Costa Rica and it was definitely the highlight of the whole trip.

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