Phone Dump Friday: Bats Edition.

After our first attempt at watching the nation's largest Mexican Freetail Bat colony emerge from underneath the Congress Avenue Bridge was a massive failure, I was bound and determined to ensure our second attempt was successful! After packing up the car, heading to a scrumptious (and potentially margarita-filled) dinner at Shady Grove, and tossing on some glow stick necklaces, we met up with some friends from my moms group to try it again!

Here's how it went down:

And there they go!

We even let her relive the whole rolling down the hill part of our last adventure:

This was our first time to see the bats, so I was unprepared for how difficult they'd be to capture on camera! Wow - they're really hard to get this late in the year without the contrast of a longer-lasting dusk!

Another thing I wasn't sure about was where, precisely, they all came from. They came out in a steady stream for like twenty straight minutes! We later found out that they live in the cracks underneath the bridge, within the suspension:

Hats off to Lone Star Riverboats for that tidbit of information during our tour :)

Happy bat watching, y'all!

Things to Do in Austin: Lone Star Riverboat Sightseeing Tours.

I may be a twelve-year resident of this great city, but that doesn't mean that I can't sit back and enjoy the view as a tourist! With that mindset, we took to the lake last Sunday in order to enjoy Austin's expanding skyline from Town Lake (it's now referred to as Lady Bird Lake, BUT I refuse to change what I call it, along with the other tried and true residents of the city - just FYI).

As it turned out, the weather was beyond gorgeous: clear, sunny, and nearly 90 (!!!), so we weren't alone on the water. In fact, we had more paddle boarders, water bikers (not the technical term, I'm guessing), kayakers, and others than I ever would have expected for late October!

You don't have to be an athlete or interested in watersports to enjoy all that Austin has to offer, though:

And, even if you're not into Auditorium Shores's dog park, Stevie Ray Vaughn (and/or our current live music scene, which is the best in the Country), or performing arts (the above picture is the Long Center, which features world-class artists as well as Ballet Austin performances regularly), there is the sheer beauty of the city that proves magnetizing to anyone who has had the good fortune to visit this gorgeous city!

I love this city! So much so, that I'm a wee bit jealous that Ava is getting to grow up a native Austinite!

If you're interested in taking a tour of your own, hop on over the Lone Star Riverboat Tours to make a reservation. Sightseeing tours run weekends at 3pm only, but bat tours are every evening during bat season, and can offer some of the best views in downtown Austin! Cost is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $7 for children, and 2 & under are free.