We started the day in Sonora, Texas. Since our itinerary today was a little lighter, we decided to sleep in a little. We left the hotel at 10:50am (Although it is only 8:50am PT) on our way to Austin, Texas. Austin was about three hours away and was a very nice drive. We really enjoyed the scenery. The day was very overcast and a huge storm was to be moving in by nightfall.
One of our priorities while being in Texas was to eat some authentic Texas BBQ. We read that Ruby’s in Austin was the best BBQ in town, so we headed over there to eat lunch. We hadn’t eaten anything all day by the time we arrived there, so we were starving. The food did not disappoint. Ruby’s has wonderful BBQ sauce and absolutely the best baked beans I have ever tasted.
We didn’t really have anything else planned for Austin, so we decided to explore a little. I read that Zilker Park was the main park in town, so we decided to head over there for a little activity. I wanted to rent a canoe or kayak at the lake in the park, but the weather was not going to cooperate with such a thing. I didn’t want to get stuck in the middle of the lake during a thunderstorm.
As we were driving through the park I saw a sign for the Austin Science and Nature Center. Not knowing what this was, we decided to investigate. It turned out to be a beautiful nature preserve in the middle of the city. This place had an animal sanctuary where they care for animals unable to fend for themselves in the wild due to various accidents. They also had two streams and a pond where sea turtles (The one above had an unfortunate incident where he fell down the stairs. The video is coming soon, and don’t worry, he was ok as we got him help immediately) and fish live, along with a “Dino Dig” area where children can dig through the sand to uncover dinosaur fossils. Our favorite area though, was the nature trail.
The nature trail was basically a series of hiking paths right in the middle of the city. The area was so isolated and beautiful that we forgot we were minutes from downtown Austin. Hundreds of butterflies could be seen flying around everywhere. At one point we had a fork in the path and needed to decide to go up to the lookout or straight to the meadow. We decided to go to the lookout and were rewarded with a beautiful view of downtown Austin. We were definitely impressed by this little discovery, however, it was about 5pm and we figured that it was time to head south to San Antonio before the big storm rolled in.
We arrived in San Antonio at 7pm while the storm rolled in about 9pm. The heavy rain and winds didn’t come until about 1am. The rain was coming down so hard that I could barely see outside and according to the news the winds were in excess of 60 MPH.Speaking of the news, they had special coverage all night as we were in the midst of a tornado warning. Fortunately, the storm passed over with little damage.
We are excited about the opportunity to explore San Antonio in the next couple of days. Our timing here couldn’t have been better as San Antonio is in the middle of its annual Fiesta celebrations. It seems that they have over twenty different “Fiestas” throughout the city each day. We are hoping to see a few. Overall Austin was a beautiful introduction to Texas and we hope San Antonio brings more of the same. Oh and by the way we saw 15 McDonalds today, a record so far for our trip. Talk to you soon.
We want to thank everyone for the comments and emails. Your support is truly appreciated and keeps us going.
The Coomer Family
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HEY MY LOVED ONES
SOUNDS LIKE A BEAUTIFUL PLACE. WHAT A GREAT PICTURE OF SHAWN REECE. HEY THE BAKED BEANS SOUNDED GREAT. MIKE SAYS THEY DO HAVE SOME OF THE BEST BBQ AROUND. DON’T FORGET HE’S BEEN ALL OVER. HAVE SOME GOOD RIBS FORME TOO. LOVE AND MISS YOU TOO. I FEEL LIKE I’M ON THIS TRIP WITH YOU, KEEP UP THE GREAT WRITING. LOVE MOM
COOMER FAMILY
I HAD HEARD AUSTIN IS ABEAUTIFUL CITY.THANKS I FEEL LIKE I’M ON TOUR WITH YOU GUYS.GREAT PICTURE OF SHAWN REECE.I HAVE AFRIEND WHO I TALK TO 4/5TIMES A WEEK WHO MOVED TO SAN ANTONIO 6 MONTHS AGO,SO I LOOK FORWARDTO YOUR NEXT MESSAGE.I HOPE TO VISIT SAN ANTONIO LATE SUMMER OR IN THE FALL.
LOVE YA GUYS
TOM P. / JOANNE
Thank you guys for taking us along on your adventure. I look forward to see where we are going next.
–Allen