A New "Bike"

Since I'm not a motorcycle person in the least this term "bike" has always confused me. In my mind a "bike" has two peddles and requires no oil changes.

Nevertheless, I have learned to question the word "bike" in conversations and not assume the "bike" is the kind of "bike" in my mind.

Our goal for the day only was to shop around. In the end we spent almost 5 hours in a motorcycle shop. Luckily the pay off for Toby was coming home with a brand new Shadow Aero..I think that is what it's called.

As I said before, I'm as far away from being a motorcycle girl as I am from being a tattoo girl. I often wonder exactly what it is that attracts my husband to me....

Anyway, against my warnings of driving a motorcycle in crazy driver Austin, Texas my dear husband made his purchase anyway. Take a gander.....

The Aquarena

Ever since I have known Toby he has wanted a motorcycle. Recently he has gone on a hot and heavy search for his "new toy" that has taken us to areas outside of Austin.

I decided to incorporate a little fun into our motorcycle shopping. Since the motorcycle shop we visited today was in San Marcos I decided to squeeze in a trip to the Aquarena Center also located in San Marcos. This place has an interesting history you can view here.



I have to say the Aquarena is well worth visiting. Since living in Central Texas I have taken an absolute love to the spring waters, creeks, and lakes in the area. We rode on a glass bottom boat where you could see clear to the bottom of Spring Lake. It was BEAUTIFUL!! It looked so crisp and clear and you could see the springs bubbling up from the aquifer at the bottom. It was amazing to actually see it seeping up from underground.

We also saw flowers blooming below the lake. We were told this is one of the only places in the world where flowers bloom underwater. The water is so crystal clear that it tricks the flower into blooming...amazing.

This will be another instance where my camera can't possibly capture the beauty that being there does. This is looking down into the glass bottom...




I snapped this pic of a bird from inside the boat. The guide claimed the bird could swim....



Random pics....








This is the wetland area of the Spring Lake...







By the end of the day I was grateful for another beautiful day in the great state of Texas!!

Corpus Christi, Texas Getaway

In need of a relaxing getaway we decided to take the short trip to one of our favorite destinations in Texas...Corpus Christi. Luckily the beaches here have not had the "pleasure" of seeing any oil from the horrid BP incident.



Here are the highlights...

Upon arrival there was rain forecasted. I had warned hubby against going when there was rain forecasted but he insisted that it would pass quickly and in spurts. This is one of those times that I have to say he was right.

Our first attraction was the Texas State Aquarium..





I was very grateful for the clouds and misty rain otherwise our visit to the U.S.S. Lexington would have been miserable if the sun had been exposed.

As a note I would like to put in a VERY positive review of the U.S.S. Lexington. It by far exceeded what I expected from a boring ole' war ship. I heard one little boy tell his dad.."Dad, this is the best place you have ever taken me!" Summer also stayed intrigued the whole tour. The ship was very interactive and educational. I give it a 10 on a scale of 1-10 and I think the rest of my family would also.






Toby's attempt at "spreading the word"...







After we toured the ship Summer just had to go stick her feet into the bay water and I was ready to get a close-up look at it myself...




Our last day there we had planned to spend on the beach. Lucky for us, all the clouds had moved on and we were left with a beautiful sunny day. Typically, I don't swim in ocean water but Summer and Toby looked like they were having so much fun riding the waves that I jumped in braving the jellyfish, seaweed and other unknown creatures. I had a BLAST!!







We had such a wonderful weekend I'm thinking we just may make another trip before in a couple of weeks.

Happy Birthday To Us!!!

Mine and my son's birthday is one day apart so we always have had a two day birthday celebration. I'm not one of those people that try to hide my age...matter of fact I am proud to be the age I am because I am old enough to know that with age comes knowledge and experience which I might add is much better than a youthful appearance.

Yesterday I turned 46 years old and today my son turned 22 years old.

Here we are on our Happy Birthday day...

Fun With Family

My oldest brother and his family from Vietnam decided to spend the last half of their vacation in the states in Austin. Over the last few years we have been making it a habit to see each other once a year which helps greatly with the tears not flowing when they leave.

I'm not going to go into great detail about our weeks events and post mostly pics.

Here we are at Johnny Rockets having lunch after a shopping trip to the San Marcos outlets.




The next day was Six Flags. It was the first time Summer had ever been to a big theme park. She was imagining the rides to be like the ones at state fairs and was a bit surprised to see how big a real roller coaster is.



I think this is what my brother thought about Six Flags...




The next day was my favorite. We floated down the Comal River and then went to nearby Landa Park.










On our last day together we toured the Texas Memorial Museum and afterwards had lunch at Dave and Busters which was a real treat for the girls.



It was a great week and I think we all enjoyed being together again...