Everything's better in Texas...or at least hotter!

This past weekend Kyle & I traveled to Austin, TX to visit a few old friends. I prayed before we left that Hurricane Dolly would bring cooler weather to Texas, but my prayers were not answered they way I would have liked! (in the 100s is not cooler!) But, heat aside, we had a really great time. We stayed with our good friends from our Richmond days, Mike & Michelle. Kyle & Mike are kindred spirits and hit it off back in 2003 when we moved to Virginia. Since then, Mike has graduated from Business School and invests UT's sizable endowment.

On Saturday, we decided to brave the heat and crowds and visit Schlitterbahn. Schlitterbahn is a large water park just outside of Austin. It was fun, but very crowded! Our first ride we waited 2 hours in line!

Here we are before the waiting began

As many of you may know, Texans are famous for being overly proud of their state. " We used to be our own republic" is a statement I've heard multiple times during my years in Texas (Sic'em bears!). So, while at Schlitterbahn I counted the number of Texas related tattoos- 21! Not too shabby Texas!

On Sunday, we got to hang out with one of my favorite college friends- Hilary and her husband Ryan. I finally got to meet their children, the infamous Hollis and his sidekick Martin.

Here are Martin & Hollis striking a pose!

Much to my chagrin, we also went to see the World's Largest Urban Bat Colony, which conveniently is located in downtown Austin. I wasn't aware until this trip, that I have a strong dislike for bats. Aside from their consuming thousands of pounds of bugs, they largely have no redeeming qualities that I could extrapolate. However, I was one of the many standing on the Congress Street bridge to see the 1.5 million (yes, million- that is not a typo) bats fly out at dusk. You can kind of see the black figures in this photo.

Here are the bats leaving for the night.

We ended our trip with one of my favorite activities- eating ice cream! Amy's Ice cream is well known in Austin and of course I had to try it out.

Me, Michelle, Mike & Kyle enjoying some ice cream

We flew back into Richmond last night and are heading out tomorrow night for Spokane. We are some travelin' fools!

I'll post again once we're back on the west coast.

-Stacie