Texas Trip Day 4

Big Daddy was arriving today!!!  We were all excited.  But Big Daddy and I were a little apprehensive of whether or not he would arrive on time.  His airline tickets were with American Airlines and he had to switch planes in Dallas.  Which was 2 problems #1 - flying with American has become the pits these days (a quick google search will catch you up) and #2 - Dallas is notorious for delays.  

But, not much we could do about it, so we headed back toward downtown Austin and Zilker Park.  

Zilker Park was a happening place to be since the Austin City Music Festival was setting up for the weekend.  We headed over to the calmer part of the park, unaffected by all the music festival set up.
Zilker Park is famous for it's 'natural' spring swimming pool.

  The thing is HUGE and amazing!   Also, near the pool entrance, there is a neat little museum, designed for kids with information about the history and science of Zilker Park.  It's free and self guided and well worth the visit.  If you're ever at Zilker Park with your children, be sure to stop by!

The little area below is one of the other original pools, but now it is closed to swimmers and used as a habitat for some rare, blind salamanders.  A nice man came by and pointed out the City of Austin and Texas Star symbols on the side walls of this pool.  He said that years ago, the City Council used to use the stadium seating here for their meetings - it was a natural way to keep cool in the hot summer months.  Don't know if that is true, but it's still cool stuff! (No pun intended. :-)

Zilker also has an amazing playground:

We really enjoyed our time at the playground.  There is plenty to do there (check out the antique fire truck!), a nice concession stand and restrooms nearby.  Great for those with kids.  Although, I will say the concession stand drinks are over priced, but it's probably one of their main sources of funding, so I didn't mind.  But if your budget is tight, be sure to pack your own water bottles and sodas.

AND they have this cute little train that you can ride through the park - so fun!  It wasn't much to ride - I think it was around $3 per person.

It turned out that our fears about Big Daddy being delayed were proven true.  First his plane took off 2 hours late, so he missed his connecting flight, and then his connecting flight was delayed.  He was supposed to be in Austin by lunch, but he finally arrived at dinner time!
Big Daddy found the inside of the Austin airport to be easy to navigate and I found the outside to be even nicer - it was easy as pie to drive up and pick him up at the 'arrivals' area.
We headed out to a Korean restaurant for some yummy food.  It was our first time to cook at the table and JR loved it!

Tomorrow was supposed to be our 'San Antonio' day, but there was still so much we wanted to do in Austin, and the kids and I were so worn out from our day in the park, we weren't sure what we would do in the morning........