Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Austin Awesomeness



About a year ago, the wives planned a mini family reunion of cousins in Austin, where we would crash at my sister, Melissa's house. Last month we finally had it. We flew in on a Wednesday night, arriving at 1am due to an hour delay. It was Alex's second time on a plane, but the first that he would remember. He loved it, and kept saying, "whoa" as the plane's engines revved up and we took off.

The first day we went tubing down the San Marcos River. Everyone really enjoyed it, especially Maddy and Alex, who both got in the river and swam around as we drifted.


Early Saturday morning, the rest of the cousins arrived and we went on the Austin Steam Train, which went through Hill Country to the small town of Bertram. The 3 hour trip gave us all time to get reacquainted.






Afterwards, we went into Austin and ate at Uncle Billy's Brew & Que and had some fantastic food.



Later, we headed back to Melissa's and the kids splashed around in the kiddie pool


Apparently Kiara and Maddy can dish it but not take it, as they pouted after Alex splashed them back and refused to get back in the pool until Alex got out.


The next day we drove through some beautiful but hot countryside to the Hamilton Pool, a collapsed rock formation which now is an old-fashioned swimmin' hole.





Hook 'em!





After the pool we went back and had some burgers and hot dogs.

A master at work


Eric thinks it's da kine.

Whitney and family had to leave after the burgers and hotdogs, so on the last day the rest of us went back for some more tubing on the San Marcos River.





After some coaxing, Nathan tries the rope swing.

Alex and me shooting the rapids.


For our final dinner, we went to Salt Grass.





Alex finished his pizza

We went back to Melissa's for a final night of dominoes and some play time for the kids.



All in all, we had a great time with the family and hope to get back to Austin soon.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Bangkok Dreams

In a previous post I talked about a blog by a former co-worker Ladesha and her husband and their adventures through Southeast Asia. Well, I checked back and they have moved from Vietnam onto Thailand. Some beautiful pictures of a temple that I think is called the Grand Palace:


images and the rest of the story at Staf & Desh travel the world

post by David

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Locke in Time

Last year around this time, we went to Sacramento to visit my cousin. On our visit we went on an impromptu drive to a ghost town called Locke near Walnut Grove in Northern California. The drive there was such an adventure at the edge of the Sacramento River Delta. Imagine a dirt road, water on one side and apple orchards on the other side. Going to Locke is like going back in time. This town was built by the Chinese who came to California during the Gold Rush. Locke is the only rural Chinese village remaining in the whole of America. While Chinese districts survive in several American cities, none claim the unique ethnicity of Locke.


Alex and David walking down one of the two streets in Locke


A path between buildings leading up to the highway


Some local kids who were selling their art.


David liked the lettering style on this sign


One of a few Alfa Romeo's that belonged to a car club having a meeting in a local bar.

More pictures (not ours) of Locke.

post by Armilyn