Kayaking the Colorado River

On Saturday I went to visit my friend (and bridesmaid who made these amazing table numbers!) Christy, who whouldn'tyaknow, has been working with AmeriCorps in Bastrop, TX, only 1.5 hours away from me! Upon a quick google search I learned Bastrop is on the Colorado River, and immediately knew what we should do during my visit- kayak! After a surprisingly pleasant drive (Texas 95 is a beautiful route), I picked up Christy and we went to downtown Bastrop for lunch. Say what you will about small towns (and I do; it's a love/hate relationship), but I rather enjoy easily finding free parking on a main street in town, no stress. We strolled the downtown and ate lunch while catching up at Maxine's Cafe. We then went around the corner, literally, to Bastrop River Company, hopped in a couple kayaks, and paddled away for a good three hours! If you didn't know, kayaking is my favorite pastime, so getting to paddle in the Texas sunshine and visit with a good friend for hours really set my soul at ease after a particularly rough couple of days. 

^^the sort of downtown with stores called "The Rhinestone Cowgirl" and where the drug store is also the ice cream shop^^

^^this was very good, but it made me think- when are these giant circle slices of onions anything but a showy inconvenience?^^

^^cool sign and gas pump at the brewhouse next door^^

^^plenty of these guys errywhere^^

^^dog is swimming along behind the yellow kayak^^

^^when you get to the bridge you call the river folks to come pick you up^^

^^we got froyo afterwards, of course^^

Kyle and I will definitely have to come back here. The river company also has kayak camping trips, which sounds like it could be great. This trip down the river reminded me of kayaking I've done in PA, more so  than in Austin. The turtles are not as used to people so they dip into the water when you get near, rather than continuing to chill in the sun like the indifferent ATX turtles do. :) 

- From the desk of Mrs. M

Going on a Trip

I finally did it, I booked my flight to Boston for spring break! I'll be there March 10th-14th (I like to give myself time at home over breaks to chill and catch up on school work, so I'm not going for the entire break). I feel bad because Kyle will be at a month long deployment training at the time, so I will have to board the kitties, but I'm trying to not think about that. I can't wait to visit somewhere new, and see so many friends that have happened to move up there in the last year or two (Tracy, sister, Emma, Allie).

image via

- From the desk of Mrs. M

The First of Autumn

On Saturday, Kyle and I went to Round Rock to look for some caving boots and supplies, and to get me a Dunkin' Donuts pumpkin spice coffee, autumnal drink of the gods. I found out a few weeks ago that there was a DD Cafe within driving distance, so I was pretty excited to take this little trip down I-35. We stopped in a couple stores looking at boots, and went to Tarka for some Indian food, which we'd been craving for a little while (never had Indian food down here in Texas). This place immediately reminded me of a Chipotle- good and fast food, order at the counter, relaxed atmosphere, and, contrary to the ethnic origin of the food being served, worked by all white people. The small chain (of 3 restaurants) is based in Austin, and is really good and satisfying! You get quite a lot of food, and refills on the fancy mango lemonade. Oh, and there's naan. I wish they had one here in Temple... We both really enjoyed our tikka masala.

After a late lunch we walked over to REI (and past the doggy adoption at PetSmart, sigh), where I ended up getting the most old-man style pair of shoes for caving/hiking, and we got some new headlamps, mine in a snazzy light blue and purple combo (you know, because I am a lady. I wear a skirt to try on adventure boots). I think the girly headlamp goes very well with my old man boots, don't you? :P

And then there was Dunkin'. And this conversation that happened:
Me: do you want to go in or use the drive through?
Kyle: well I figured you would want to take pictures, so it's OK if we go in.
what a guy.

I walked in to the place and exclaimed, "it smells like work!" hah, which was probably a weird thing to say, as I haven't worked there in almost two years. I think I was just giddy. Luckily the place was not very busy. They even had the ground pumpkin coffee for me to take home (I haven't seen it in stores yet). Yum. I was a happy ex-Dunkin' employee/first day of fall celebrator. 

Anyway, thanks for the date day, husband! We then returned home and the rest of the day looked like this: homework, The West Wing, Kyle building a cat playhouse, leftover Indian food, more West Wing, apple cider + rum, and bed before 10:30.

- Mrs. M