Zilker Botanical Gardens

We had quite a few friends in the area stop by and visit us during our open house.  We were honored to see them taking the time to come be a part of this with us.  One very special guest was Gramme!  She drove from Tyler just to be at our open house!  We didn't tell the kids she was coming so they were very surprised and excited to see her!  After the open house, we headed home to regroup and relax for a bit.  Then we took Gramme to Austin for a touristy afternoon.

We started at the Zilker Botanical Gardens.  They were having a Fairy Garden exhibit which I thought might help spur the girls' imaginations on as they start to make their own fairy gardens in the backyard.  We were in for a real treat.  We'd never been before and it was wonderful.  The weather was perfect and there was SO much to see.  I'd love to go back again and just walk the trails slowly.  Here's a few pictures from our afternoon.

I just can't get enough of this color, especially in flower form.

After the fairy garden area, we headed into the dinosaur area.  Loved the landscaping in here.  Lots of water, palm trees, waterfall, and dino fossils and tracks.

Why yes, that is a dinosaur in the background behind me.

Then we headed into the Japanese garden section.  It was so beautiful.  As we came upon this area, we noticed that they had stepping stones in the pond that you could walk across.  We probably would have let our children do it, except that as we were approaching it, a little boy lost his footing and went straight in.  The only thing on him not soaked was the very top of his head.  That sealed the deal...none of my kids were going....and after watching him, none of them asked! ha!

Might have to get this picture printed out....love the colors!

One last fairy garden to see as we left. 

 

After the gardens, we headed to an iconic place to eat called Sandy's.  It's a walk-up burger place that also sells frozen custard.  I'm pretty sure it's been around since at least the 1950's and not much has changed.  It was good ol' burger, fries and custard....still can't beat a Mighty Fine though....:)  After Sandy's we decided to do a little hunting around for a few not-so-well known places in Austin.  The girls were working on a Girl Scout badge that they could get for visiting some different places in Austin and since we were close to downtown, we went ahead and did a little extra looking.  We found the moonlight tower(s) in downtown Austin that were used as street lights before there were street lights, if that makes sense.  Then we visited the Treaty Oak, a tree in downtown Austin, standing for about 500 years and used by Indians and Anglos to work out treaties as well as wars.   After this, it was about 8 o'clock and we were beyond exhausted.  We headed home and all collapsed pretty quickly.   There's nothing we love more, than finding new places to explore.  Even though we've been here almost seven years, we seem to never really run out of new things to check out. And the cherry on top was getting to have Gramme go with us!