Tuesday, May 11, 2010

May 11, 2010

We woke up at our camp and walked down to the lake to check out the view. It was huge. It didn't look like the center of Texas at all. The lakes and the mountains just seemed completely out of place.

We walked around by the water for a while and took some time to sit with our feet in the water. We broke down the tent and headed back to where we were last night.

We got past the initial three holes we played at The Backyard. They seemed quicker this time. There were a lot of long, winding ones that were quite challenging.

There were signs for "bonus" holes once we got past 11 so we went to check them out.

The first one was an intimidating shot straight up the mountain. Luckily, my first shot was good and it didn't roll back down to me.

The bonus came when we got to the top and saw the amazing view. It's such a great place to have a course.

After admiring the view for a while, we shot down the second bonus which was the opposite of the first one. I almost lost my Wolf but it turned up. We played up to hole 13 but the rest were blocked off while construction on the parking lot was being finished. It was a difficult but a really awesome, technical course. With a lot of holes over 500 feet, it was exhausting.

After washing up a little bit we went into Austin. We started at the Capitol building downtown.

We took a guided tour that was informative not only about Texas but about other states like Nebraska.

The inside of the dome was pretty impressive. The star at the top is eight feet wide. It echoes when you stand directly in the center where this shot was taken.

We got to see where the state's Senate meets, once every two years. All of the original, old desks have computers in them now.

The great thing about the Capitol building is they just let you walk around to pretty much anywhere unsupervised. It actually felt free. This is a view from the fourth floor down to the center of the rotunda. Each governor of the state has a portrait hung around the walls of the floors, ascending from the most recent.

We had food in the car and I got a Jamba Juice before we started walking around. I wish we had Jamba Juice at home. The city was nice but there wasn't a whole lot to do. We saw some buildings, I played a game on a video screen and then we walked back toward the car.

On the way out, we stopped at a park to shoot some pictures of the skyline. There were a lot of people out by the river playing with their dogs or playing catch. It was a beautiful day for it.

We found a campsite cheap in the area so after the longest registration process ever, we set up camp under a giant tree.

After setting up we went to a Starbucks in a Barnes and Noble to have some tea and get online for the first time in a while.

We had to race back to the campsite because the gates lock at 10pm but we made it with a few minutes to spare. I took a much needed shower under the stars in the open-ceiling bathrooms they had available to us. It was nice to shower after not having one for so long. I got some really cool shots of a heron on the dock in the lake. I was out there for quite a while shooting but I think I got a few that are really nice.

I eventually went back to the tent to go to sleep. It was warm but there was a nice breeze blowing through the tent.

Total distance: 112.1 miles. A short distance since we mostly just drove around Austin and camped in the same area.

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