family fun | Barton's Blog

Our trip to Wimberley, Texas

August 9, 2009

Today we felt like day trippin’ so I got out our central Texas guide book and picked a destination: Wimberley. This town of ~5,000 is about an hour south of Austin and is made up of an interesting mix of artists and ranchers. We had no idea what to expect but were pleasantly surprised by the lush river trail and the cute town center.

Here are a few pics from our adventure:

The three monkeys in the lead as we start off on the river trail.

Pretty lush for central texas during one of the worst droughts in decades.

KInda felt like we were down on the Bayou.

Yes, the walls of this house are made of bottles.

No room at the old Salty Chicken.

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

Lifeguard Stands and Palm Trees in…Chicago!?

July 1, 2009

Last month my daughter and I traveled to Chicago for my cousin’s wedding. We had two full days — one gorgeous, warm and sunny and one overcast and bone chilling – so is Chicago, or so I’m told. The first day we hit the zoo which was a great time and then made our way in the late afternoon to the beach.

Now this will not come as a surprise to many people, but it freaked me out — Chicago has a beach! Complete with lifeguard stands and palm trees. Call me a “beachist” but growing up in Hawaii I always thought beaches were only connected to oceans. Well it turns out lakes have them too. So there we were on a beautiful Friday afternoon in the windy city building sand castles on the edge of lake Michigan.

Live and learn.

Waikiki? No, Chicago.

Building Chicago-style sand castles.

Would love to see this in Winter.

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

Happy Thanksgiving from Austin, TX

November 27, 2008

When our kids get older, we’re looking forward to having traditional Thanksgiving dinners like we remember. At this point, however, given their attention span and energy (one being short, the other seemingly infinite) we decided to go out to a family friendly restaurant that comes with an outdoor area for the kids to romp around before the meal.

Below is a summary of our day in four pictures.

1) Checking out the mini-herd of longhorns about a mile from our house

2) Going to the park with Grandma and Grandpa

3) Threadgills for our Thanksgiving feast (notice the armadillos coming out from under the eaves)

4) The sunset on the ride home

All in all, a great day.

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

Goats in the Trees

October 20, 2008

On Saturday we took the kids to the Sweet Berry Farm pumpkin patch in Marble Falls, about an hour outside of Austin.

When we checked out the petting zoo we were quite surprised to find the goats hanging out in the trees. I thought I’d share this rare glimpse of the species goatis-tree-dwellis.

This guy even has his own tree house.

Pau for now…

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Posted by Barton George

All Creatures Great and Small (in Austin)

September 22, 2008

I’ll have to admit that I was a bit surprised to learn that there was an exotic zoo/safari park just outside of Austin. To be more precise, its just outside of Johnson City (the boyhood home of LBJ) which is probably why its named the Johnson City Exotic Resort Zoo. The park has over 500 animals of 80 different species and they take you around the 137 acres in a cool tractor-pulled trolley.

We visited the Zoo on Sunday and the kids had a blast. Just another one of the wild and wacky reasons Austin is a great place to live.