01/04/2016 Friday
Set off to Austin in the afternoon to spend the weekend with Noel, Larry and little Daniel Armendariz. (Noel’s parents, Chris and Mary Anne Busch from N. Carolina, are house sitting for us in Ballycastle while we are away). That evening our hosts had organised dinner for us and some of her friends. We met Allen and Tracy, Marilyn and Norton. Allen is Social Work colleague of Noel at University of Texas, Tracy is a home mum and runs a cake baking business. Marilyn is Social Work teacher at University of Texas who is running a project to change the teaching culture in schools which have many students with behavioural issues. This included the use of restorative justice practices in the schools. Norton is well retired but still teaches about loss and bereavement in his 80s! We had a lovely meal and they got very engaged with the use of Yvonne’s puppets as a teaching and learning methodology.
02/04/2016 Saturday
After a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, bagels etc. Noel and Daniel took us on a tour of Austin. It is a lively and beautiful city on the Colarado river. It is clearly a very wealthy city with house prices escalating at the moment. We viewed the city from Mount Bonnell, one of the high spots near the city. Noel then dropped us of at the Lyndon B Johnson Library where we spent a couple of hours looking at LBJs life as President – the good and the bad. We also saw Ladybird Johnson’s office.
In the evening we went out to Black’s Barbecue in Lockhart just outside Austin. The cooking is done in wood fired pits which gives the meat a lot of flavour. Larry, Daniel and I opted for beef ribs which turned out to be massive and very tasty. Yvonne went for pork ribs and Noel had sausages. So meat was the thing. The sides were items like black beans, refried beans, green beans and macaroni cheese – no salads in sight!
02/04/2016 Sunday
We were up early in order to get the to the West Cave Nature Preserve in time to take the first tour at 10:00. This is a beautiful area of river, creek and canyon in limestone scenery. At one time it was a popular spot for swimming etc which resulted in a lot of destruction and pollution but has now been brought back to original natural state. So access is by guided tour only.
On the way home we visited an olive grove, a winery and a fabric shop.
In the evening we went to Congress Avenue bridge in the centre of Austin to join several hundred people watch the world’s largest bat colony emerge from under the bridge. An estimated 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats leave as the sun sets and the flies come out to bite.
We had a very interesting and relaxing weekend. Thank you Noel, Larry and Daniel and not forgetting Tavo and Zeus – two cute French bulldogs.
