This is the picture that epitomizes "Texas" for me

This was taken outside the place we were staying in New Braunfels, south of Austin. It was a new development, but it was out in the middle of farmland--hawks flying overhead, foxes crossing the parking lot. On the other side of the fence was a creek where deer drank, and an old shed, and old-fashioned houses. There weren't many other guests, and we just hung out and made friends with the staff, who were very nice.

Nicoya, New Braunfels, Texas

If you are coming through New Braunfels on Interstate 35, pull off and hunt through the strip malls until you find Nicoya. It is a Nicaraguan restaurant, and SO amazingly good, the best food we've had in Texas so far. Pretty cheap, too. They have two different cactus drinks, a magenta one and a green one, that are both really good, and the best fried plantains I have ever had. Mmmm, Nicoya.

McKinney Falls (The Actual Falls)

After packing up, we went to the Falls themselves, which were pretty cool. But they aren't really falls right now. Texas is in the middle of a pretty bad drought, and the river is so low that right now, you can walk on parts that are usually covered by the water. We weren't sure if the pretty yellow-and-red trees were mangroves or what. I think these photos look like we took them in Japan, but I promise we were in Texas. Also, turtles!

McKinney Falls State Park, Texas

We camped here for the night, because we're really on a budget and motels in Austin are rather pricey. But this campground was really pricey! $24 for two people for one night, for a not-very-well-maintained campsite, in close hearing distance of the planes going VROOOOM and the traffic on the interstate going SHOOOOM SHOOOOM SHOOOOM all night. We should have just spent the extra $20 on a motel. Not to mention, Texans had been pretty cool to us so far, and the rangers here were the first to really give us the hairy eyeball. Lame! But now I have my 21st-century passive-aggressive revenge! That's right, I wrote about it on my blog.

What on Earth Are These?

r The trees in Austin are full of these weird things. We asked a bunch of people what they were; responses ranged from "moss" to "moss" to "I don't know what they are, but they're everywhere." Mom thinks they are a bromeliad. They don't seem to really be hurting the tree, but I don't know. A park ranger said they are "ball moss" but that's not very helpful, is it? It's like calling a frog a "green hoppy" or something. They look to me like sea urchins, except they are in the sky. Perhaps they are sky urchins. (Ever wonder where "sea urchin" comes from, since they don't look much like Victorian orphans? "Urchin" is an old English dialect word for hedgehog. So there you go.)

And By The Way

Obama! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Museum of the Weird, Austin

I got some creepier shots, but I know a bunch of people show this blog to their little kids, so I went for these. The Museum of the Weird is a great, tongue-in-cheek dime museum (or, not a dime, but $3 each and worth it) of real and ersatz oddities. There's a great gift shop too. The girl who was working there was so sweet, she wrote down all the Irish bars and cool Austin neighborhoods down for us while we were looking at the exhibits. P.S. This is not a real Bigfoot, everyone knows they only live in Arcata.