rich and gill: A weekend of non-admin - visit to Lake Travis and the Botanical Gardens

A-ha, I hear you cry, finally some actual touristy photos, maybe we will get some real views of Austin. There have been some comments made that there have not been enough photos of me on the blog, but that is mainly because I am the only one taking the photos. So here are some great photos of me.

But seriously, we spent a weekend doing non-admin, which was great, and very relaxing for a change. We drove up to Lake Travis on Saturday, it is about 30 miles north west of Austin in the "Hill Country", although we are still rather dubious about the extent of these hills, the views were not exactly mountainous. It was another scorcher of a day, so after rolling down all the windows and opening our moon roof (posh Subaru name for an ENORMOUS sun roof) we took our new car out for a drive, simultaneously trying to eliminate the dog smell left over from the last owner's use of the car. (think we are getting there on removing the smell, but if anyone has any dog smell removing hints, would be grateful for them!).

Obviously I had the guide book, which is always in my handbag, and may be the reason I have one overdeveloped shoulder, and we decided to stop at "Hippie Hollow", one of the first park areas where you can sit down at the lake, to take in the views. We were rather amused by this sign ( so your faithful documentary photographer took a shot for you)

We were less confused by the last point when the lady at the kiosk on the way in pointed out to us that this was a 'clothing -optional' park. Don't you just love the positive spin the Yanks can put on everything - the guidebook definitely didn't mention it was a nudy beach!! We carried on, undeterred, and found a spot to sit and admire the views. Unsurprisingly, most of those could not be photographed, and if I had I think I would have had a mob of angry, 40+ men in trainers, socks and nothing else running after me, so I just took this one shot on the way out to help show you what a beautiful spot this really was!

On Sunday we lazed around for most of the day, spending a vast majority of it watching the best US TV has to offer (repeats of the Simpsons and Family Guy), but in the afternoon decided to head out to the Botanical Gardens which we had spotted before when driving past Zilker Park, just south of the river. It was only 93 degrees at 4.30 in the afternoon, so we reckoned we could handle it. That is where the artistic shots of me were taken (and one in the great cafe we stopped for dinner in after). Here are some more:

Some dinosaur footprints were found in this area in the 1980s, hence the pre-historic feel to this section. As you can see, Rich went in camo for the day. And didn't really follow my instructions to 'make it look like you are being chased by the dinosaur'.