Austin, Texas (or the Alternate Name of Hottest Place on Earth in August)

Alden and I were lucky to get a little summer vacation and visit my middle sister, Merritt, her boyfriend Joe and all of the great people that love them there in Texas. Because of timing, we ended up visiting during a notoriously warm period of the year. By warm I mean sweaty hot, flushed faced, feeling-like-we-ran-all-day, type of warm. My first thought stepping out of the airport terminal was, "Yippee! There's my sister!". My second thought was, "How the $&#% does she survive here in this heat?"

The heat is precisely why there are so many places to cool off in Austin. We went to three different places to cool off during our 6 day visit. We started at Barton Springs and loved every moment of it. Aunt Merritt bought Alden a floater toy to check out and we played a bit in the, dare I say, cold water, got out, burned alive, got back in. It was an excellent way to spend our first day.

Legos are a big thing for Alden and had been for Merritt, too. I am not surprised that she still had hers available to play with at any given moment of down time at her place. We started every morning with them.

Great restaurant. Even better décor. I ate my lunch from a swinging porch swing but INSIDE. Genius.

These were intriguing to Alden and inspiring to me. How can I do this to the inside of our car?

These may have been the inspiration for Alden's Halloween costume this year. He has always had a thing for birds. No one can mimic preening quite like him.

The lady peacocks are "beautiful in their own way. Not like the men peacocks. Different. Browner."

This place offered up a great, expansive view of the Austin skyline.

We had just left a nice dinner with music (and a show from Alden and new bestie Oscar who danced for the crowd) at Freddie's Place. It was one of those laid back but highly accommodating places that has a place structure in the restaurant yard so kids can play while their parents actually get to eat with both hands and adult conversation). I'd move there just for that.

Outside of a tattoo shop. We couldn't pass it up.

Two curly headed boys watching at the Alamo Draft House. At 9:30 a.m. For free. Excellent idea. So fun. Plus, you can order full-on meals, coffee, huge bowls of popcorn. This is the Oscar that I'd mentioned earlier: son of Merritt's long time friends. He is adorable. They all are.

Later, we wanted to go out again and run out some energy out. Alden wanted to wear his full batman suit but, fearing that he would actually melt like a wax figurine, I insisted that we create a hybrid outfit of batman and civilian clothing. Uncle Joe came to the rescue and created a hand drawn batman t-shirt. Whew. Batman isn't the only dude saving lives in Austin.

Purdy.

More purdiness. This is on the drive back from Lake Travis area.

Saying goodbye. This was my third trip to visit Merritt in the near 12 years she's been there. I vow to visit more often. She is a great host. We did everything and nothing when ever we were inspired.

Upon our return home, Alden created  a "Cathedral of Junk" like the one we toured while in Austin. This place was organized chaos. We could have stayed for much longer peering into the oddities collected by the artist. So cool. So weird. So Austin.