Relaxing Close

It's 7 AM and I'm sitting out on our (muggy) patio, as I have every morning since we got here. It's so nice; a lot like having a verandah on a cruise, but less noisy. I mean, the ocean and the wind can get pretty loud when you're speeding through at 12 knots. Here, instead, it's pretty still this early. Still enough that I can hear "Born in the USA" playing on the speakers in the pool/water park area.

Yesterday, Mal finally did get to swim and go around the lazy river a few more times.

He did not see his friend again, and was extremely sad about that the first half of the day. He played with other kids later, but told me, "I don't love them as much as I loved her."

We met the Shetland ponies, walked down by the river (James hadn't seen it yet), hung out in the room, realized that the general store serves pizza at night so Mal was able to eat something besides the snacks we brought and chicken nuggets, and ended the day on the lawn watching "Scoob."

Here at the resort, they keep alpacas, longhorns, Shetland horses, and goats (which we should get to see today); on-site, we've seen raccoons, frogs, and an armadillo (not me, darn it; but James did); and then across the river, we saw the happiest-looking cattle I've ever seen. They have a shaded, forested hillside, and can wade down into the water to cool off and drink. California might advertise happy cows, but I think these babies have them beat.

Today we were going to go to McKinney Falls State Park, but since this is Texas, it's heating back up. It's been warm enough, with highs in the mid- to high-80s. Today it's supposed to be in the mid-90s. And the falls have NO shade. And they're likely not really "falls" at the moment, either. Plus, we have some amazing Shiner Bock queso left over from James's dinner last night that we want to get into our fridge posthaste. It should take us just about an hour to drive across Austin to get there. And, surprisingly, our largest ice pack hasn't thawed all the way, even though the refrigerator stopped working and got up to 60 degrees for a few hours before they switched it out!

Typically, I plan pretty packed vacations. But this time, 1) COVID and 2) I've learned that doesn't work for these guys with whom I'm traveling. So I've taken advantage of the downtime and the amenities to do laundry twice. The only clothes I'll need to wash when we get home are our swimsuits and what we wore yesterday.

Have a great weekend, friends and family!