Summer in Austin

We have been having so much fun lately that we haven’t had time to write about all the fun we’re having!

Ingrid came to Austin for her last long hilly bike ride before Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 (which she absolutely ROCKED!!). She rode the dam loop, one of the tougher bike routes in Austin. I opted for a ride on Parmer with Sarah R., Roz, and Monica instead. We both had good rides and then spent the rest of the day resting and catching up. We ended up making fish tacos with peach salsa, stuffed zucchini, and heirloom tomatoes for dinner after a trip to Wheatsville Co-op. I wish I had taken pictures, everything looked beautiful and tasted even better! Sunday morning we got up early for a long run at Town Lake with Sandra. We all did 8 miles then Ingrid went back out for 7 more.

Jeff and I have been able to go out on the boat with Jason and Sylvia a few times this summer, it has been so much fun! Lake Austin is beautiful and it’s great to be out on the water especially when it’s so hot. It seems like every time we go out on the boat I have just done a long ride or run so my legs are tired before I even start skiing, oh well, it’s still fun.

Jeff and I celebrated the longest day of the year by hanging out on South Congress and then watching the bats fly out of the bridge at sunset. It’s amazing how many bats there are!
Bats flying out from the Congress Bridge.
My little brother came down to visit for a weekend. He has wanted to go to Schilitterbahn for years and he finally got to go! We had a great time! It was a perfect day for Schilitterbahn, it was 105 degrees, but the Comal River water is really cold, so I actually got a little chilled a couple of times! We took the camera with the underwater housing, but neither of us wanted to carry it around, so no pictures. It was great to see Jason, I can’t believe I hadn’t seen him in 5 years!

This has been one of the hottest Junes on record in Austin. Of course during the hottest week our AC went out. It was out for a week and every day that week it was between 105 and 108! I think the record highs were broken every day that week. After a couple of days without AC, we decided to stay at Nicki’s until it was fixed. We had 4 people offer to let us stay with them, thanks so much to all of you! We really appreciate it!

I started Independence Day with a 9 mile run at Town Lake and a swim at Barton Springs. I love fireworks, so we went downtown that afternoon for the big fireworks display at Auditorium Shores. Kayakers on Town Lake on July 4th.

It was another HOT day and Jeff and Jim seemed pretty miserable, so we hung out in the air conditioned lobby at the Radisson until sunset. We watched the bats fly out at the Congress Bridge then went over to the First Street Bridge and got a great spot to watch the fireworks. It was a great display and they had the Austin Symphony playing too, very cool. I had lunch at one of my favorite places at UT today. It’s called Texas Expresso at the Alumni Center. I sat outside and I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was (I have eaten at the same spot many times and I’m always amazed at how beautiful it is). I’m not sure if it’s that much cooler today or if I’m just so used to 100+ now that 98 feels really comfortable. The patio overlooks Waller Creek and is shaded by lots of pecan trees, while I was eating I saw a blue heron and heard frogs and lots of birds. It’s hard to believe there is that much nature right in the middle of campus!

This weekend will be another fun busy weekend. Friday is Laura and John’s wedding reception at Mayfield Park. Jeff and I have been to Mayfield Park a couple of times and we love to see the peacocks there.

Saturday Cassie and James are coming to town and Sunday is the Couples Triathlon which I’m doing with Cassie. Jeff’s parents and Aunt Deb are coming to Austin on Sunday too. So it should definitely be a fun weekend.

Boating on Lake Austin

I think I learned to water ski when I was 12, before we started SCUBA diving my family did water skiing vacations most summers. My parents even got a membership at a private lake close to our house so we could ski any time all summer. My little brother and I both LOVED it. We used to ski for hours at a time and never wanted to stop. Ever since moving away, I have jumped at any chance to go skiing, but I hadn't been in almost 2 years. Jeff even made me throw out my old skis, granted they were in terrible condition, but I was still sad.

Jason (who works with Jeff) invited us out on his boat on Memorial Day, I was super excited! I went to Sun and Ski and checked out the skis, it took A LOT of self restraint to not come home with new water skis! Lake Austin was really crowded that day and it ended up that Jason couldn't put the boat in the water. He invited us again Thursday after work. Jeff had the day off and I got a phone call at work "which skis were you looking at?" Woohoo! I'm going to get to ski! Jeff picked me up from work and fought the traffic to get to Lake Austin. I love Austin, where else can you leave work during rush hour and still be on the water 30 minutes later!
We were only on the water a few minutes before I got in to ski. Jason's boat is really nice and easy to ski behind. I was having SO much fun! But I can't believe how out of shape I am! I skied for a few minutes a couple of times then decided I needed a break.

Jason and Jeff

After resting for a few minutes I got in and skied again. It was so much fun! I skied a little longer this time, but still got tired pretty fast.

I got back on the boat and we enjoyed the sunset.

We saw this heron in front of Sandra Bullock's old house.

Jason suggested the County Line for dinner, I didn't know you could get there on the water, how cool!

Jason at the County Line

They even had live music

leaving the County Line

Jeff and I both had so much fun! Hopefully we'll get to go again soon.

Memorial Weekend part 2

Sunday morning Del and I got up early for a bike ride. The weather forecast wasn't looking great and Jason had already decided to cancel his Shoal Creek group ride, so we decided to ride the Shoal Creek loop since we would never be more than about 2.5 miles from my house if it started to storm. The sky looked ominous at first, but it ended up being a beautiful morning to ride. We rode 4 loops of the "Shoal Creek Veloway" and with riding to and from my house it totaled a little over 17 miles. Del didn't want to ride any more than that since he was racing Monday.

Then we went to the Palmer Center and Auditorium Shores for his packet pick-up and bike check-in. We checked out everything at the expo, including the cool new Rocket Science tri suits and the Blue bikes. They had 2 bikes set up on trainers, one for tall people and one for short people. Del and I got on them, but the tall bike was way too short for him and the short bike was way too tall for me! I couldn't pedal at all and almost couldn't get off!
Del at bike check-in

We had Homeslice pizza for lunch. Del really enjoyed it and said he was going to stop on his way out of town on Tuesday and get some pizza for the drive to Houston, too bad they're closed on Tuesdays. We waited a couple of hours for the pizza to digest then ran about 5 miles on the Town Lake Trail. Del really enjoyed running on Town Lake too, he even stopped a couple of times to take pictures!

Pre-race dinner was at Kerby Lane

Race morning I got up fairly early and headed down to Auditorium Shores to cheer on all my friends racing.

I got there just in time to see Del's swim wave get in the water.

The first wave of girls taking off.

Del getting out of the water. He said he didn't like going up the stairs after gettng out of the water.

Annette was biking with a relay so I talked with her while I was trying to get to my bike spectating point (all my normal ways to get around Auditorium Shores were blocked off). I didn't get to see Annette bike since the relays started quite a bit later, but she had a great ride and her team did really well.

View of transition from the 1st Street bridge

View of the swimmers from the 1st Street bridge

My bike spectating point was at the triangle in the road between Ceasar Chavez and 1st Street. The bike course was 4 loops and from where I was I could see everyone 3 time on each loop, that gave me lots of opportunities to see and cheer for everyone!

I'm not sure how many times I saw Del on the course, but it was a lot!
I also saw Coach Jen lots of times on the bike course. Kevin Saunders from KGS bikes was at the triangle island taking pictures of all the cyclists too. So I talked with him for awhile and he took this picture.

After a couple of loops, Del knew exactly where to look for me and gave me lots of fun poses for the camera, too bad I wasn't very good at catching them!

I also saw Peggy, Kendra, and Chris on the bike course, but I didn't get the camera ready in time to get pictures. After Del finished biking I headed over to Jack & Adam's to watch the run, but again all my routes were blocked, so it took forever to get over there and I missed Del on his first run loop.

On my way to Jack & Adam's I saw Coach Jen, she looked fast and strong even though it was getting HOT! I finally got to Jack & Adam's and volunteered at the water station there for awhile. No pictures- but I got to see almost everyone I know who was racing, Del, Jen, Chris, Kendra, Peggy, Paulette, Kelli and I'm sure I'm missing one or two! It was definitely hot out by then and lots of people looked like they were not enjoying the run, but I have to say all my friends looked great out there even with the heat!
Del post-race
Auditorium Shores was insanely crowded when I got back from Jack & Adam's! I found a couple of my Tri Zones friends and congratulated them, but it was tough. I was calling Del trying to figure out how in the world I would find him when he walked up right behind me!

That evening we all went to The Grove and hung out on the patio and had dinner and some wine and enjoyed the last few hours of a great long Memorial weekend.

Memorial Weekend Part 1

Del came to Austin for the CapTex Triathlon this weekend. He came in early Friday and did some triathlon shopping, then he picked me up from work and we went to happy hour at the Draught House with Fred. I had one beer and Del had a Coke-we're such party animals! Del got new race wheels for his bike, so he wanted to ride a little to test them out. We rode the 1 mile loop around my house a couple of times, then I decided I was too hungry to bike anymore and Del practiced his flying dismount, he did pretty well, although once or twice I was a little worried he might fall!

We had decided to go to the Hula Hut for dinner when Jeff got off work at 9, but when we got there the wait was still over 2 hours! We forgot that it was graduation night a UT, oops! So we went to the Magnolia Cafe instead.

Del and Jeff at the Magnolia Cafe

Lori and Fred at the Magnolia Cafe

Jeff and Fred got "voodoo" burgers, and the cafe was decorated in voodoo art

Saturday morning I had an early Tri Zones swim.

When we got to Decker Lake it was pretty cold (for late May in Texas anyway) Sarah G. showed up in her pink fuzzy bathrobe and fashion guru Cindy made fun of her and suggested that polka dots were a much better fashion statement!

Sarah R. and Kristen at Decker Lake

I helped some of the beginners with their swim and I was amazed at how much faster and more comfortable they were in the water after just 3 weeks since the last open water swim I helped out at. When the beginners finished swimming, I started my swim, the loop was about 400m, I swam 3 loops at first with Carolyn and Tom, then Del came out to swim too, and we swam 2 more, then Stacy came out and I swam one more loop. they swam a couple more, but I decided 2400m was enough for the morning. I'm pretty sure that's the most I've swum since before Longhorn!

Del and I at Decker Lake

After all that swimming I was starving and Del and I decided to try Hula Hut again. This time the wait was only an hour and a half, which actually isn't that bad for Hula Hut. We had some chips and queso and people, boat and dog watched while we waited. The view at the Hula Hut is awesome! There were lots of boats out on Lake Austin and lots docking at Hula Hut too. We also saw a couple of labradors on boats, they looked like they were having so much fun! I told Del, Connor and Katie would Love that!

Big metal fish in the water at the Hula Hut

Bird flower planter made of tires, these are all over on the Hula Hut patio

Del really enjoyed his enchiladas
After the Hula Hut we decided we couldn't run for awhile, so we decided to go kayaking on Town Lake, it was really fun, it was Del's firt time to kayak. I didn't take the camera since I didn't have the underwater housing. We saw 2 swans and some turtles, there were a lot of people out on lake so there wasn't as much wildlife out as Jeff and I have sometimes seen. The last 20 minutes we were kayaking, there was lots of thunder and lightning and it started raining a little, we decided to wait to run on Sunday. By the time we were finished kayaking my shoulders were starting to get tired/sore, I'm sure they'll be sore in the morning from swimming and kayaking.

On the way home we stopped at Hey Cupcake

We got home and hung out with Connor and Katie, they love Del (and he loves them too!)