Texcation 2011, Austin Fun

The Coopers are traveling in Texas this week for our annual visit to see friends and family and I am TRYING to do a bit of a travelogue.  The problem, really, is that I get in this mode of...um... vacation sloth and then nothing gets written. 

Read the first part here: Austin Trip, Part One

On our second day in Austin, my husband's old cycling gang reconvened for a bike ride.  I think he enjoyed it very much.  *I* enjoyed being the photographer for Hot Men in Spandex. (It's a tough job, yes, but when the going gets tough, the tough can take some pictures.  I'm just sayin'.)

While the guys tried to kill each other on a 55-mile bike ride, I went to yoga.  

Here's the thing, though: it's not readily apparent, because I am a chubby 46-year-old who walks with a limp, but I'm in pretty good shape.  AND, because I'm obsessed with yoga, I've been going to a fairly challenging class three or four times a week for almost six months now.  When I asked what class I should take, the guys at the front took one look at me and put me in a beginner class, which just didn't do much for me.  (Like, the instructor had a white-board and she spent ten minutes walking us all through how to say, and SPELL, the word "ohm.") (I, because I am so mature and centered and grounded, spent that part suppressing eye-rolls and then giving myself a stern talking to about opening my mind and seeing what might be revealed.)

Then, there was lunch.  SOMEHOW, we managed to be in Austin for 36 hours without having any Tex-Mex food.  I know there's a law prohibiting that but we made up for it in a big way by going to Chuy's.  

You know how when you really, really LOVE YOUR LUNCH and you have to pump your arms into the air repeatedly at the sheer GREATNESS of it?  It was like that. (I don't want to admit that I spilled Coop's water in my enthusiasm but I must.)

Warning: Refried Bean Coma Imminent!

And then we had the reunion of as many of our Austin friends as could make it to our old community pool.  I'll spare you the six million individual pictures since that's really only interesting if you know the people but here's a little slide show. (Okay, so even after editing, it's six and a half minutes long. And, um, the music only goes until about the four (and change) minute mark. Sorry.)

I'm also NOT going to tell y'all how I was so happy and touched at the outpouring of friendship at the party that I couldn't sleep that night for sheer joy.  I mean, we've been gone THREE YEARS and people still turned out in droves to say howdy.  How did I get so lucky to have people like that in my life?  


But clearly I can't talk to you about THAT.  I mean, if I were going to tell you all that, we might never get to talk about our new niece, and how I got to hold her and smell her head.

I found I remembered everything about holding and burping a baby and smelling her head. But she did spit up on me because I forgot about THAT. (I didn't mind.)

The girls got to visit their old schools and old friends.  I got to visit with my new friend R and help her set up her own blog. And we ended our Austin visit with a trip to Threadgill's with a big part of my husband's extended family.

Turns out that eating fried catfish and chicken-fried steak runs all the way through the Cooper family, from the two-year-old on up.

And then we packed up our rental car (maybe my favorite rental car EVER--a Ford Flex.  Can you say, "reverse camera?"  Can you say, "How much money and tears would that have saved Barb over the years?"), synced all of our blue-tooth devices to it and headed north to Dallas for more Texas-sized fun.