Sweet Emerald Bay

 Memorial Day weekend was a fantastic time to spend with Mom and Dad Lattimore.  We arrived a day before his parents and spent this time running errands and cleaning out the Casita.  The dogs spent the weekend reveling in their space and enjoying the time spent meeting new friends!

When I let the dogs into the house after our 5 hour trip from Austin they were like "Woohoo!"  Lilly and Fiona were chasing each other all around the house.  They were so excited to finally have more space!

The flamingos that had been in everyone's yard at Emerald Bay (for a Paradise themed golf tournament) had been replaced by many American flags for Memorial Day!  They love themes in Emerald Bay! So fun!

flags!

Over the weekend we got to visit with some family friends Mike and LaVerne Simpson, Lee and Sarah Schmidt, and Uncle David and Aunt Nonette. On Saturday after a light lunch Mom Lattimore, LaVerne and I hung out and chatted while the fellas played a round of golf.  It was so peaceful to sit on the porch and drink tea while watching the golfers pass by (their house is right on the Emerald Bay golf course!) and enjoy good conversation with some great ladies!

Mom Lattimore and Sarah

We enjoyed a wonderful church service on Sunday which celebrated Memorial Day.  We were also properly introduced to the church by Mom Lattimore (great job!) who got some laughter after mentioning "That you may have seen them around walking the 4 dogs!"    They played hymns about America, honored all the veterans attending and also the people that had passed within the year.  Of course Grandma Lattimore's name was read.  It was a sweet remembrance service.  My dad would have really enjoyed it too!   On Sunday night we had dinner at the Terry house which included some amazing steaks cooked by Uncle David.  Wonderful! It was sweet anniversary dinner!

We headed out on Monday but got to visit briefly with Lee and Sarah Schmidt before hitting the road.  They  came into town from the Dallas area to have lunch with the Lattimore's and Terry's. It was great fun to see the Schmidt's as we had not seen them since our wedding.  They even got to meet our dogs who actually did a great job behaving...until Fiona decided to jump on the counter and eat 3 brownies, 2.5 chocolate chip cookies, 2 plastic bags (with Ralphie's help) and a paper plate (not sure on this one but really...it was missing).  Anyway, she survived and the rest of the dogs did not jump on any of the visitors!

Oh I forgot to mention that John spent most of the weekend trying to rig up a fan for the back of the truck bed.  This was all in an effort to allow us to take one car.  Well it kind of worked but...by the time we hit OK they were in the back seat!  More on that later :)

Hitting the road again in a clean car and trailer! 

C+J & 4 happy and clean pups (they got a bath!)

Escapes

0 (but plenty of food eaten!)

Wildlife Seen

I am really getting terrible at this --- promise to get better!

Lessons Learned

1. You can never push food to far from Fiona's nose it is best just to not have food out at all! 

2. Sometimes the easiest plans are right under your nose (as in just should have put the dogs in the actual truck to begin with!--oh well!)

Old Friends in Austin :)

Tacos!

Back in Austin we stayed in McKinney Falls State Park a second time.  All these sites to choose from on a Wednesday night and we managed to stay right beside a dog again!  Oh well, the dogs seemed happy to be back at the park and John and I were looking forward to seeing an old friend in Austin and hiking a trail we had missed on the last visit.  

We met my childhood friend Jonathan Horne in a cool hip neighborhood in east Austin.  The tacos at Mi Madres were amazing!  Jonathan and I have known each other forever.  We grew up playing together during  hot east Tennessee summers.  Our families both were blessed to have cabins up in Emerts Cove (where John and I were married) right outside of the Smoky Mountains National Park.  Our summers were filled with long lazy days of tubing and playing in the river.  It was wonderful!   Anyway, I had not seen Jonathan since our wedding 5 years ago (crazy we have been married that long I know!).  It was so wonderful to catch up and see my sweet friend again.  He is originally from Charleston but is living in Austin and plays in a band called the Plutonium Farmers (he is too humble to say so but he is a very talented musician on the guitar).  Anyway, good food and great times!  Can't wait to see my old friend back in East TN again! 

                                                                         

                                                                                                     Good food and Great Times!

Thursday morning we attempted our Old Homestead Trail.  It crossed the Lower Falls (which were too high 2 weeks prior to cross).  Well...we probably just should have decided not to take the trail.  Not only was the trail full of poison ivy (which John and I are both extremely allergic too) it was also full of these tall weeds that came up to your shoulders.  I was not a fan.  Needless to say the dogs liked it.  

Don't go that way never go that way!

After our 3 mile hike we decided to head down to Austin and wash off in Barton Springs (a local spring fed pool in Austin).  Well wouldn't you know it was closed for "cleaning."  We are both still not really sure what that means.  So we wandered around the park for awhile and settled on some tasty smoothies from Juiceland.  

                                                       

                                                                          Looks refreshing but is closed :(

Back on the road again to meet John's parents in Emerald Bay for Memorial Day weekend.

See you soon!

C&J + 4 itchy pups in need of a bath :) 

Escapes 

0 (whew!)

Wildlife Seen

-I have waited too long to do this blog entry and can't remember I apologize! 

Lessons Learned

1. Stay away from trails that have high weeds and poison ivy

2. Always double check hours for fun attractions that you are looking forward to :( 

the homestead 

after the walk 

sisterly love :) 

 

Later...San Antonio :)

We wrapped up our stay in San Antonio with 2 cool food joints, the San Antonio Zoo, and address hunting (in John's neighborhoods).  It was fun!  We had amazing hamburgers at a dive joint on Monday afternoon called  Radicke's Bluebonnet Grill.  Our last night in San Antonio we enjoyed pizza from Big Lou's.  They have been featured on the food network because of their massive 42' pizza's.  They were so big!  It was ridiculous!

On Tuesday afternoon John rewarded me for all my hard work by taking me to the zoo!  Of course I had a blast!  The San Antonio Zoo is really nice.  The exhibits are very well put together.  It took us about 3 hours to walk the whole zoo.  We saw tons of birds (they are apparently 3rd in the nation with largest aviary collection) and some really neat animals I had never seen on exhibit.  My favorites were some of the small cats, and the "Toadally" exhibit (and a really cute sun bear)!  John enjoyed freaking himself out a little bit by looking at all the gigantic snakes (He is kind of like Indiana Jones--he hates snakes)!  Some of his favorites: the anaconda and the green mamba...

up close with a mamba

soo big! 

my favorite a sleeping a sun bear

We were sad to say goodbye to San Antonio and our KOA but we had a dinner date with a friend in Austin and Memorial Day fun planned with John's parents!









Here is to adventuring...

Caterpillar

Metamorphosis complete!

C+J and 4 travelin pups..

Escapes

0 (ohh yeah!)

Wildlife Seen

1. 1 huge Texas Ratsnake (I literally thought it was a 6 foot boa -- in reality it was a most likely 3 feet --- but it looked huge slithering across the walking trail!)

1. 1 Kingsnake (slithering across the walking trail the next day!)

Lessons Learned

1.  Always take advantage of cut out animal boards because they take fun pics! 

2. Mmmm...working on this one :)

Japanese Tea Garden 

View from top of Garden

Come back soon! 

Playing Tourist in San Antonio

So apologies right away to all reading this particular post. It is a long one...

John and I had an amazing habitat tour on Friday. We had boxed lunches and received a habitat tour to a new community that is being built in north San Antonio (not in one of John's sampling neighborhoods).  We heard some really touching stories about families who have been given a "hand up" from Habitat.  Their motto is that they strive to help families that want to help themselves.  Anyway...I was teary eyed through the stories!

San Antonio was the first affiliate for Habitat for Humanity (which started in Georgia) and now has more than 800+ habitat homes.  This particular affiliate builds about 50 per year.  It was really amazing to see large blocks of cute colorful homes that owners are especially proud of.

I got to sit in with John on his interview with Stefanie, the Vice President of Development and Communications.  I learned a lot about the organization which was fun!  Stefanie also gave us some information about great places to eat while we were in San Antonio which was my interview question!

Riverwalk

We ate at Boudro's on the Riverwalk (a nice steak house) on Friday night.  Stefanie told us we had to go there!  We had about an hour wait for the food but it was worth it, John and I both had some amazing steaks!  In the morning we traveled back to downtown to the Guenther house for Saturday morning breakfast.  It is in the old historic district of San Antonio surrounded by beautiful old homes.   The restaurant is in the home of the founding family of Pioneer Flour so they had plenty of delicious baked goods to choose from.  We started with a large cinnamon roll (recommended) and ended with biscuits and gravy and fruit.  We were stuffed! Lesson learned...Listen to locals and Urbanspoon for good restaurants...not the Visitors Bureau page!  

another yummy cinnamon roll

Guenther flour mill

restaurant and mill

After the Guenther house we visited the Alamo.  John and I decided that it would be a really neat way to honor my Dad by visiting different historical sites on our trip.  I would have loved to have visited the Alamo with him.  He loved history, especially military history!  So it was nice to read the placards and take the tour and think about my dad standing there in his polo and khakis in deep concentration reading all of the information!  If I had been a little girl I would have been waiting impatiently as my father read everything!  I am truly thankful that he took me on all of those history trips now because I really enjoy going these places!  

Alamo

The Alamo was also quite fun for John to see as Davy Crockett was one of his boyhood heroes.  He apparently  wore out his copy of Disney's Davy Crockett movie as a boy. He also had the coon skinned cap to prove it!

Boy, was it crowded!  I had no idea that the Alamo was right smack in the middle of downtown!  It was pretty funny to see all of these hotels and large buildings surrounding it.

In the afternoon we visited Sea World.  It was fun and hot!  John and I were not prepared for the day.  I had not realized there were water rides ... unfortunately we were not dressed for any of those!  However, we saw two shows.  We saw Oceans with Shamu and a cute show called the Cannery Caper with sea lions, a walrus, and a Japanese otter (our favorite!).  We walked around and saw all the neat animals and of course had plenty of "snacks."  We successfully, had a lunch that consisted of dip'n'dots, popcorn, a churro, and 2 powerades...healthy I know!

Shamu!

A well fed sea lion!

Sea World!

On Sunday Morning we visited Oak Hills Church.  Max Lucado preaches here so it was kind of cool to get to hear him speak.  It is the first church that we have ever attended where the worship team or choir sings a capella so that was a little different.  The sermon was really good. He taught on praying for those that have hurt us.  It's always good to understand the importance of forgiveness :) Anyway, John and I enjoyed it!

Sunday, is always a great time for naps and reading at the pool!  So that is what I did the rest of my day!

Last night we met John's family friends Brooke and Richard Peacock and their two sons Harrison and Cardo for dinner.  We ate at Richard's restaurant Paloma Blanca.  It was wonderful Mexican food!  John and I both had enchilada's and ended with a tres leche's cake (which Francisco our server said was " San Antonio renowned").  It was amazing!  This restaurant I think has been the best of our trip!   It was really wonderful getting to meet with Brooke, Richard, and the boys.  We had some great conversation and enjoyed wonderful food!  I really wish I had gotten a picture of all of us!  We even heard Magic Johnson was headed to the restaurant after the Spurs vs. Grizzlies game but didn't wait long enough to see him!

Entrance at Paloma Blanca

The dogs are well.  They missed us on Saturday so we spent Sunday afternoon with them and they are getting quality time with us this morning...they are currently sleeping.

Hope all is well with everyone!

C+J & 4 sleepy pups

Escapes

0 (too tired!---thankfully ;)

Wildlife

1 yellow-crowned night-heron

1 green heron

4 barred owls

Lessons learned

1.  Be thankful for the housing you have even if it is a 17ft trailer!
2. Let a local or Urbanspoon tell you about good eats

3. Be prepared when heading out on a hot day to an amusement park 

4. Always have camera ready...you never know when you need to snap a pic!

See you soon!

Neighborhood Observations...

John looking at neighborhood maps

I have been helping John with his neighborhood observations the last couple of days.  This has included me driving him around several different neighborhoods in the San Antonio area.  Some of the neighborhoods remind me of Nicaragua.  For those of you who do no know the short version of John's research is that he is looking at the impact of habitat for humanity houses on neighborhoods (there is a lot more that goes into this than that obviously...).  The past two days we have been driving around neighborhood blocks with habitat homes and those that are adjacent that lack habitat homes.  John's hope is that habitat homes are a bright spot for that community.  It has been cool to get to help him fill out data sheets, take notes, and be his chauffeur the last couple of days.  I have not done field work in a while and this is different "field work" then I have ever done...I usually work with animals but there is always data sheets!

mural from neighborhood

habitat house

The dogs have been good.  We moved the campsite to a shadier area at the KOA (our third move---the KOA staff have been very gracious!).  It has been in the 90's here (even hit 104 yesterday!--required a Dairy Queen stop) so any bit of shade helps our little AC in the Casita!  No escapes to document just plenty of nose smears on the windows.  They have been pretty worn out from the weather and all of the dog walks so they are pretty quiet and take a lot of naps!

John and I have played tourist two evenings this past week.  We have wandered down to the Riverwalk and enjoyed the scenery.  We have eaten at two mediocre restaurants a forgettable Mexican restaurant and a restaurant called the Republic of Texas that was recommended on the San Antonio visitor bureau page (I should have checked Urbanspoon!).  We were starving so I ate it all and enjoyed the atmosphere but we are going to check out the restaurant next door tonight (it is supposed to be the best one of the Riverwalk!).

San Antionio statue

Riverwalk

We also met a nice homeless man named Gary on our adventures down to the Riverwalk.  I could not really share his story as he was hard to understand.  He was in a wheelchair and had a crutch and really just wanted some people to talk to.  He rambled on about how he wanted to look on the bright side but sometimes it was hard, he needed money to stay in a shelter, he needed a shower, he had not eaten, he told us about his girlfriend who was in rehab, a knife fight he had been in and so forth.  He seemed pretty lonely but in good spirits!  John and I talked to him for awhile and at the end I asked if we could pray for him (specifically his leg) and he let us, which was nice.  He obviously needed some prayer!  Not sure what happened with old Gary but we hope he is making it alright!  We asked Gary if we could get a picture with him. He said "Darn tootin!" So Gary and I posed for a pic!

Peace sign..with Gary

We are headed to the Habitat for Humanity office today for a tour.  After the tour John will interview the Vice President of Development and Communications of the San Antonio office.  Then we are headed to the Riverwalk again for dinner tonight and playing tourist tomorrow at the Alamo, missions and SeaWorld!

See you all soon!

C&J + 4 tired pups 

Dog escapes

0

Lessons Learned

-Shade is really good on hot days!  

Wildlife Seen/Heard

-heard 2 Barred owls

-heard Southern Cricket Frogs and Rio Grande Leopard Frog (new frog call for me!)

-Red-shoulderd hawk

-numerous Fox squirrels

-numerous Red-eared slider turtles 

Cooking fun in the Casita!

San Antonio - KOA

John and I have set up camp at the San Antonio KOA, which is about 10 minutes from downtown.  We are going to be here a little over a week.  The KOA luckily sits right beside a 8 mile greenway which is perfect for dog walks and morning runs.  There are a lot of trees for nice shade, a pool, horseshoe pit (I  have challenged John to a game-- to happen soon!), a playground, and a Chuckwagon that serves breakfast!  When we had breakfast there our first morning I told John it was like we were on the Oregon Trail!  

The dogs have been exhausted from the heat and hour long dog walks luckily!  However, that still did not deter Lilly from bounding over Phoebe out the trailer door for a quick walk-about.  John luckily was able to corner her quickly.  The very first moment we pulled in to the KOA --Fiona took off for a quick jaunt.  Again, we are lucky to have such sweet understanding neighbors.    

We have learned that Ralph's gas is potent enough to set off the gas alarm in our camper.  He likes to curl up under our bed on his blanket.  He looks like a troll and all you can see is his little beady eyes. Anyway, the gas alarm has gone off at least 10 times and it is always tied to a stench coming from underneath the bed....eww.... We are going to have to work on that! 

We are off to do observations in John's neighborhoods tomorrow morning.  John has ordered business cards, and truck magnet.  He said all sorts of people make business cards.  Even moms have them!  According to John, I am the research assistant, director of housekeeping and hospitality, entertainment, and travel logistics for the Lattimore family.  I guess that is what I would put on my business card :) 

To be continued...

C&J + 4 crazy pups

Escapes

2

Lessons learned

1. The dogs can still run really fast even if they are tired

2. Ralph's gas needs to be gotten under control -- pronto

Wildlife seen

1 alligator snapping turtle (John was not too thrilled about about that!)

McKinney Falls Park, Austin - Texas

John and I spent 3 nights at McKinney Falls State Park.  It was our first camping experience with the dogs.  It was in a word an experience.  We learned pretty quickly to make sure the door  was completely shut to the Casita (as Fiona and Phoebe escaped our first morning), not to feed the dogs close to the road if other dogs are passing by (could result in food being toppled onto the ground in a little melee), not to leave dogs alone in the Casita if any chance of storm is present (could result in destruction of blinds -- it did), not to attach our dogs to outside ties if our dog has a breakaway collar (Lilly escaped this way) and we finally learned that camping in a small space with 4 dogs just simply takes patience, understanding, and a lot of laughter (and if you are me some tears ;)

It rained on and off quite a bit in McKinney which was funny since the area had experienced a drought for about 3 years (according to the park ranger).  So we brought the thunderstorms (one of which kept Lilly and the rest of us up for about an hour 1 night--she is terrified of thunder.)  However, we got to take some really great dog walks.  We saw some beautiful wildflowers and waterfalls (not to mention some neat wildlife...see below for list).

We were busy the rest of time finishing up work as it was the end of the semester for the both of us!  It it is nice in cozy in our little hobbit hole when all of the dogs are in their place and sleeping ;).  


We did venture into Austin for dinner one night.  We ate at Taco Guerro's for dinner (awesome food--highly recommended).  It was a cool Tex Mex restaurant with an outdoor area for live music and street seating (unfortunately once we got there a huge thunderstorm passed through so all outside fun stopped!).  After dinner we drove into see a little of downtown and Rainey street where there are a lot of neat bars and music.

On Saturday we had to move our campsite.  We headed north to Leander and stayed at a KOA.  After all that open space at the park it was hard to be right smack next to another camper.  We learned a couple of other lessons here: don't park your camper right next to the dog walk, and don't park your camper next to another that has a dog and a cat....oops. Also, be wary of what Ralph eats as he threw up three times in the truck on the way to the KOA....

                                                        

                                                                               Evan, Lisa, Will and Todd at Reunion Grill

We met John's cousin Lisa and her husband Todd and 2 boys Will and Evan at a family fun restaurant called the Reunion Grill.  We had a great time!  It had outside seating with picnic tables, a playground, and live music.  The kids were running around crazy while the adults were all standing around enjoying a libation and talking.    John and I joked it was not much different from the dog park we visited earlier with the dogs.  The goal was still the same ... to wear them out...(the dogs did great at dog park by the way...it was fun to let them take off on a full sprint and not to have chase after them...;)

To be continued....

C+J & 4 crazy pups  

Dog Escapes

3 (all the ladies)

Wildlife Seen

1 Roadrunner

1 Ringed Kingsnake

Many scissor-tailed flycatchers (and other birds I couldn't identify)

Deer

A lot of wildflowers

Lesson learned

Many...see paragraph 1 and 5

More adventures await!