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!