The hardest part of moving is leaving your friends. We all had developed wonderful friendships with many people before we moved. It has been pretty quiet around our new house so far as we haven't really met too many people yet.
Luckily for Andrew, his friend Peter called and wanted to get together despite the miles between us. So we met his parents halfway and picked him up. He was able to spend the whole weekend with us.
First, we decided to show him the ranch. With the extreme temperatures, the boys decided it was time to enjoy a little water play. We couldn't get the slip-n-slide functioning properly, but that didn't stop them. Everyone just took turns holding the hose.
Paul drove the tractor up for the boys to stand in the bucket while they fed the cows. They were pretty hungry with everything being so dry. It is much safer for the boys to be elevated. That way no one gets pushed or stepped on accidentally. Jacob preferred to watch from a distance.
After a few games of hide-n-seek and a little lunch, we headed to our house to show Peter the sights including the Cow Parade and the famous bats under the Congress Bridge.
In downtown, the Cow Parade has just arrived. There are approximately 100 cows positioned throughout our town. They will be on parade through October and then they will be auctioned off to benefit local charities. We took a little walking tour to find them. It was a competition to see who could find the next one first. We saw about more than a dozen cows. Here are a few:
Various artists designed the different cows. They all have clever names. This one is "Texas Mooscians". If you look carefully, you can see the faces of famous Texas musicians in the mosaic.
"Guitar Cow"
"Curly Q Cow"
When the temperatures cool down a bit, we plan to find a few more cows.
Our final stop was the Congress Avenue bridge to see the famous Mexican Free-Tailed bats emerge at sunset. With an estimated population of over 1.5 million bats, Austin has the largest urban colony of these insect eaters. They emerge en-mass each night. Paul and I have tried to see them before, but we missed them, so it was a first for all of us. The boys waited patiently in the extreme heat for about 35 minutes before the "show" began. We could hear them squeaking up in their roost under the bridge.
Look to the left of Jacob's head and you can see them emerging.
The little brown flecks at the upper right of the picture are more bats.
We all enjoyed Peter's visit and we met at the halfway point again this afternoon to return him to his parents. We look forward to reconnecting with other friends again soon.
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