July 4th in Austin Texas

Last week we made our annual pilgrimage to Austin, TX, to visit our good friends The Mackey’s. As always, we had a great time! We spent a whole lotta time eating BBQ and swimming in the pool.

Jamie’s highlight is when we rented a boat on Lake Travis. It was actually a lot of fun. Mostly because with the boat rental we rented a driver. That was great. He knew all about the lake and all about driving boats ( we’ve had… issues… in the past ).

Joe and I took the boys to Six Flags in San Antonio. That was a blast. Luke wanted us to take him for his birthday ( back in May ). It was the first time I’ve ever been on those big roller coasters. It was a blast! The Poltergeist was unbelievable ( 37 seconds of pure fun ). Here’s a video that someone took that doesn’t do it justice:

We took the boys off of Joe and Randi’s hands for a day. We all went down to Zilker Park and rented kayaks. Luke went with Jamie, and I went with Ian. Unfortunately, Ian soon got bored and stopped rowing. Doh! At least he’s not too big. After that we went to lunch, we went to see Wall-E, had some gelato, and headed home. We had a great time with boys.

We were all invited to a marina on Lake Travis to watch the fireworks on July 3rd. It was a great display and we had great seats ( Joe’s friends with the marina owner ).

• Hill Country Galleria: very cool outdoor mall
• Paciugo: great place for gelato ( there’s one in the Galleria )
• County Line BBQ: Still the best BBQ I’ve had in Austin
• Lakeway Marina: great deals on boat rentals on Lake Travis
• Zilker Boats: Canoe and kayak rentals for Barton Creek ( located in Zilker Park )
• Six Flags Fiesta Texas: Great coaster rides