Family Visit and New Beginings

In case you haven't heard, our lives have been very busy these past two weeks.


We visited Austin (and could live in the Whole Food Market for weeks on end -- <--- whatever that strange fruit was, it was tasty!!); and learned the importance of NOT visiting Austin during a football game day. Especially if that game is Texas Longhorns vs. Texas Tech and ESPN is broadcasting their college football coverage live from Austin. The whole city was absolutely packed. But we did manage to meet up with some old friends, and enjoy some delicious Texas BBQ. Even though our Austin plans weren't incredibly well thought out, we did manage to find our way to an REI store to look at hiking/backpacking trail books for Texas. Sadly, it doesn't look like there are many hiking and camping oppurtunities within a 2 hours drive of where we live. It was really strange being inside an REI again. Stranger yet, every sales associate we talked to had heard of, or been to, Duluth Minnesota. For the first time, we didn't have to describe where we were from -- or what we liked to do. Definitely made me a bit homesick when 3 seperate clerks all asked us why in the world would we leave paradise to come live in Texas. However, the staff did give raving reviews of Big Bend -- a park in southwestern Texas, a 9 hour drive from here. Hopefully we can visit sometime while we live here!


On a happy note: Our good friends, Mike and Becca, became proud parents last week!! (More pictures please!!)


On a even happier note: last week, Dan had two really promising interviews last Tuesday. And this Friday he was offered (and accepted!!!!) a position working as a patient registrar at a fantastic newly opened local hospital. WOO!! Thanks to everyone who has been sending good vibes his way. Good jobs are few and far between in this town -- we are so happy he was able to find something!


To top it all off, this weekend we got to play host to our first Waco visitor -- my mom! We used her visit as an excuse to finally start touring our new little town, explore campus, visit the absolutely *stunning* Browning library, go garage saling, visit a Agricultural community and even conquer the Texas State Fair.



The fair was definitely not what we were expecting. There was a severe lack of mullets, flashy belt buckles and absolutely *no* mini-doughnuts. Worse, only *one* long horn cow in the whole fair --- though, given his temper I can understand why there may have only been one...

The fair was definitely not as well-attended as our Minnesota counterpart, and had absolutely no variety in food or fair-goodies (we literally saw the same cookware stand 9 times). But! We did see, quite possibly, the cutest thing in the entire world. After walking through the cow barn, we decided to catch our breath and watch Llama livestock judging -- junior division. And by junior division, I mean ages 2(!!) -7.

Now, you don't give your 2-year old just any llama to show. It's best if the llama is rather old, fat and easy-going. It was so ridiculously cute watching this little guy lead a half-interested llama around the judging ring.

The fair also had the Texan response to the Minnesota Butterhead -- try a Texas sized Butter ROOM sculpture! A tavern scene complete with poker table, blazing fire and a bartender wooing a pretty lass. We visited the fair on day 3 of 18(??). I can only imagine how ornate this sculpture will be by the end of the fair. Very cool!

Of course, we also partook in our fair share of fairfood.

We had an absolutely amazing weekend -- but it ended way way too soon. Can't wait to have more visitors!

Love and Miss you all!!

-K&D

To the Zoo and Back

Hello All!

Happy Labor Day! I hope everybody is doing well.

Kristin and I had a (relatively) uneventful week this past week, so we decided to spice it up a bit over the weekend. Now we only took one bike down to Waco with us, so on Friday night we went out to the local Sports Authority. We figured they'd have a better quality bike than, say, Walmart. Of course, most of the bikes were in the $ 300 to $500 area, but we found a bargain bike for Kristin for under $200.

Anywho, with the addition of a 2nd bicycle to our family, we were able to get out and see some more of our new city. There is a lovely paved path that runs along the Brazos River that stretches from Baylor campus to the downtown area. From there we were only a few blocks from Cameron Park. The park is quite extensive and has Mountain Biking paths, walking trails, and Frisbee Golf, but the biggest attraction at the park is the Zoo.

Cameron Park Zoo has to be the best small town Zoo I have ever seen. I don't think its as large as the Minnesota Zoo, but I think it definitely tops the Como Zoo. K and I paid $7 each to get in, and I think we must have spent three or four hours looking at all of the exhibits. The zoo was basically a large circle, so you couldn't really choose your own path, but we hardly noticed because the exhibits were laid out in a very logical progression. There was quite a bit of shade throughout the park, and there were a number of in-doors exhibits along the way that helped keep us cool.

So what did we see? Well, the basics: Big Cats, Giraffes, Rhinos, Turtles (actually a Snapping Turtle that looked like he could snap my Femur in half...), Fish, Snakes, Birds and an Orangutan. They didn't really have any aquatic mammals, but it wasn't a let down, by any means. We did get to get a good look at a number of Snakes that we hope to never encounter while here in Texas...

We kept seeing words like "Venomous" and "American Southwest" on quite a few more windows that I'd have hoped for.

In any case, we had a good time out at the zoo and in Cameron Park, but we were a bit sore getting back on our bicycles for the ride home. However, the startings of a rain storm were in the air, and that helped us to tap our zeal and find some endurance to bike the three miles home :)

I hope you all have a lovely Labor Day Weekend!

DJC