Austin

Water World. Austin & Surrounding Areas.

in

have you ever felt like a tourist in your own city or town? i constantly find myself looking around austin in complete awe of everything it has to offer. even after three years here, the people and places continue to amaze me. do i really live in this dream world? from swimming in barton springs to grabbing a coffee at brew & brew, i feel like i'm on vacation everyday(and thats saying a lot since i do have a full time job). these feelings were amplified two weeks ago when an old friend came down to austin from portland, maine. 

she spent the night in an airport due to severe thunderstorms, i blew out my tire an hour before i was supposed to pick her up, the normally bright blue texas sky was under a thick cover of grey clouds, but the string of bad luck leading up to her visit wasn't going to stop us from making it the best weekend ever. 

from the moment she rolled into town until her early morning flight home, we were nonstop. friends, food, drinks, hiking and a lot of swimming. 

a secret swimming hole, barton springs, commons ford and inks lake. our days were based around staying cool and having fun. i usually get burnt out showing people around austin and the surrounding areas, but when it came time for her flight home i didn't want the weekend to end. i was doing the same things i normally do when i stay in town, but it felt like i was on a vacation as well. the feeling of pure amazement and enjoyment in your own city is a beautiful thing and i'm happy that austin can still offer that to me. 

 

check out kanya's adventures in maine by clicking here. http://www.hillsandtrailsco.com/

Field Trip - Lake Travis Low Water Crossing

in

in general we are solitary people, prefering to enjoy travels and trips by our lonesome. we've learned that friendships can be messy and frustrating and over time have found it much less stressful to only count on each other. but every once in a while someone comes into your life that you just feel at ease with, from day one ryan (brotherstories.com) has been that person to us. a man genuinely interested in the best for those around him, he has a keen sense of adventure, and a way with words i can only someday hope to attain. this past saturday we spent some time exploring the banks of the colorado river directly south of lake travis. climbing trees, feeding birds and drinking brews, i couldn't ask for a better day. and therein lies the beauty of his friendship; it can be light or it can be heavy, but it is always meaningful. 

Reflections

we’re back! jeremy and i have taken a brief, but much needed break from exploring. there have been lots of ups and downs lately but we have been reminded of how together we always come out on top, even better than before. we have stepped outside of our comfort zone and included ourselves in new communities and have met some great new folks around town. this is super important to us as we seem to only stick around this amazing city to work and sleep. any chance we get, we are on the road.

this past weekend marked my twenty fifth birthday. it was a long weekend for us which would usually mean driving until our eyes begin to shut and sleeping in our car. as much as i love to call walmart parking lots our home sometimes, spending my birthday enjoying the “little things” couldn’t have been more perfect. we stopped at a few of my favorite coffee shops, enjoyed the autumn sunshine, had a cozy backyard campfire and ate lobster rolls for dinner (my favorite!).

last year, i made a list of twenty four goals i wanted to accomplish before i turned twenty five. i did achieve many of those goals, but some were left unfinished and some even completely forgotten about. i am usually one to beat myself up for incomplete goals, but this year i have decided to make that goal number one; to not be so hard on myself. at first i was pretty bummed that, for example, my goal of creating a small series of drawings was left undone; but then i got to thinking about how much i have learned, especially more recently, about myself, about my husband and about our marriage.