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| On their way home from San Antonio, Martha and Craig met us for brunch in Austin. We had to go to Kerbey Lane, of course, for the true Austin vibe. Afterwords, we walked next door to Drumz,where a drum circle greets the full moon each month. |
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| Martha, Papa Tom, and me with the Buddha wearing shades in the shade. |
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| Tom and I buzzed over to Shreveport on Wednesday night so we could spend Thursday morning with Dad and Charles. We stayed at the Horseshoe Casino and Resort and Papa Tom won enough at blackjack in about 15 minutes to cover our hotel room. Way to go, Papa Tom! |
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| Flash joined our family on Friday, September 15, 2017. Fox wanted a guinea pig, like Moe, the guinea pig in her classroom. I tried really, really hard to talk her into a Beta fish. She found a very pretty Beta fish, but couldn't be persuaded. Flash is as cute as a guinea pig, don't you think? |
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| After school on Monday, we built a Lego playground for Flash, complete with a slide and a see-saw. He's only allowed out of the cage in the playroom, with the doors to the kitchen and outside shut tight. So far, he's only leaped from our hands about three times, usually hiding under the mini-fridge or bunk bed. The first time, we left the top of the cage open and sure enough, after dark, he climbed right inside for dinner. Papa Tom spied him and snapped the cage lid shut while Flash was happily spinning on his wheel. |
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| There's a brief time early in the morning when the night-blooming moon flowers and day-blooming morning glories are open at the same time. |
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| When we water, bees abandon the blooms until the spraying stops. |
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| While Papa Tom gathered information about fig trees, Fox fished for the quarter she'd made her wish with. She tossed it in the fountain twice more, giving the wish triple power. |
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| Fox and I got to meet Clifford the Big Red Dog at the book fair. |
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| Papa Tom and Fox, with what's left of her fish burger. That's a spaceship made from the empty tater tot containers. |
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| Fox and friends: Apollo and Knox |
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| At the Thinkery, Fox turned and turned a crank to make a water spout. |
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| What happens when your buddy fills a container to the tipping point? |
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| Everyone gets wet! |
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| Sweet as a beet |
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| Our Wednesday after-school activity was to go to the farmers market at the Triangle, where Fox was enchanted by the beets. |
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| Next to the farmers market is a splash pad and, it being a warmish day, Fox was all about getting in the water. |
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| She was soaked through and through! |
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| Friends Jimmy and Sharon gave us a book of Sudoku puzzles to try out. I'm still flummoxed by the one-star (easiest) puzzles. Papa Tom, being the accountant type, had to go for the hardest puzzle level. Using his own method of inserting variables in each box then eliminating them one by one, he successfully completed a four-star puzzle the first time out. Okay, so Papa Tom's new name is "Sudoku Man." |
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| We drove from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Austin on September 1. Our concern? That panicked runs on gas stations would leave us stranded somewhere north and west of Austin. We stopped for gasoline in small towns along the way. Didn't see bags over pumps until Brownwood, about 140 miles from Austin. We filled up one last time in Lampasas, about 70 miles out. This bag was over the diesel pump there. |
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| Gas run at Austin's Costco on September 2. Ironically, one of the vehicles in line is the fuel truck. |
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| After falling into the parallel universe from the ordinary house, you encounter things like these strange sculptures: have we slipped into a waking dream? I couldn't photograph perhaps the most interesting room: the laser room. Floor to ceiling lasers of various lengths played individual musical notes when strummed. |
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| Musical bones, played with one of the mallets (see foreground) |
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| Watchful eyes in the ceiling |
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| A sea bed |
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| Tea party. All the shadows are painted on the table and wall. Not sure how you do overhead lighting to create no natural shadows. |
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| Yes, painted shadows. |
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| Papa Tom played an eerie rendition of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" on the grand piano. Eerie because it echoed through the rooms. |
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| Oddly, next to this busy room was a peaceful space with a piped in classical music/hip hop mix that was strangely relaxing to listen to. |
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| Papa Tom operating the gigantic Terminator hand. |
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| Sculpture |
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| Outside Meow Wolf |
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| At the interactive art display at Meow Wolf, you enter what appears to be an ordinary home only to discover there are passageways into a parallel universe. This one is through the living room fireplace. |
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| Or you can enter another world through the refrigerator. |
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| Or slide through the dryer. |
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| Or enter through the secret door under the stairs. Was all very strange. You'd open a closet door in a bedroom only to discover sparkling lights and weird music and a passageway to more strangeness. |
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| We were stopped briefly outside Silverton, Colorado, due to road work. We learned there are no guardrails so that snowplows can simply shove snow over the side of the mountain. The highway reaches as high as 11,000 feet. So glad to be on the mountain side of the road! |
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| Nothing like relaxing in 105 degree hot springs after a day of hiking |
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| Papa Tom lets the hot water run over him |
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| At the bottom of the Box Canyon, next to the Uncompahgre River |
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| We took the trail down from the bridge above to the Box Canyon below, where the river is a 285-foot waterfall. |
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| The falls leaving the canyon. |
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| Old mining equipment left at the bottom of the canyon in the 1960s. |
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| Papa Tom leans against rocks that are 2 billion years old. |
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| Protection from falling rocks |
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| Life finds a way |
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| Photographing the falls |
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| That rebel Papa Tom, ignoring the warning sign (but safely) |
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| Short tunnel leads from the Box Canyon trail to the Ouray perimeter trail, which runs around the entire town. Originally, the tunnel was a water pipe conduit. |
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| I'm on the trail. That's part of the handrail in the foreground. |
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| Papa Tom, on the Ouray perimeter trail side of the tunnel. |
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| That handrail isn't going any place! |
