A Mini Vacation

Sarge had some business to take care of in Austin last week, so we turned it into a mini family vacation (hey, if the hotel and gas are paid for you need to take advantage of it =))  And since it was Junior's birthday, he thought we planned it all for him ;)

What was waiting to greet us when we got into our room- which was a really nice suite with a full kitchen!

Hmmm...  Almost looks like Sarge is waiting for a pedicure ;)

In the pool.  Surprisingly, it wasn't unbearable being outside and the water was actually cool.

Slinging it with Sweet Pea.

Friday morning (which just happened to be Junior's 7th! birthday)  We ventured downtown to the Childrens' Museum.  Of course this was Squish Bear's favorite part...

It was fun until other kids started coming up and taking the trains away from them.  Um, what ever happened to parents teaching their kids to wait their turn and to share?

Not sure what this was called, but when you hit the top (colored part) of the pipe, it made music.  I'm thinking Papa needs to build the kids one of these lol!

Excavating...

And building

The sign says "Build Your Dream House"  Squish Bear was having fun.

Girly- girl was doing a little roofing.

Hanging out in the "clubhouse"

Girly- girl's turn

And Junior's turn to do some roofing.

Sarge called us shortly before lunchtime to tell us he was finished for the day.  So we headed over to the base to pick him up.  As we were driving around, we saw an outdoor museum with some planes and helicopters.  Then we got to this one...

And couldn't believe how "real" it looked.  Then we saw the pilot get in.  And a few minutes later, we were able to watch this...

 

As we were leaving the parking lot, we noticed a lot of DPW vehicles sitting nearby.  And then we heard another helicopter and got to watch the DPW helicopter land.

This base also had a museum, so we headed over there to see what they had.  We were impressed.  It was the largest museum that we've seen at a base- course, I haven't been to too many bases, so I'm comparing it to Ft McCoy ;)

The museum covered different battles from the Alamo up through Vietnam.  We found this sign hanging in the WWII area.

I didn't take too many pictures in the museum.  I can only stand to have so many tanks, armored vehicles and other such military items rotating through my screen saver.  But, I did get some pictures of the kids in the "interactive" displays.

In the cockpit.

Sarge explaining how to fly.

Girly- girl's turn.

Although they can wear Sarge's uniforms when ever they want, these were much more entertaining.

It was so heavy that Squish Bear couldn't keep it on.

Future helicopter pilot?

Sarge explaining all about the mess vehicle and how cool it would be to have so of the items for a camping trip.

On the way out of town, we stopped at Inner Space Caverns.  It was first discovered in 1963 by highway crews drilling to put supports in for I35.

I didn't take too many pictures because, well, because it's a cave and it's dark =)

Junior thought the best part was seeing the bats flying around inside- we got to see one "wake up" and start flying.  Girly- girl and Squish Bear liked it best when we were done.  And Sweet Pea slept through the whole thing.  

It's always neat to see the different formations, but very disappointing that they have to push the "millions of years" script.  We counted at least 10 times that the tour guide contradicted himself on dates, how they date cave formations and the "prehistoric" animals.  Why can't they just admit that they don't know how long it takes for things to form and that the rate it forms at varies because of different water and mineral levels?

All in all it was a good trip, but I was happy to get home.  And now we're looking forward to (relatively) cooler weather this weekend.  It might only be in the 90's!