McKinney Falls

Saturday, in celebration of Brendon finishing up the semester and his last year of actual classroom instruction (WOO!) we went to McKinney Falls State Park. We'd been before, but it had been a couple years. I love this park because it is so close to the city but you feel so far away. It's the shortest trip ever for us, and it's a really lovely escape. Although it was beautiful, the water level was pretty dang low. There were less "falls" and more trickles. We need rain! Badly! It's been doing this awful "tease rain" where it will just be misty and nasty and unbearably humid, but not actually rain. Supposedly it will actually rain tonight (and then cool down to the 60's!). Keep your fingers crossed, we do need it badly! But like I said, falls or no falls, it's a beautiful place.

We hiked around a bit, did some trail running (almost died from the heat), and then piddled around in the water. And I got a horrendous sunburn on my shoulders. SUNSCREEN. I NEED TO USE IT. I am far to pale to be outdoors without it.

It was a really lovely little escape. We actually purchased a Texas State Park Pass for the year, so we will be able to do this more often! There are so many great State Parks around us, and we went to a ton last summer, we figured it was worth it just to get the pass. Everyone in your car gets in for free, so we just needed one for the two of us. And you get discounts on camping! We plan on making use of our pass, even if it just means heading to McKinney Falls a whole bunch. It's close enough to just scoot over there for an evening run! And really, with all the awesome state parks near us, we have no excuse not to use the pass. Last summer was "small town summer", this might be "state park summer"! Brendon has just over a month off this summer, so we've got to make use of it!

And because I know you've always wanted to know what me jumping across rocks looks like:

Unsurprisingly, it's incredibly awkward!