Wimberely, TX

Brendon and I had this weekend off together!!! Well mostly off, I had inventory Sunday night, but most of it was off with Brendon. This is a rarity you guys! Getting our schedules to mesh well is hard, and I write mine. Coffee shop hours match no ones hours unfortunately. So we took advantage of this off time and decided to go on a little day trip. Originally we wanted to go to Shiner, TX to tour the brewery but they don't do tours on the weekends. What's up with that, Shiner? After beer rejected us, Brendon suggested Wimberley and boom, an adventure was born. Wimberley is a small resort/touristy town less than an hour Southwest of Austin. And it just so happened that Saturday was the first Saturday of the month and a Wimberley Market Day! I've heard of this market day business, but had never been. It's basically like a giant garage sale/craft fair/flea market. It was great. So much stuff to look at. Also, if you're in the market for Pyrex, good lord this is the place to find it. I actually didn't purchase any because there was no thrill of the hunt. It was everywhere.

For my daddio.

Forgive all the photos of me. For once, all the photos in our batch of Brendon are blurry! I'm sorry Mr. Hogan, that's what I get for talking smack about your photo skills. I dropped the bomb this trip.

After meandering through thousands of booths, we checked out the little downtown area, which is right next to Cyprus Creek, so pretty! We grabbed some grub on the patio at a little place called Ino'z, which was surprisingly delicious. I love how green everything is here in Texas. So often everything is dried out and dead, it's lovely to see all the plants thriving from this recent rain. Keep it up weather, we need more water!

It was a wonderful day with my favorite human. Exploring places with Brendon is the best and greatest. Wimberley, you're cute! I can't wait to do this again soon. Small Texas towns, the Hogans are coming for you. Nearby states, you ought to beware as well.

McKinney Falls

Yesterday Brendon and I went on a little adventure to McKinney Falls State Park. It's a super cool (and seriously beautiful) park just south east of Austin... actually, it's in Austin. It took us like 15 minutes to get there.

I used to go there a lot growing up, so it was neat to come back and check it out. Not much has changed!

Onion Creek runs through the park and over these giant limestone rock formations. And by giant I mean like football field size giant. And there are water falls! And you can swim! It's seriously worth checking out if you are in the Austin area and like outdoorsy type stuff. The hike and bike trails are legit too.

We did a little hiking and little swimming. Actually a lot of hiking... because we got lost. We wandered all over that park accidentally. But the scenery was great, the weather was perfect, and the company was pretty good so we didn't mind too much. We found our way back to our car eventually.

Cactus everywhere! Brought back memories of running into them throughout my childhood. I want to say I fell into one while hopping a fence once. Pretty Texan of me eh? 

Legit swimmin' hole.

 A rather large rock.

The trails were beautiful. Everything was so green! I'm glad we got a chance to go before the heat kills everything off. I'm hoping for a wetter summer than last year. Our poor plants need it!

Just chillin' on a cliff. I only lasted a minute or so before my fear of heights got the best of me. Thanks for taking 100 pictures of the back of me, Mr. H.

I think at this point we were lost for sure and a tad bit hot and sweaty.

After we finally made it back to our car, we changed into our swimmin' suits and headed into the water to cool off.

Brendon did a little cliff jumping. I did not. I have a teensy weensy (huge) fear of water, especially water that has living things in it. Heights + water = NOPE.

This picture cracks me up. All I can think of is brachiation (click here for a good example of what that is). Thanks physical anthropology classes! I am a huge nerd. I miss studying primates!

My super cool water shoes. They may look horrendous, but they work wonders.

 Carefully testing out the water.

This was the extent of my water excursion. While I was chillin' in the shallows, Brendon called out "vampiro!" (vampire in Spanish). THANKS BABE.

We had a blast on our little adventure! Minus the gazillion bug bites I came home with. I can't wait to do this again, but I'm afraid soon it will be a little too hot to safely hike around for a hours. Heat exhaustion is not on my to-do list. Keeping my fingers crossed for a mild summer full of rain!