Today we traveled from coooold Texas to a slightly warmer Southern California to spend the holidays at my folks’ house. The flight was delayed by about a half an hour, but other than that went smoothly. If you travel between Austin and Los Angeles, I highly recommend flying JetBlue from Long Beach. You can avoid the madhouse that is LAX, and if you are on the south side of town, you can avoid a bit of traffic too! Plus JetBlue is a great airline, with lots of freebies such as free movies, free WiFi, snacks, and soft drinks.
When we spend Christmas in Los Angeles, we ship most of our gifts directly to my parents’ house so we have a pile of boxes waiting for us. Today we’ll go through them, wrap them up, and then have some free time. In fact, we don’t have much on the schedule this time. It’s nice to just play it by ear!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/20 sec, ISO3200 “Modern Vintage” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！How’s it going? Here in central Texas, not only has it gotten colder, but it’s also gotten wetter, with a light rain all afternoon. It looks like it will continue all weekend as well. I’m glad we don’t have outdoor activities planned! 🌧
Today’s photo is of the three postcards I bought at the Panther Junction Visitor Center in Big Bend National Park. I love the vintage design of these! So when I took the photo, I decided to post-process using one of Nik Software’s vintage camera presets. I like the way it came out. 😊
In looking at the designs, I realized that I took some photos of the same subjects or locations. I posted these before, but I thought it was neat to match them up with the postcards – the Rio Grande, the Milky Way, and Casa Grande.
While on the travel subject, I have to admit that I have been getting into watching YouTube videos about minimalist travel, gear, and packing. It’s so fascinating to me! It’s funny, but minimalist travel, backpacking, and motorcycle travel all have similar recommendations, most notably to use synthetic or merino wool clothing (not cotton!), dress with layers in mind, and don’t overpack!
As some of you may know, I love bags and backpacks, and I’ve been searching for the perfect backpack. I pretty much found the perfect (for me) messenger bag in the Patagonia Minimass, but I haven’t found a backpack that I really love. I think I am going to sell my North Face Router and Jansport Hatchet, and pick up an Osprey Porter 30. It looks like a perfect travel backpack! But we’ll see. It’s fun to do the research at least. 😄
Today was the final day of our road-trip out to the Big Bend area of Texas. At the semi-last-minute, we decided to visit the Caverns of Sonora, which were on the way home. But first, it was a 3-hour drive to get there… 🚗 Grey clouds and no sky, but no traffic!
We read some really good reviews at Trip Advisor so we were confident that it would be worth our while, and I’m happy to report that it was a really cool activity! We took the regular tour, which lasted a good hour and 45 minutes, and learned a lot about the history of the cave and the cavers who explored the caverns. Those explorers were very brave, and also very crazy!
The caverns and the rock and mineral formations were incredible, and we saw some types that we didn’t see at Carlsbad Caverns, or perhaps they simply weren’t pointed out to us there. What I thought was most amazing were the super-long soda-straw stalactites. I don’t remember seeing anything like that before at the caves we visited previously. (sorry, no pic of these)
After visiting the caverns, we ate an early dinner before hitting the road again for the final 3-hour drive back home. We arrived safely, not too late (8:30 PM), and now it’s time to relax and catch up with the cats. 🐱
It was another memorable Thanksgiving road-trip, and I’m already looking forward to our next one… but where will we go? 😜
We spent today traveling the triangle of Fort Davis, Alpine, and Marfa. After a nice breakfast at the B&B, we made the 30-minute drive to Alpine to get two new tires for the Prius, then headed to Marfa to see the town. One of the highlights was grabbing coffee ☕ at Do Your Thing. It’s a really cool little coffee and toast place, with a nice atmosphere and yummy drinks. Worth stopping by!
Unfortunately, our time in Marfa didn’t extend into the evening, so we weren’t able to see the famed Marfa Lights. We did stop at the viewing station since it was on the main highway. Maybe some day (night) we’ll be back to experience it.
After Marfa, it was back to Alpine to visit the Big Bend Brewing Company for a flight of beer 🍺. The people there are cool and friendly and it was nice to drop in for a little while.
Lunch in Alpine today meant a visit to Cow Dog, which is a food truck with maybe 15 different kinds of hot dogs. Delicious and messy! 🌭 Gourmet hot dogs. Recommended!
The last planned activity of our vacation was a visit to the McDonald Observatory. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy and rainy 🌧, so we weren’t able to look through the telescopes at the Star Party. 💫 But there were alternate programs offered which were really interesting and fun. I actually thought these were a good complement to the traditional Star Parties, so I think we lucked out on the weather!
We did a lot today, but it was relaxed and relatively stress-free… just the way a vacation should be. Even though we ran into snags with the weather and flat tire, everything worked out in the end. 😄
Today was our last day at Big Bend National Park and we decided to check out the east part of the park. On the way there we stopped at the Panther Junction Visitor Center and bought a new National Park Passport book. In it, you can collect stamps from all the parks you visit. In the photo below, you can see Bay and Mariko stamping our books. It’s a fun activity, and we hope to add many more stamps in the future!
Next we headed to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook, where you can look across the Rio Grande into Mexico. At the parking lot there were a bunch of handcrafts for sale, and you can leave money in a container for whatever you might pick out. However, it’s not legal to buy these since they are technically considered contraband. But it was interesting to see how the border in Big Bend is just a small river, which can be easily crossed.
Our next stop was the hot springs ♨, which is just a short 1.5 mile drive on a gravel road to the trailhead, then a 15 minute hike to the springs. Along the way, there are “ruins” from when the area was a bit of a resort back in the 40s. Also you can view some petroglyphs and pictographs along the wall next to the trail.
Before long we found ourselves at the actual hot springs. I had changed into some shorts so that I could try the waters. I mean, why not, right? The springs were not too hot, but pleasant and I could have soaked in them for a while, but since I was the only one in our group who wanted to get wet, I only sat in the springs for a few moments.
Finally it was time to leave Big Bend National Park, but not without a little excitement. On the road out of the park, we got a flat tire. Luckily, putting on the spare went without a hitch (and Bay helped me!) and we were back on the road in no time. Toyota recommends a maximum speed of 50 MPH on the spare, so it was slow going to our next stop, Fort Davis.
We arrived at our Bed and Breakfast at around 5 PM, got settled in our room and then headed for the one restaurant in town that was open on Thanksgiving – Blue Mountain Bistro. Mariko and the boys enjoyed nice turkey dinners with all the trimmings, and I opted for the Beef Bourguignon. It was all delicious and we left satisfied. Plus there was live acoustic guitar music which gave it a wonderful atmosphere. 🎸🎶
Thanksgiving 2016 was a memorable one for us, and I have to say that I am thankful for the chance to visit our country’s amazing National Parks 🌵🌲 and make good memories with my family. 😊
I hope you had a nice day too!
おやすみなさい！
– B
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
