batshit crazy

i'm not yet done recapping texas.  almost, but not quite.

on the day before we were to head home, we decided to take a road trip and drove three hours down to see austin.  hey, why not?  and with FIL super busy at work, we scooped up MIL to come check it out with us.  we took two cars, and on the way down were treated to periodic sightings such as this:

don't mess.

we hit a bit of traffic, but found ourselves in downtown austin around 6pm.

they had a food truck lot!

priceline came through for us here in texas, too.  for $100, we scored on the four-star hyatt.  yay!

not knowing what else to do with our group of assorted ages, we followed the concierge's suggestion of checking out the flurry of bats that took off from a nearby bridge at sunset.  yeah, we drove for three and a half hours to look at BATS.

the river was lovely, though.  we were a little bummed to learn that the boat tours to watch the bats were full, and the boats and kayaks for rent had closed up shop for the night.  poor bean.  "i want to be the captain of a boat, mom!"  next time.

not to mention, we'd been warned that the people who waited below the bridge on the lawn, and sometimes the folks who watched the spectacle from the water, often found themselves splattered with bat poop.  ew.  so instead, we walked the short distance up to the bridge...along with a bazillion other people.

we watched the sunset...

still no bats.

but it wasn't long before the crowd was abuzz, and the sky was soon filled with hundreds and hundreds of creepy ass flying rats.  and oh, the smell!  along with the heat and humidity, the air was heavy with the incredibly putrid odor of bat piss.  lovely.

after all the bats were gone, we trooped back down to the hotel and got in the car to find some grub.  we ended up on the south side of the city at a cute retro-looking joint called snack bar, which was right next to this sign.  the awesomely phallic shape of it had most of us cackling like 10-year-old boys.

and this, across the street.

we were up bright and early the next morning to head back to the ILs house, finish packing, return the rental cars and get ourselves to the airport.  kind of crazy considering we had a 3-hour drive and had to be at DFW by 1, but we made it.

till next time, texas.  be ready for us.

texas was poppin'

MIL had created a mental list of fun places to hit up while we were on their new home turf.  while we didn't really get to hit a lot of them (mostly due to the miserable heat and humidity - have i whined about that enough yet?), we did manage to cross off a handful of them.  one such spot was the mom and POPcorn shop, in nearby mckinney.

 

too bad for her:

one of the IL's neighbors had shared some of their flavored popcorn with them - a mix of buffalo wings and ranch.  one taste and they were hooked.  after a sample in the store, i couldn't blame them.  it was really pretty tasty.  but of course, i was enthralled with the ginormous selection of sweets.  one step in the door and i was instantly reminded of another candy shop we'd been to before, the kind of store i would love to own one day.  there was lots of nostalgic and penny candy:

 

 silly and gross-sounding stuff:

these little boxes of gum made me laugh.

there was a nice selection of classic sodas.

i thought it was neat that the little signs by the jars shared what year the classic kinds of candy made their debut.

the teen wanted to pick up one of these, but one glance at the price tag and even i balked - $5 for a bacon-flavored sucker?  no thanks.

and the good stuff - a whole bunch of different popcorn flavors, both sweet and savory.  popcorn balls, too!

we did just fine, though.  happy campers right here:

and as we toted our loot down the street to find lunch, this reminded me of "back to the future":

we'd also picked up some yummy beverages, which we popped open at the table.

as we were finishing our lunch, the bean woke up.  and since the candy shop was on the way back to the car, we stopped in so she could see it.  and she got to pick something out for herself.

this is almost embarrassing.  but you'd expect nothing less of me, right?

oh, and i made this dress, just the night before we left for our trip.  i'd seen a similar one at forever 21, but they were out of my size and i thought maybe i could figure out how to make it myself.  i know it's a little hokey looking, but hey - we were in texas.  heh.

it's comfy and it has a twirly skirt.  so there.