Going batty

After a wonderful and exhausting sample of farm life it was finally time for us to hit the road. Bernie got up early to finish up her last project, a new clothes closet in the house.

Then we got ready to go. We had to say goodbye to the chickens and the cows and the dogs, and bid our farewell to our most gracious hostesses.

We went back to Austin. By then it was about time for a snack so we went to check out the cake balls on a stick at Holy Cacao. In Austin it seems pretty popular to buy a trailer and convert it into a fully functioning food mobile. They seem to be everywhere we go.

We pulled up to a long blue converted horse trailer selling tacos and a small utility trailer next door, selling cake balls on a stick. The cake balls are the size of golf balls and are made with the frosting in the batter. We tried the peanut butter and the red velvet. Then we split a chocolate shake with a cake ball in it. This was very yummy. www.theholycacao.com

Then we went to Mount Bonnell where we climbed all 99 steps to the top for a panoramic view of the city skyline in one direction and Lake Austin in the other. Actually the website said 99 steps but we only counted 90 steps to get to the top, maybe we were too out of breath to count right by the time we got to the top.






Next we went to see the bats. Austin has the largest urban bat colony in the US. At sunset the bats come out from under a huge bridge in the middle of downtown. There is a viewing area right next to the bridge and we joined about 100 other people with chairs and blankets and cameras and sat there to wait for the bats.

We had called the bat hotline first to check the time the bats take off and got there early. It was a lovely evening with a slight breeze and it was a pleasant wait. A little later the bats started their evening flight, about a million and a half bats emerging into the night, going off high into the sky, and then swooping down in huge arches. It was amazing.

When it was time for dinner we headed to the last of the local restaurants featured in the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show on the Food Network. The website says that Magnolia Café is open 24/8. It is a regular looking building on the outside but on the inside the decor is eclectic and quite interesting.

The walls are painted with wild splashes of color with local art and random objects all over. The food was pretty good. We shared the hummus quesadilla and the gorgonzola pasta with chicken. The pasta was ok but the quesadilla was delicious. www.cafemagnolia.com

Just down the street we saw the Hey Cupcake trailer and decided to have a cupcake for dessert. We didn’t know we would be going back so we didn’t have the buy-one-get-one coupon with us but they said it was not a problem. We paid for one cupcake and they handed us a box. When we looked inside the box we saw six cupcakes! It was almost closing time so maybe that worked in our favor. www.heycupcake.com

Then we headed to Walmart where we did a little shopping, got two movies from RedBox, and parked for the night. It is a warm night tonight.