In which Holly and I drive to Austin for a mini family reunion. The part of Austin we’re staying in is like a giant construction site littered with insanely loud bars. I like to refer to it as Hell. Luckily we can easily walk from Hell to the river and to other places, which is helpful because Holly refuses to poop in Hell.
Other than the noisiness of the area we’re staying in, mitigated by serious insulation and a noise canceling machine courtesy of guest services, everything is quite lovely. Seeing the family is really nice, and I have made a very cool new friend: my six-year-old niece whom I last saw when she was a baby. It turns out she’s super sweet yet delightfully spunky, and she really likes me. She held my hand the whole evening, wanted to sit by me at dinner, and shares my fascination with grackles among other things. Together we went to see the bats. They took a while to appear from under the South Congress Bridge so we watched a whole bunch of videos about them while we waited. We both agree that bats are very very cute.
