Brenda and Harlan's Trip Blog

We woke up this morning (OK, it was Late morning) feeling pretty well, and headed off to Austin Java for lunch before driving around. Brenda says this is now her favorite restaurant here. We headed west toward Fredericksburg and followed the signs to the (Ladybrd Johnson) Wildlife Center. Not much was in bloom, but it was still a pleasant place. We stayed there long enough that we decided not to head to Fredericksburg today.

We headed back toward Tom and Mary’s, stopping off at the new downtown Whole Foods to pick up some supplies. That is one impressive store. We also stopped off at Fry’s Electronics on the way back to pick up a new disk drive for one of Tom’s computers. We also learned that the pictures will be ready by 3pm Saturday – if we leave before then we’ll have them mail the pictures back to us.

Doron is also visiting Tom and Mary this weekend (Doron worked with Tom and Harlan at Trilogy here in Austin, several years ago), and we all chatted a bit in the evening.

We’re surprised at how tired we got after walking around the wildlife center – Brenda is considering taking another day to try and regain more energy (several friends have said they had this bug, and while they got over their symptoms in 2-3 weeks’ time, it took longer for them to get back to full strength).

Brenda and Harlan finished their laundry and began preparing to leave. If we feel up to it we’ll take off tomorrow (Saturday), otherwise we’ll see how we feel on Sunday.

We woke up and headed to The Kitchen Door for lunch, on the way to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and perhaps a quick tour of Fredericksburg. We took a roll of film at the park (it’s been left in the night slot for development) but got to Fredericksburg too late to visit there. On the way back we saw more bison, along with Texas Longhorn cattle, goats, sheep, llamas, deer, and other critters. We’re planning to go back again tomorrow, and visit some other places along the way.

We tried to have dinner at Stubbs but with SXSW in full swing the entire area was mobbed so we went to Asti’s instead, followed by La Dolce Vita for dessert. On the way back to Tom and Mary’s we dropped the film off for developing.

We’re now chatting with Mary and thinking about watching South Park in a minute or so.

We finished some leftovers for breakfast and headed over to Cheapos to see if we could find any more CDs to listen to for the rest of the trip. We picked up a handful (anybody care what we got?) and headed over to Crescent City Beignets since we missed stopping in New Orleans.

Brenda napped again in the afternoon, and we chatted with Mary into the evening.

Brenda says she is feeling better, maybe 90%.

We woke up and had breakfast at The Original Pancake House. From there we headed over to Nature’s Treasures, to see if they had any rocks, minerals, crystals, etc. that we liked. We each bought several items. It was Brenda’s first time at the shop, and she really enjoyed it.

After that, we headed home for naps, then had dinner with Mary and chatted and watched TV.

Brenda had a sore/dry throat this morning, but it got better. She slept late.

Harlan had a “working” lunch with Nancy Pierson, which involved a Bowen treatment for his shoulder.

The afternoon was restful, and Harlan upgraded the blog software.

We spent the evening with Mary, chatting and watching TV.

It looks like we’ll be here at least a few more days’ time.

More relaxing today, and we left the house in the afternoon to see some wildflowers and visit the giant new Whole Foods in the center of town. Very impressive store.

Brenda got tired after the shopping and decided to stay in and nap while Harlan, Tom, and Mary met with Richard (who worked with Tom) for dinner at Houstons. After dinner we all came back to the house for conversation.

Had brunch with Tom at “Manny Hattans”, a NY deli near the house. This is pretty much the first time Brenda has been out of the house in nearly a week. Great weather again today.

The CD scan of the first of two rolls of recently-developed film finally uploaded, so there are now 2 new pictures in the “Starved Rock” album, along with a bunch of new pictures in the “Chimney Rock” and “Pinehurst” albums.

The pictures from the 2nd roll should finish uploading by later tonight and I’ll get those posted when I can.

OK, the 2nd roll is done. New pictures in “Corkscrew Swamp” and at the end. I’m having problems learning to focus the new camera for things that are relatively close. It may also be because I am using a slower-speed film as in sufficient light it gives much better color and “grain”.

Another day of R&R. Brenda is continuing to improve, and still takes frequent naps and eats
healthy stuff.

Harlan picked up the pictures today (more from Chimney Rock and Pinehurst, and also Corkscrew)
and they are taking a while to upload (they are Big). Some of the pictures were not in the best
focus, probably because the light was a bit low and therefore the depth-of-field wasn’t very
“deep”. But you will get to judge soon.

Brenda still wants to rest, reflect and get well.

Harlan visited with some friends today.

Another day of R&R for Brenda. Harlan dropped off some film and a local camera store so there might be more pictures to upload this weekend.