McKinney Falls State Park

Just south of Austin, near the airport, is a great state park.  John had camped there with the Scouts last year, and wanted to take our kids to ride bikes.  We packed up the bikes and lunch, and headed out.  Two waterfalls make for great scenery, but since the water is low, they are really just trickles and we could walk all the way across without getting wet.  During the summer, people jump off the falls into the pools below.

Standing on top of the falls

More wildlife--the turtles like to sun themselves on the rock.

On the ledge overlooking the pool

The waterfall is pitted with holes from the water constantly running over.  Some are large, some are small, some still had water in them like a tidepool.

Riding off on the bike path.

We rode two different bike paths.  One was easy and paved, one was more difficult single-track.  I was proud of the kids--Ellie and Seth don't even have gears, but they managed just fine over tree roots and up and down hills.  Sometimes we had to walk the bikes, but we had a great adventure. 

John stopped the kids partway through and said, "Was that hard?  See, you can do hard things."  Always a teaching moment!  I wish John could just retire and be on vacation every day forever!  I guess we'll just have to make the best of the rest of the year while he's off.