We fell in love with Austin. We had a sunny, warm, breezy day for exploring. We found it to be a very friendly, laid back city. Just our style! Since the dog is with us this trip, we made sure all of our stops were canine friendly. Luckily there's not a lack of pet friendly activities in this city! We began our day at the State Capital grounds.
No trip to Austin is complete without a walk through Zilker Park. We walked along part of the Barton Greenbelt trail and Zeus got to play with sooo many dogs.
We had walked several miles at that point and everyone was "absolutely starving," despite eating a bizarre amount of protein bars. Go figure. So, we went to lunch at El Arroyo, or as I told the minis, "the place with the famous signs." The patios are dog friendly, so we sat on the cool, shaded patio and ate a wonderful lunch. This was the first time the minis ate in a restaurant since February of 2020! To say they were thrilled is an understatement! All of the servers and staff are fully masked, menus are online only, and the tables are spaced out well. We felt very comfortable on this patio. Plus, you can't really go wrong with a mid-day margarita.
With our bellies full, we decided our next adventure should put us into swimming suits (someone didn't think that one through!). We hiked to a local swimming hole, Twin Falls, in Austin. The trail was wonderful! If it wasn't the end of our day, we could have easily hiked several miles of this trail (all part of the Barton Greenbelt). However, we spent a good amount of time swimming in the falls. It was the perfect way to cool down on a warm day. The middle mini was freezing, but I thought the water felt wonderful!
There was a lot more exploring we could have done, but everyone, dog included, was ready for a rest at the Airbnb. So we packed up, hiked back, and had a night of homeschool. It really was a great day! I was surprised at the amount of traffic around Austin, but it wasn't too difficult to navigate (thanks GPS). We kept Sunday open, so we may have more adventures in Austin. The minis have already asked when we can come back to Austin to visit...and we haven't even left yet!