Austin, TX Sept. 6

Here is a picture on the way to my friend Grace's house. Its quite a view overlooking the 360 bridge in west Austin. Behind me is the Colorado river.

Here is a view of lake Travis from Grace's dad's backyard pool. In the past 10 years or so, the lake has slowly gone down. The peninsula in the middle didn't used to be there.

Here is a view of the house from the middle of the lake. I took it with my super cool water prof camera. The water line used to go all the way up to the green foliage about 1/4 of the way down the picture.

This lake is where Grace grew up and she still likes to swim in it today.

This is a picture of Mansfield dam that keeps lake Travis a lake.

Here's a picture of the dam on the other side. It can also be seen here from street view in Google maps.

One of Grace's dogs.

These are Grace's chickens. I was surprised at how tame they were; they never pecked and...

...you could even pick them up. Their feathers are softer than you might think. They also lay eggs which Grace was kind enough to use one day to make me a great breakfast!

Here is the chicken coup that they stay in. One of the chickens already got eaten by a coyote in the past year so its safer for them to stay in here.

6th st in Austin is the place to go for night life. Ritz is a famous comedy club on said street. It was built in 1929. While down town I also saw Congress Ave. Bridge, home to may thousands of bats.

One night I stayed at McKinney falls state park, they have these old Indian Shelters that were along the trail that were pretty cool. You can see that they are pretty tall from my dad standing in one.

One of the coolest things in Texas state parks (I think) is that fishing is free with admission price.

One of the things that not so cool is the thunder storms that interrupt your fishing. Dad and I had to stay under another Indian shelter to wait for the storm to pass. The rain is peaceful when it hits the pond though.

Here is a picture of Dad and I in front of and old bald cypress tree. According to the website: "The park is also home to 'Old Baldy', one of the oldest bald cypress trees on public land in Texas. The tree is estimated to be more than 500 years old. Its 103 feet tall, its trunk circumference measures 195 inches, and its diameter is 60.5 inches."

Another cool thing about the park was its solar panels that power the entrance gate/store. The rangers told me that they actually sell power back to the grid. The system consists of two 5000 kw units (with their own panels, inverter, monitor, ect.) and one 7000 kw section. They even have a link where you can see the system data in real time (scroll down and click on "McKinney Falls State Park Headquarters Sunny Web Portal").