July has been a stupendous month. Lots of outdoor-ing. We've visited Blanco State Park multiple times to swim, including for my birthday weekend. I sure do like that park. Angela came up for my birthday, along with my family. We grilled, karaoked, and went spelunking. Well, not really, but whatever. The day after my birthday, we decided to day trip to Boerne to check out Cascade Caverns. Lily had never been to a cave before, and with 100+ degree weather outside, the prospect of a 60 degree temperature in the cave sounded just right.
The drive wasn't too bad & we listened to MBMBaM (My Brother, My Brother, and Me for those of you that don't know - check them out, it's a hilarious podcast). We got to the cave just in time to catch the 2PM tour. Lily was hesitant at first as we entered, but she ended up really enjoying herself (minus when they turned the lights off). She saw bats hanging from the ceiling and got cave kisses and saw a waterfall. She even walked the majority of the way without falling on her ass. Ben can't say the same, as he slipped within the first five minutes. We had lunch in Boerne after the tour and headed back home.
Last night, we decided to head to Old Tunnel State Park to finally check out the bat emergence. Old Tunnel is just what its name indicates - an old, abandon railroad tunnel. It is home to about 3 million Mexican free-tailed bats that emerge nightly from May to October. We arrived at about 6:30PM, not worried about getting in to the Lower Viewing area (which sells out quickly) because kiddos ages 3 and under aren't allowed there anyways (BUT NEXT YEAR IT'S ON). By the time we got there, the Lower Viewing area was indeed sold out and we found a nice seat in the Upper Viewing area bleachers. It was hot and Lily got a bit antsy, but one of the volunteers chatted with us for a while about bats and answered questions while we awaited the emergence to begin. Finally, at 7:25PM, the bats started to come out and holy hell, it was SO COOL. It was 20 minutes of bats spiraling out of the tunnel, creating dark clouds in the sky from where we were and beyond.
Up next on our state parks list: Inks Lake & Longhorn Cavern.