Longhorn Cavern

Thursday evening, Matthew came back from the hike with a major pain in his leg. He took off his shoes and his shin and knee were quite swollen. He didn't remember spraining it, or doing anything weird during the hike so we gave him some aspirin and sent him to bed, hoping that things would be better in the morning. While they weren't worse, they weren't really better either. So Matthew decided to stay at the house while the rest of us went to Vanishing Lake River Cruise for a few hours kayaking on Lake Buchanan. But before we left for our morning adventure, I first had to make a detour to M&M donuts. I saw the google page which featured a large variety of mouth-watering donuts. From the famous Cro-donut to the maple-bacon donut, to the large variety of toppings. It looked absolutely delicious. Imagine my disappointment when I arrived and they only had the most basic flavors and only a small number of them. Never has the promise and the production been so far apart in a donut shop. Nevertheless, donuts are donuts and still always good. The kids didn't even know they were supposed to be disappointed.

With that out of the way, the five of us went to get our kayaks. Disappointment struck again! When we arrived, the captain took a look at our 2 little girls and said that we didn't want to get on the lake. It was too windy and the water was only slightly above freezing. Even if we did manage to keep from tipping over and catching hypothermia, we would be fighting the wind and waves the entire time. Upon his recommendation, we declined to set out on the lake and the captain kindly refunded our money.

But what to do now? We were directed to keep driving until we came to Canyon of the Eagles. This resort in the Texas Hill County offers a nice place to stay near the lake, with a restaurant, hiking trails, kayaking, RV & tent camping, and a observatory. We took some trails for a quick hike, climbed some rocks, and listened to Julia and Joanna perform on stage while the rest of us enjoyed a picnic lunch.

After that, we drove back to the house to pick up Matthew. Our other reservation for the day was at Longhorn Cavern State Park. This was the closest state park to our house in Kingsland which is why we were able to fit both events into one day. The cavern was a project of the famous CCC. Back in the day, it was a cave that was filled with loose rock. So the CCC set about to remove as much loose rock from the cave as possible, and we get to reap the benefits of that grueling work today. One thing that stood out was that back in the 1940s it operated as a restaurant and dance hall. They had replica posters of the restaurant inviting people to dress their best and dance to the Big Band music that would be playing deep in the cave. Before it became a State Park, it was also a popular date location, and there were several places where couples had carved their names into the rock. Our guide was full of groan worth puns, but it certainly kept the audience entertained.

We were one of the last tours for the day, so once it was over we had just enough time to buy our magnet and get out before the place closed. That got us home for our last night in Kingsland. After dinner, we enjoyed a game of Pandemic (except Julia who declared that this "wasn't her favorite") and on Stacy's recommendation watched Richie Rich. A cute movie that the kids enjoyed a great deal.