Texas Military Forces Museum

While I am all about peace ,love and happiness, my youngest son is going through a stage (let's hope it is a stage), where his interest is war. 

And the Texas Military Forces museum in Camp Mabry is perfect for anyone mesmerized by tanks, guns or battles!

The main exhibit hall contains a variety of tanks, helicopters, planes and more that were used by Texas forces throughout history.  Some of the tanks are still running and are used in reenactments today.

The back hall contains a number of battle scene dioramas, including the Alamo.  It also has various uniforms, canons and other military stuff. There is a jet cockpit the kids can climb into, military uniforms they can try on, and information regarding some of the more recent Texas military involvements.

There is currently a temporary exhibit running through July 15th that is worth checking out.  The artist has rolled up paper for every loss of life in the War on Terror.  It is an unusual and notable memorial for our brave soldiers.



And if that wasn't enough for a battle loving boy, on the grounds of Mabry are a collection of more tanks, helicopters and jets that you can walk through!

Tips and Thoughts

The museum is only open Wednesday through Saturday

To enter Camp Mabry, you need to show an id when entering.  It is very simple to get on base, just pull into the visitor lane, show the man your idea, get directions and move on!

The museum often has group tours with helpful guides providing more information

Main Event

Today we went with friends to Main Event.  Located in North Austin, this location has just about everything to keep children entertained.  And another benefit is that it is nice and cool inside!  Perfect for the when the temperatures sky rocket outside!

It has a glow in the dark mini-golf course, lit by black lights to make everything fluoresce.  There is also a laser tag game, a sort of high-tech tag played with gun shooting lasers.  There are many lanes for bowling, a 28 foot high large rock climbing area, pool tables and bowling.  The main area also has a large arcade area with high tech virtual rides, skee ball and more.

There is also a nice cafe on site that serves burgers, pizza and even a decent salad!

A summer fun pass for $15.95 per child includes all areas except for the arcade area and will keep kids busy for at least three hours.  Add in some money for the arcade and you have a full afternoon.

Texas Memorial Museum

Our first full week back in town for summer, and K is suffering from sever allergies :o(  So, with most of our outdoor places off the list, we are hitting some indoor places.

An old favorite of ours is the Texas Memorial Museum on the UT campus.  This free science museum was built in 1939.  And with its hushed halls, it sometimes still feels like that year still inside!

This location also happens to be on the list of Texas Nature Challange, so it was perfect! We printed the challenge before we left, and headed out!

There are four floors with different exhibits. The first floor contains dinosaur fossils and other historic science items, including the 5th largest meterorite to fall in Texas. 

The second floor and main entrance has a large pterosaur, a huge blue topaz and a well stocked museum store. 

The third floor has dioramas of all different sorts of Texas wildlife, including our favorite javalina!  The boys also enjoyed the "night life" section.

And the fourth floor has an exhibit of jar specimans and an interactive exhibit called "Explore Evolution". 

We followed the questions in the Nature Challenge to lead us through al lof the halls - and learned some new things along the way!

Tips and Thoughts

This is a very simple, old-school museum.  Most visitors will tour the entire museum in one to two hours.

While the museum is free, parking is not.  The closest parking is in the San Jacinto parking garage; for a minimal $6 you can park for 2 hours.  The LBJ library parking is further away, but free.

If you were hoping to combine this trip with the LBJ exhibits as well, note that  the library is under major renovation and only a few exhibits are open

If you are participating in the Taxes Nature Challenge, the museum does not have a copy of the questions, so download and print ahead of time.  You receive your completion sticker in the museum store.

Aquarena Springs in San Marcos

Aquarena Springs is located in San Marcos at the head of the San Marcos River.  The site has more than 200 springs, and some of the clearest water around - even cleaner than our drinking water!

Previously, Aquarena Springs was an entertainment center, complete with Ralph, the Swimming Pig.  However, Texas State University recently bought this location and is transforming it into an educational center.  They are in the process of removing all of the previous buildings and even an old submarine.

The location has glass bottom boat trips available, as well as kayak rental.  These same glass bottom boats have been used since the 1950's!

Through the glass, the bubbling sprigns are visible, as well as numerous fish and turtles.  Above water, there were also a number of unusual birds, including the comorant below that we spotted during our tour!

We visited the Springs along with D's scout troop, as they worked on one of the merit badges.  The center provides many different programs for scouts to work on a variety of merit badges. 

When we visited, the center was in the middle of a major renovation, with the educational center mostly off limits.  They were still installing what looked to be a nice aquarium.  They did allow us a quick preview, thought :o)

The center was set to be fully open in June, with aquariums of creatures found in the area, including the Texas blind salamander, a rare cave dweller native to San Marcos.  This was a fun and informative visit to a neighboring ecological mecca!

Pedernales Falls

Yet another place that we have only just now visited for the first time.  I can't believe I've missed coming here all these years of living in Austin!  It has been on my list to go to for a long time, but it just seemed too far away.

We decided to check it out over the Christmas holiday and it was amazing.  Lots of hiking paths, biking trails, geocaching and more.

Fortunately, there had been a lot of rain recently, so the falls were more than a trickle!  I did hear that even in the worst of the drought, they never did dry completely!

The highlights were a cave for the boys to climb around in and a natural spring that sprung up right on the beach for them to play with.  They spent at least an hour diverting the outflow in various directions by building dams.

Not having been here is summer, I can still guess this would be a great place, though hot!  There is no swimming for two miles surrounded the falls.  A friendly ranger explained that between 1970 and 1974, 25 people drowned in the falls, and as a result they shut the falls to swimming.  Makes sense to me. 

I did ask how strictly they enforced the rule (ie, does getting wet up to your knees count as swimming?) and he seemed pretty lax.  So coming on a hot summer day, the boys could still cool off a bit wet while enjoying the falls.

Swimming is allowed in another part of the park, further away from the falls - but we didn't have a chance to explore that area as - it being winter - it wasn't a huge draw :o) 

This will be a definite add to my top 50 list, and we will definitely return in the summer for a day of biking, hiking and swimming!

Mount Bonnell

We've been to Mount Bonnell many times.  It is one of those places you just need to take visitors to Austin!  So, when K had a school project to photograph the best places to visit in Austin, one of the places he chose was here.  One hundred and five step up to one of the best views in Austin!

While this location may not be worth a trip all by itself, it is a definite side trip if visiting Laguna Gloria or Mayfield park. 

The kids love to run up and down the stairs and check out the view.  There are a couple of geocaches and there even used to be a letterbox.  It is a fun place to check out if you only have an hour!

Harvest Fun at Sweet Berry Farms

Sweet Berry Farms has been a family favorite for the last ten or more years - whether we go in the spring for strawberry picking or in the fall for their harvest fest.  Details for both are below:

Note added 4/9/15:  Strawberry season started off a little slow this year, but the strawberries are now at their peak and super abundant, so now is a perfect time to go!

Spring Picking

Enjoy family fun by picking your own fresh strawberries and blackberries at this farm just outside Marble Falls. Nothing tastes as good as fruit you have hand picked yourself and the kids love wandering through the rows looking for the biggest!

March through April is the best time to pick strawberries. Check out their website ahead of time, as they give weekly updates (daily sometimes) on how much fruit remains.

But it isn't just the opportunity to pick fruit, you can feed the goats, jump on the berry bounce or take a ride on the berry barrel train (Saturday and Sundays only)

Make sure you bring cash enough to try their homemade strawberry icecream!

June is the best time for the blackberries, but you can come as early as May. 
There will be a spring hay-field maze in May and June while the blackberries are at their peak. The location also has goats and horses for petting. So bring a lunch to enjoy under the tall pecan trees and have a wonderful time!

Spring Tips and thoughts:  

* The farm takes only cash or check.  The various activities adds up so make sure you bring enough cash!  ATMs are now available on site. Just to help you figure how much cash to bring: Strawberries are $2.85 per pound, with picking boxes (holding up to 8 pounds of strawberries) an extra $0.50 

* Bring a picnic lunch to enjoy under the tall pecan trees. 

* When planning timing, Sweet Berry is about 45 minutes outside of Austin.  


* No dogs allowed

Harvest Fest

And in the fall, they have a wonderful Fall Harvest with tons to do. 

We've have been enjoying autumn at Sweet Berry Farms for many, many years now!  I truly can't remember the first time we came, but the boys were very young.  As they have gotten older, they have enjoyed different activities -- and Sweet Berry has added more fun!

The are many things to do at Sweet Berry.  My favorite is the corn maze.  The age recommendation for this activity is 6 years and with good reason.  The maze takes a minimum of 45 minutes to complete... Our time this year was one hour and 3 minutes :o)  The owners have scattered sign posts throughout the maze, and the goal is to find all of them (ten total maybe).  We found our first six in fifteen minutes, but the last one took at least fifteen minutes to find!  Very fun! 

Note: they also have a Candy Corn maze which is much different. It is a straight-through maze with the goal of getting from beginning to end.  It takes between 5 and 10 minutes and is perfect for younger children.

This year, we had some girls along, and so I felt safe in suggesting we try the flower picking.  Sweet Berry has a field full of zinnias, and for $3 you can buy a cup and some scissors.  Honestly, I think the boys enjoyed this as much as the girls :o)  And I came home with a beautiful bouquet!

We also tried the hay ride.  It is a short trip into the back field decorated with various scene of scarecrows.  The girls and I thought it was cute and original, but K wasn't as impressed and it did seem a bit short.  This might be one that is best for the younger kiddos.

Probably one of the boys' favorite activity every year is feeding the assorted livestock on the farm - an almost completely free activity- $0.25 per cup of goat food, with lots of nearby plants, hay and acorns to use once the cup is empty!  We usually bring a bag of carrots, which are quickly munched by the horses and donkeys. And this year was special, as they had a one-day old donkey in the pen! 

The goat pen is incredible, with two large yards connected by an overhead bridge.  We never saw any of the goats cross using the bridge, but the kids probably spent twenty minutes feeding and coaxing the goats along!
 
The farm also had paint your own pumpkins, an activity we have enjoyed in the past, but just ran out of time for this year, face painting and a stuff-your-own scarecrow.  There are also horse rides on the weekend.

We always finish the day off by picking out the best pumpkin from the pumpkin patch -- if you were hoping to get the best this year - sorry, we've already got it ;o)  In the past the pumpkins were priced by the pound, which got somewhat pricey, but this year they sold most of the jack-o-lantern pumpkins for $6.  They also had a huge assortment of variety pumpkins, and a pile of pumpkins that were huuuge (and $28).

And no trip to Sweet Berry is complete without a cup of their homemade pumpkin ice cream. The strawberry and vanilla are good, but for me, the pumpkin is the best!

Tips and thoughts:  

* The farm takes only cash or check.  The various activities adds up so make sure you bring enough cash!  ATMs are now available on site. To participate in most of the activities in the autumn fest is around $20-$25 per person, plus $6 for a take-home pumpkin and an extra $16.50 for the scarecrow...  Just to help you figure how much to bring.   Strawberries are $2.85 per pound, with picking boxes (holding up to 8 pounds of strawberries cost an extra $0.50 

* Recently, the farm is offering their new Pumpkin Grille with hot food.  But they also have wonderful outdoor tables that are just perfect for a fall picnic lunch.

* When planning timing, Sweet Berry is about 45 minutes outside of Austin.  We spent around 4 hours at the farm this year.  But without the Texas maze, plan on spending 2-3 hours to see everything.