Growing Up Austin

There are certain unwritten rules that everyone seems to follow like picnics with kids should happen during the day. Why? I mean, day time picnics are fun and all, but do we always have to stay indoors after 5pm in the winter? Are we afraid of warewolves and vampires?

Noel, Sparkles, Buttercup and I braved the night-time outdoors at Bull Creek Park. It felt mysterious, like something was about to happen and we might become the plot of a a new bedtime story, the good kind, full of adventure and discovery.

We were extra careful. It wasn’t all dark, it was dusk, but it would be easy to lose each other in that lighting, so Noel and I held hands with the little ones. We explored the creek and rocks and marveled at the high cliff walls. Then we enjoyed a picnic dinner.

Well, maybe it was mostly me who ‘marveled.’ Maybe because I grew up in Houston, where everything is flat, except for the concrete overpasses, or because my first job as an adult was in a town with no public access to the lake it was named after. I marvel every day at how many beautiful outdoor places there are in Austin, within city limits, places that could be in the movies, with a dramatic score playing along, wide screen version only, so you can take it all in.

I hope the girls marvel a little, too. Austin is a very special place, with epic outdoor beauty and no warewolves or vampires to be found.

Find more information about Bull Creek on Austin Kids Hike, this story is from Trail Head #9.