Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Bats - Our Group - Ice Cream

Friday evening we met at the church and carpooled down to the Congress Avenue bridge to watch the bats take flight. Don and I drove. I got to the Austin American Statesman parking lot (usually the best place to park when visiting the bats) a few moments before Don and found that it was blocked off due to construction. I dropped off my passengers, turned the car around, and with Ross riding shotgun began to go search for alternative parking. Just as I began to roll out onto Congress, Don pulled up in the southbound turn lane. Ross made a sudden decision to spare Don the inconvenience of the closed lot and lept mid-intersection from my car and, waiving his hands wildly in the air, ran through traffic toward Don's van. He redirected Don and jumped in the side door of the van just as Don pulled out of the intersection to follow me down to the TXDOT parking lot down the street.
While we were doing this, the other members of our party had selected a spot on the bridge from which to watch the bats. We made our way up from the TXDOT lot, found our group, and spent some time chatting as we waited for the sun to drop below the horizon. By 7:30 twilight had set in and the crowd had grown to several hundred bat watchers, children, and street vendors. At 7:46 the bats began to fly. They were awsome - lots and lots and lots of bats. I felt very Austin-patriotic. By 8:00 the bat flight was still a steady stream, but darkness had set in and the bats were only really visible by the light of the camera flashes from the crowd. We decided it was time for ice cream.
As a group we walked down Congress, across Riverside, and up the hill to Amy's. It was about a 15 minute walk, and mostly uphill, but the reward made the climb worthwhile. I had a scoop of cinnamon and a scoop of dark chocolate with pecans crushed in-between. We all sat behind behind the store and enjoyed our treats and each other's company.