Go Fly a Kite! -- Sun., Mar. 3

Color My World (Lyrics by Chicago) or maybe I should say, "Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky?" (Lyrics by Billy Preston). I'm referring to the 85th Annual Kite Festival in Austin, Texas.

Jim and Peri invited us to go with them. The conditions were perfect. The skies were a light sapphire blue and a nice breeze was blowing to make the kites soar.

The Kite Festival is very popular in Austin as you will see in the following photos. We parked about a mile away from Zilker Park and walked over. The nearer we got, the more kites we could see. We entered a world of color, crowds and commotion.

Dragon kite.

Kites and people were everywhere. We were constantly scanning the ground for kite lines, watching our heads to make sure a kite wasn't coming down on top of us, keeping a watch on lines at neck level as people tried to start the kite flight. I would guess thousands of people were there today.

All the little dots in the sky are kites.

Butterfly and panda kites.

Pirate ship kite.

Father of the little boy.

Son learning how to fly a kite with the help of his father.

 

Another pirate kite.

If you're not into kites, then maybe hula hoops?

Wow! Four hula hoops at once.

People watching is always interesting. What are the young folks wearing now? LOL.

Then back to kite watching.

Jim, Bob, Peri

These are the big kites!

Bob's like, "Oh, c'mon, really?"

Watch out for the Red Baron!

Austin skyline from Zilker Park. Crowds and...

More crowds.

Flying fire truck.

Lots and lots of people!

Jim capturing the festival.

The following photo is deceptive. I took it because the guy is flying a little tiny kite (about the size of your hand) with a fishing pole. The kite looks like it's very high in the sky when, in reality, it's about ten feet from the end of his fishing pole. His kite is the red and black one at the top of the photo.

After spending an hour in the park, we headed to lunch at Chuy's Fine Tex-Mex. Bob had been to Chuy's in San Antonio, but I hadn't eaten at one until today. It was very good. The decor was fun with some Elvis posters and rock 'n' roll memorabilia.

One mean-looking parrot.

I tried a Southwestern Enchilada that was made with blue corn tortillas, hand-pulled chicken, cheese, green chile sauce (spicy!) and a fried egg. The dish came with rice, a salad and refried beans.

Southwestern Enchilada.

Bob's lunch--I think it's the Deluxe Chicken Enchilada.

All of us enjoyed our food and cleaned our plates. Well, I had a little help with mine because it was a lot.

We walked the mile and a half back to where the car was parked. As you can see people are still pouring into and out of the park.

We had planned on a 10K Volksmarch, but since we had already done 5K just walking on our own, we did a 5K Volksmarch instead. It seemed like a very short walk after all the 10K walks we've been doing. We chose the Lady Bird Lake walk because it had a 5K option. Bob and I had done the 10K walk two weeks ago, but we like the walk so we did the short version of it.

Bob and Susan with Austin skyline. (Photo by Jim D.)

Red bud tree.

Kite flying crashing in a less-crowded park.

These purple flowers feel just like velvet.

Salvia leucantha

Stevie Ray Vaughan statue by Lady Bird Lake.

Greater scaups.

The ghost bike has been decorated!

Austin, Texas -- state capitol dome.

State Capitol in Austin, Texas.

We drove by this sculpture.

After our Volksmarch, Jim drove us around downtown Austin. Bob and I were able to take the three photos above from the car window. We had fun exploring Austin and spending time with Peri and Jim. On the way back to Peri and Jim's 5er, a Dairy Queen jumped in our path and we had to stop for Blizzards. Just couldn't get around it.

When we made it back to the 5er, we played a number of games of Sequence. Peri and Susan had quite the winning streak. Toward the end of the evening, Bob and Jim won three games in a row so they didn't get skunked.

Sometime during the week Peri and I plan to do the New Braunfels Volksmarch. That's it. Enjoy your Monday wherever you may be.

Susan & Bob