With all that is going on and with E’s break between jobs, we decided to take a mini vacation. I suggested a lake and to camp for one night, but E went one better. He found a cute cabin with our own deck/yard for a very reasonable price.

The view from the back of our cabin. (from my phone; more to come when I can download them from the camera)

So, we set an alarm for 9am and ventured out into the world to run a couple of errands on our way out of town. We stopped for lunch at Veggie Heaven (thank you, again, E for going there with me!) where I had vegan “shrimp” that both looked and tasted like the real thing. E had faux-chicken quesadillas and said they were good. yay! I hope that means he’ll go back.

Because we follow TxDOTAustin on Twitter, we knew that I-35 was down to one lane in south Austin for a bridge repair. So, we pulled out our Texas atlas and VZ Navigator and headed there via the back roads. We took a quick break at Bubba’s general store, stopped for a close view of Austin’s Hindu temple (& made a note of when they allow full tours), drove through cute town of Wimberly, and meandered our way to the south side of Canyon Lake. We settled in and headed back out for some adventuring!

We went to the dam and the gorge overlook. In 2002 when 34″ of rain hit the area in a day (their normal amount for a whole year; also: 1.5x the volume in the whole lake is what overflowed). The overflow had to let so much water through that it created/revealed a gorge. We are taking a tour of it on Thursday morning before we head back to Austin, so we’ll have more pictures to share and more information about it.

A view of the lake from atop the dam.

The hills on the other side of the dam. The little white building near the center of the image is a tiny Catholic church.

Next, we drove around the lake to see what there is. It’s a hodgepodge of cool homes/neighborhoods, fun bars/restaurants, seedy looking joints, and former business where the signs were never removed. The Canyon Lake area could use some decent zoning. Still, we found the only bar/restaurant on the water–at one of the marinas. While they don’t have a vegan option on their menu, I was able to create a mostly-vegan meal of a huge salad, garlic rosemary potatoes, and grilled asparagus. E had a burger and fries (surprise). We walked waddled down to the marina and found a place to rent boats. If we can rent a sailboat tomorrow, that is our plan for fun!

On the way home from dinner, we did a bit more expLng before heading back to our “private” deck at the cabin. It’s a beautiful night for sitting outside. The half-moon is bright and has a purple hue to it. The park’s resident cats are curious about us. E’s eating a Hershey bar and I have a Shiner Blonde beside me.

mmmmm….from a heavenly lunch to a heavenly trip to a heavenly evening with the love of my life.

bliss. zen. nom. namaste. just what we needed.