Austin suffers from big little city syndrome. We are on not really a little city anymore, but not quite a big city. We have the restaurants of a big city, certainly the traffic, and a massive university. We are definitely lacking the museums of a big city. Our children’s museum had a recent upgrade and is better, but still not on par with a major city. While Waco is much smaller than Austin, their children’s museum absolutely rocks. Jaspy’s daycare was closed today, so we headed up north to Waco.
First we hit the Y, and he did child watch while I did yoga. I also ran this morning at a ridiculous hour, so I am completely pooped now, and the yoga teacher was a bendy, little Lululemon model, so I will be hurting tomorrow. We went straight from the Y to the highway. First stop was Cameron Park, which is one of the best parks I’ve been to. 20 miles of trail, people! How awesome is that? And it’s just beautiful. There is a fantastic race here every spring that I’ve done twice…it’s a trail race that is super hilly, but runnable. And 100% old school….inexpensive with a post race fajita cook out. Note to self….must do it in 2015. We hit the splash pad which was just meh, but just being in a new place on a “trip” made Jasper declare it’s awesomeness. We next hit the playground which was pretty good. Then we headed over to the museum. I was starving by this point, and Jasper was living on crackers and milk, so he could care less about lunch and was foaming at the mouth to get into the dinosaur exhibit. I pretty much drug him to a Starbucks on the Baylor campus and ate their last breakfast sandwich and inhaled a latte. I found it odd the Starbucks had kid’s squeeze-y fruit pouches. I’m pretty sure Jasper is the only child to ever hit up the Starbucks at the Baylor science building….but we were happy to find a kid’s food.
The museum was just amazing. I love natural history museums and this was a mix of natural history and kids discovery stuff. It seemed endless. We had a great time. Friends with kids listen up…I totally thought this was worth the drive. Just don’t go on a football game day. I thought it was vastly better than the Austin museum. I coerced Jasper to leave by giving in to a gift shop purchase, and we ended the day with a trip to Sonic in nearby Lorena. Side note: are you a Sonic or a DQ person? I hate to admit, but I think I prefer Sonic. If I’m on the road and in a food wasteland, a Sonic grilled cheese will do the trick. Anyhow, I’m tired now….and in need of popcorn and a movie in bed.
In running news…it’s going. It’s the meat of the marathon training. My victory this week was hill running on RainCreek parkway. Trust me, it’s hilly, and forcing myself to run hills at 5:30 am is a victory, no matter what the pace. And I listened to an old Western States podcast at work this week. Why did I do that? It just makes the wheels in my head start turning when I should not think of such things. Then again, a day with a long drive, a park, and museum and a long drive home with a hyper 4 year old is probably the equivalent of a 40 mile run. Can you say training?