Days 182 & 183: McKinney Falls State Park

Since we are attempting to learn a little Spanish before we venture into Mexico some time in November, Paula turned us on to DuoLingo, a free app for learning languages.  It's pretty awesome, providing an interesting mix of tools for learning, which combine writing, listening and speaking exercises.  We are still trying to figure out exactly how it will fit into our learning plans, but we are thinking that as we progress through the app we will keep a notebook of the verbs that we learn, along with their conjugations.  The hope is that this will give us a compact source of common verbs to use for creating our own phrases, and a quick means for verifying that we are using the correct conjugations when we are practicing between ourselves.  We only hope that we'll have sufficient internet coverage to make full use of the app.

We got together with Robert and Paula late in the morning and found lunch at a Greek diner, and then returned to the park for a closer look at the falls, and to spend some time getting caught up on recent events in their lives.  It rained (at times rather hard) off and on throughout the afternoon, but we managed to stay dry with the help of our beach umbrellas.  (We would have used our new awning, but picnic tables are anchored to the ground in Texas state parks.)

Robert and Paula (they are amused because I finally got my finger out of the way).

We returned to their hotel in late afternoon, so that Robert could soak in the pool in order to dry out his skin rashes (which were aggravated by the hot, humid weather).  We were joined there in the evening by my niece Stephanie, her husband, Derek Arredondo, and their son Gage.  Driving up separately with them was her daughter Katrina Moreno, and Trina's boyfriend Razz.

Lana is fascinated by Gage and the pool water.

We sat around the pool for quite a while, where Lana was very bemused by Gage's antics swimming underwater, and by the leaves floating in the pool.  She was highly entertained by everything and was fun to watch.

With a total of nine of us, it took a while to reach a consensus on where to dine, but we eventually opted to try Polvos Mexican Restaurant.  It was packed, so it was late when we finally got seated, but the food was good, as were the margaritas, and Alea and I had a great time being able to hang out with everyone.  We celebrated Stephanie's birthday (which had taken place earlier in the week) and had a chance to chat with Trina and Razz about their studies, and their new puppy, Theodore.  

Theodore, crashed on Gage's lap.

We regrouped on Sunday morning for brunch, which took place at Picnik, a "paleo"/organic restaurant that Paula had found for us.  Alea and I shared the Harvest Hash: it was pretty awesome, and the poached egg that it came with was amazing - a dark orange yolk and the tastiest egg white that I've ever experienced.  I may just switch to eating organic eggs, if they are all like that one...

Afterwards, we all returned to the campsite, so that Stephanie's clan could see our camper and the falls.  It rained lightly off and on, but that didn't stop Alea from teaching everyone our personal flavor of the card game Spite and Malice.  It wasn't long before we were all sharing memories of Stephanie and Paula's dad, Jim Emory.  He had a penchant for finding, let's say, unique ways of winning at cards (which some folks might call cheating, though it was always done in a very light-hearted and fun manner).  It was a fun time, and brought back many memories of playing cards with Jim and my sister Cheryl during the time when they were dating.  It was fun times then, and fun times now.

Robert (in the far distance) tries to get Steffie's attention while Paula waves at him.

Paula, Trina, Steffie, Gage, Razz, Alea and Robert, wheeling and dealing.

Gage, Steffie, Trina, Razz and Alea: Learning Spite and Malice.

The weather cooperated with us, with the heavy rains holding off until late afternoon.  With the storms closing in, everyone headed for home.  I dropped Alea off at a local laundromat, while I grocery shopped and found cheap gas so that we would be ready to continue on in the morning.