Texas – Getting a New Perspective (by Sunshine)

Taking a break from our work to make pizza

We’ve been to Texas multiple times but wanted to stop again for a visit with our dear friend Susan who is finishing her post-doc and teaching at the University of North Texas. She’s a hard core birder so we were excited to share our gulf coast bird sightings with her. At first we thought we’d only stay a few days and try to keep out of Susan’s way while she is working on a plethora of projects to prepare her house to sell. We appreciated having a home base, place to reorganize, do laundry, and make food using appliances like a blender and slow cooker that the Burro does not have. Once we started helping with a few of her projects we quickly got drawn in and she gave us a “to do” list that we eagerly began working on. It felt good to have something useful to do each day while Susan was at work. While scrubbing the porch I had a mini revelation that we were in Texas at just the right time to help Susan and that our trip could have more purpose than our family journey. We decided to stay a few extra days and tackle a few larger projects. Thank you Susan, for creating an opportunity for me to have this new perspective and feel useful.

Easter with the Tiffie family

We did make time to play as well. We spent Easter with friends who live in southern Oklahoma. We met up at the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville, TX. The last time we saw the Tiffie’s none of us had children but as it is with good friends it didn’t feel like ten years had passed since we last saw them. We had an egg hunt for the kids, enjoyed a picnic at the playground, and explored the zoo. I’m so grateful we could all spend time together. Thanks Cliff, Melissa, Skylark, Meadow, and Tucker for letting us share the holiday with you!

Longhorns at the Forth Worth Stockyards

Each day after working on our home improvement projects we usually ended up taking a trip to a playground and walk at a park. We also explored the historic Fort Worth Stockyards to watch the longhorn cattle walk down the street and soak up some Texas culture. Nearby we had fun walking around and splashing in the Fort Worth Water Gardens which were like nothing I’ve ever seen in a city before. The gardens are a series of waterfalls, fountains, and oasis pools created from concrete in the middle of downtown that are quite amazing. We also celebrated Walden’s birthday at the Fort Worth Zoo which he wrote about in a separate post. 

We followed the trail to the bottom of the water garden

Tomorrow we will be packing ourselves back into the Burro and heading west for Santa Fe and southern Utah.