Each year, for the past ten years now, a group of us ladies in my mom’s family gather for a week in an exciting location to have adventures, drink wine, laugh, sing loudly in hot tubs, and enjoy each other’s company. We call ourselves the Travelin’ Chicks and yes, we have personalized t-shirts with this name emblazoned on them. We have learned how to barrel race at Cowgirl Camp in Arizona, ziplined through the trees in Costa Rica, visited more vineyards than one could imagine in Santa Barbara, and enjoyed watching the sun set over the Grand Canyon…just to name a few. The best part of these trips is that it gives me the chance to get to know these amazing ladies in ways I otherwise never would. Not only do I learn so much from them, I just love being around them.

So, here we go TC 2018…Austin-bound!

I was unable to go for the entire week, so I made the most of the time I was there. I flew out the day before Mother’s Day with my brand-new gift from Caroline as my carry-on. While I brought it proudly, I quickly discovered that the florescent paint wore off all over my white jacket. The gift that keeps on giving…

When I landed in Austin, I surprised my mom at her gate and we quickly found Aunt Karen at Baggage Claim, with the help of a sweet lady who saw our matching shirts and said, “I think your sister is over there waiting for you.” See how helpful these genius shirts are??

The three of us loaded into one of the two rental cars and headed off for the grocery store, and then to the house. Meanwhile, the South Florida crew wasn’t far behind us…only that had pre-gamed in the Lauderdale airport before their flight with some Fireball!

In typical Travelin’ Chicks fashion, we had a little bit of a mix-up with who would go in which rental car, because we were also meeting up with Suzie (who lives in Texas) at the Austin airport, but eventually we ALL connected.

And headed off to our home away from home for the next week:

Which just so happened to have a gorgeous view of Lake Travis…

And a gorgeous pool and hot tub. (The hot tub is a non-negotiable feature for Travelin’ Chicks rental properties. This is where we drink wine and belt out songs.)

The first night, after a very typical Travelin’ Chicks dinner of rotisserie chicken, mac n’ cheese, baked potatoes, and salad, we conducted the legendary bed drawing. I struck the lottery by drawing one half of a queen bed with Aunt Carole as my roomie. Whoo hoo! Mom handed out the beautiful mint green t-shirts she made this year AND the CDs she compiled that are full of each of our song choices (another Travelin’ Chicks tradition). We play them in the car and try to guess who picked which songs. I am impressively terrible at this game but it’s always a lot of fun.

I also got to tell this lovely group of ladies in person that I was expecting Baby #2 on December 5th…which was especially fun, because our newest Travelin’ Chicks member Elise has a December 4th birthday!

Sunday morning, we headed out to do some biking around Austin. Specifically, we wanted to check out Lady Bird Lake. We had read that the bike ride was gorgeous and a must-do in Austin, especially if you wanted to see the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that live under Congress Bridge. Here is the group, getting ready to head out!

Aunt Carole and Suzie decided to skip the ride, so they hung out together listening to live music wile the rest of us biked our way around the lake. We saw this pretty awesome structure along the way–made entirely of bicycles.

Other distinct features of the bike ride included Nancy riding her bike right into a crepe myrtle and not braking, us all having to take a “detour” that was directly up a VERY steep hill (of course, Aunt Connie did not have to lug her bike up the hill…a gentleman saw she was in peril and rushed to her rescue), running out of water, and lastly, us taking a “shortcut” back to the bike rental place that put us on a busy highway. One thing you can always count on with the chicks…ADVENTURE!

And…here is the group at the end. Troopers! That Texas heat is NO JOKE!

We definitely earned our margaritas and strawberry daiquiris…and the air conditioning that accompanied them!

The next day, we headed to the town of Gruene for some small town Texas fun. We had a delicious lunch, shopped in their cute boutiques, and found an adorable general store where mom found the cutest cowgirl t-shirt and cowgirl book for Caroline.

Then on to our afternoon adventure–we headed one town over, to New Braunfels, to go tubing down the Guadalupe River. We packed up our beverages of choice and set out for a relaxing afternoon of floating. A special shout out goes to Connie and Carole, who filled their Swell water bottles with a bottle of wine each and who got out at the end with those bottles totally bone-dry. I told you these ladies were impressive.

Here is the group in calm waters…

The river itself was gorgeous and the temperature was perfect.

We made lots of turtle friends along the way–they weren’t afraid of people one bit.

The float was lovely and relaxing…until every now and then, a few “rapids” would pop up and you’ve have to paddle in order to stay in the center of the river and not get stuck on a rock or wash up on the shore. All of the chicks seemed to navigate this without issue…except for Aunt Nancy. Poor Nancy got (minor) injuries as she bounced from rock to rock and her tube filled with water from the rapids. Chrissy saved her at last twice and Karen did a time or two, as well.

We made it out alive…some of us (Nancy) a bit scraped up, but still smiling!

We then headed to dinner…in a TREEHOUSE! Well, sort of. We ate outside at the Gristmill River Restaurant, which had a charming ambiance, overlooked the Guadalupe River, and was delicious.

After dinner, we headed towards the sounds of live music coming from the famous Gruene Music Hall. We had a few drinks there and watched the Texas natives two-step their way around the dance floor before heading home for the night.

The next day, half of the group headed to the Magnolia Silos in Waco, Texas, and the other half checked out the Longhorn Caverns in Burnet, Texas. I was in the group that headed to the caverns. By the time we arrived, we were starving and looking for a lunch spot. Lo and behold, we stumbled upon the Racy Girl Cafe! We had delicious cheesesteaks (which came with free unlimited beans…how great is Texas?!?) and diet root beer and then headed back for our cavern tour.

The Longhorn Caverns were incredible. Immediately when we entered, the temperature dropped about 25 degrees and was delightfully cool inside–around 64 degrees. We had the most oddball tourguide escorting us around, which of course added to the overall experience! But the caverns themselves were truly magnificent. They walls had incredibly different textures and colors. And one of the main rooms even served as a dance hall and concert venue in the 1920s. Engineers built a dumbwaiter to bring food up and down from the kitchen (which was located above) to the party goers below. Can you spot us chicks in the dark caves?

After a long day of cave hiking, we headed home to relax in the hot tub! We got to enjoy it for about a half hour before a summer storm rolled in over the lake, which we watched through the wall of windows in the dining room.

On my last full day, the Travelin’ Chicks started out the day with a hike in the morning.

Here is Nancy showing off her muscles!

And here are all of the chicks squeezing into a little teepee we discovered along the way.

After the hike, we headed to the Austin Public Library. Now it might seem like an odd destination, but the Austin Public Library is ahh-mazing. It’s six stories. It’s all glass and concrete and is eco-friendly and modern. It has an expansive rooftop deck where people gather to read, chat, meet, and soak in the sun. Call me a nerd, but it as pretty awesome.

Chrissy couldn’t even contain herself, she was so excited.

At least these chicks appreciated the awesome library!

And everyone was intrigued by the “technology petting zoo” that featured a 3D printer.

After the library, we headed to Austin’s famous 6th Street bars for some fun daytime drinking. First stop? Johnny Cash’s Mean Eyed Cat.

After that, I hopped in an Uber to the airport while the chicks finished out the week doing fun things. (I had to save up my vacation days for when Speady Baby #2 arrives, not to mention I missed Sugar Bear!)

Thanks for a wonderful time, Austin! And thanks to each and every one of the the Travelin’ Chicks, who make everything so fun 🙂