UNF Reunion: Texas Style

I flew down to Austin for a little mini college reunion weekend with my friends Crystal and Jenny. We all went to the University of North Florida about a million years ago and have continued our friendship ever since. Crystal flew in from Florida, met up with me and then we took the short hop down to Austin, where we stayed with our friend Jenny and her family.

This was the first time the three of us had hung out together in over two years. Normally, one person is missing for some reason or another, so it was nice to hang out, like the old days.

Jenny had a weekend packed with activities. One of the many hats she wears is as "Coach Jenny" for her son's T-ball team, so we tagged along for that. We drove down to the Natural Caverns, outside of San Antonio (http://www.naturalbridgecaverns.com/). We seem to have a caving tradition, as we all first went spelunking about 8 years ago when Jenny and her husband Jon lived in Ohio. That day was marred with bats, inbred Indians named Chongo, and lots of flies. A few years later, minus Crystal, we went to some caves in Alabama filled with no bats, but gaudy religious symbolism, so this time around we hoped this would be a happy median.

We took the Discovery Tour, which goes about 200 feet down into the earth. The caves were humid and hot, and you had to be careful where you walked because everything was slippery (and the handrail had been grabbed on to by probably a million dirty hands).

Our tour guide was a little snippy, but we still had a good time. It was dark in certain places and I was afraid that Jenny's son would be a little nervous,but he did fine.

After our exploring of caves, we tried a little panning for gold and other precious stones (you have to buy your bag o' precious stones and dirt first so you are kind of guaranteed to find something) and Jenny's son found some arrowheads and colored stones. We stopped at Johnny Rockets on the way home for "bog old milkshakes" (it's a college thing that no one else is going to understand) and burgers (I had a grilled cheese). That is another tradition, as we used to go to the Johnny Rockets at the Landing in downtown Jacksonville all the time when we were in school.
That night, Jenny and Jon arranged for a babysitter for their son, and the four of us went down to Sixth Street, a big area with bars, restaurants, and nightlife in the heart of Austin. The mantra there is "Keep Austin Weird" and so you see lots of tattoo parlours and hard looking people mixed with preppy UT coeds and lilly white republicans. A strange mix.
As we walked past the Coyote Ugly bar, the bouncer asked me if I was in the military (I am currently sporting the shortest haircut of my life in preparation for my departure the jungles of Cambodia this weekend). I guess I looked out of place. We had tickets to Esther's Follies (http://www.esthersfollies.com/) which is kind of a musical revue, with comedians, improv, magic, skits, political satire, etc. etc. I had always wanted to go, so I was so glad when I found out that Jenny had gotten us tickets. The show was hilarious, and their main act was this musician who had us rolling on the floor and laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. Esther's Follies is a definite must for anyone who goes to Austin.

As we rolled out of there around 11:30pm, downtown was just starting to hop since UT had beat OU in the Red River challenge, and the fans were in a party hearty mentality.

We spent Sunday taking it easy. We all went to church (a little too contemporary for this Presbyterian) and had a late lunch at a local BBQ joint (we had a bit of a pork emergency, but I managed to avoid eating it) before Jenny drove us back to the airport. Crystal and I flew back to the Big D., and then Crystal continued on to Florida, and thus ended our little reunion weekend

Now I am on vacation for the rest of the month, and will be prepping for my departure for SE Asia this weekend, first to Malaysia and then Cambodia.