Five Monkeys and a Dog: Flat Stanley's Visit to Texas

(Our neice Carli's class from Colorado, sent us Flat Stanley for a week. This is how Stanley spend his time.)

May 18, 2010

Dear Carli,

Wow, what adventures we’ve had this week! Since Flat Stanley came to visit us here in Lakeway, TX, we’ve been all over the Hill Country showing him the sites. I know that when most people think of Texas they think of a vast desert, but Texas is a big state and there is room for almost every kind of plant.

We live in central Texas only 20 minutes from downtown Austin and there is nothing desert-like about Lakeway. The

Colorado River runs all through the area and has cut right through the Texas Limestone forming the gorgeous and green Hill Country. Now I don’t know whose idea it was, but someone very smart came along and decided to dam up the river making Lake Austin, Lake Travis, and Lady Bird Johnson Lake. I sure am thankful, because we live down the street from Lake Travis and can go swimming anytime we want. We even have our own beach at Lakeway Park. There is another man-made beach at the other side of Lake Travis called Hippy Hollow, but Stanley wasn’t interested in visiting it, as it is clothing optional and he is kind of attached to his clothes.

Lakeway is just a small town, but we are proud of our heritage. We have our own Heritage Visitors Center that Stanley really enjoyed touring. We love our community and we honor the people who have died to give us the right to our freedom through the Spirit of Freedom Memorial. Each member of our town who died serving

our country in war time has their name engraved at this beautiful memorial. Stanley was so moved by this memorial that he could not speak a word.

Of course, while Stanley was here we still had to continue some of our regular activities. Our daughters Caitlyn and Austin and their brother Colin swim for the Lakeway Lakers Swim Team. Five days a week we drive to the pool for practice. (You can tell from the picture we took that Caitlyn wasn’t so sure about bringing Flat Stanley to the pool, on account of him being made of paper, but he had a great time.) Did you know that our swimming pool is open all year round? Of course they heat it in the winter time.

On Friday the 14th Colin, Stanley and Mark went to the Father and Sons outing. This is the time of year to really enjoy the outdoors, as it’s not too hot. They traveled an hour away to Driftwood, Texas, where they ate s’mores, sang songs, hiked, played laser tag, and talked about how great it was to be away from girls. Mark said Stanley was pretty quiet, but he couldn’t help smiling the whole time, so I guess he really enjoyed himself.

By Saturday night you would have thought Stanley was tired, but since he wasn’t struggling to keep his eyes open we took him to the Alamo Draft House where you can enjoy dinner and a movie. Stanley ordered the largest cheeseburger with fries and a root beer. I thought his stomach would explode, but he just kept on smiling. In fact no matter how much he ate, he never did seem to mind or gain any weight. Honestly, I was hoping to fatten him up a little this trip, but he’s as thin as ever.

Monday morning Stanley was dying to see Austin. He had heard it was the Live Music Capital of the World and he wanted his chance to perform. So we traveled downtown to 6th Street, where many musicians got their start. Mark helped him set up his gear on a street corner, but when it came time to sing poor Stanley had an attack of stage fright. He couldn’t open his month to sing a single note. I told not to worry there were other things we could do on 6th street. We visited Buffalo Billiard and played a couple games of shuffleboard. Then Stanley noticed

the beautiful Driskill Hotel across the street, so we wrapped our game up and visited the lobby. We didn’t see any ghosts (though the Driskill is known to have a few). We were all thankful. Once we left the Driskill, we stopped by the Austin Visitor’s Center and then Stanley insisted on taking his picture with the Colorado Street sign. (I personally don’t think he holds very still for pictures. It was hard to get any of him in some of my shots.)

After such a long morning of walking, Stanley was ready to try

some of our famous Tex-Mex, so we brought him so Chuy’s, the best Tex-Mex in town. (Boy, does that little paper guy love salsa.) He took some to go and I still ended up making more later on that night. Good thing I’ve learned how.

On Tuesday we didn’t get started quite as early, but we still found time to stop by Zilker Botanical Gardens and of course we had to see the capital. Stanley had a hard time waiting to see the capital. He jumped out at a stop light (which is where this picture was taken), but don’t worry I pulled him back in and gave him a good talking to.

On our way to the capital from Zilker Park we passed over the Congress Avenue Bridge where we host the largest urban bat colony in North America. At peak season the Congress Avenue Bridge is home to 1.5 million bats. Let me tell you Austin is batty for our bats. Stanley really got a kick out of the Bat Bar and the bat sculpture we saw. I told him he would have to come back in August when you can see the mothers with their pups. He laughed at the name pups for baby bats.

After all this touring there was only one thing left for Stanley to do and that was to visit Amy’s Ice Cream. Reagan, Hallie and I all enjoyed showing Stanley the sweeter side of Austin, as we stopped by the Bee Cave Galleria and sampled Cherry, Strawberry Poptart, Iced Animal Cracker with sweet cream, dark chocolate, Belgian Chocolate, and Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream (note I said sampled). Lastly we stopped by the Bee Cave Water Fountain and all ran in with our clothes on. Poor Stanley lost a shoe, but he said it was worth it. And with him going home tomorrow, he wouldn’t need it.