For the first time in a very long time, we were in the US for the 4th of July, and of course, because of the pandemic the local fireworks shows were cancelled. So my Uncle Mark, and my cousin Dan took Alex and went to buy some appropriate and totally legal fireworks to use in the backyard. Alex was pretty thrilled because he had never used a sparkler- they weren’t allowed in our area in California because of wildfire risks and we just never bought any in Illinois for some reason.
This kid was rocking the sparklers, he would have done it all night every night-
I apologize for all the blur, it’s hard to capture the wild nature of the Houston clan when they are holding firesticks! Above is Uncle Mark, gracefully parading around the yard, and below… waving for joy?
Uncle Mark hasn’t been mentioned on the blog yet, but is geniunely one of my favorite relatives. He is a pastor after 30 years of teaching 5th grade- which means he’s totally equipped for all of Alex’s shenanigans. I loved that Alex got to spend time with his cousin Logan and his aunts and uncles- and that they got to get to know him a bit better too!
So while we didn’t get to see a big fireworks display, we made our own. And a good time was had by all!
One other thing that we wanted to do in Houston, since we didn’t get a chance to go to the bigger version in Austin, was watching the bats fly out from the Waugh Bridge Bat Colony. Not too far actually from Voodoo Donuts, there is a nice park with walking/biking paths that lead to the bridge. We ordered take out from a highly regarded but slightly disappointing BBQ place, found a picnic table and ate out enjoying the sun and each other’s company… and honestly just being out of the condo for a while. Then we walked around trying to find where the bat area was, in the end we walked way farther and in a very winding way to the bats. It was a pretty walk though, and again, probably very needed after a couple months not leaving the apartment unless absolutely needed.
We knew we were in the right place when we found the crowd, the hill here is a little steep so we didn’t bother trying to sit over here– plus we were still trying to keep our distance. Unseen but directly to the left of this picture is the bridge that all the bats live under.
My patient kid waiting for the bats— who don’t arrive on a time schedule- so we had to wait for sunset.
The bats are all the blurry spots that look like dirt on the lens. There were thousands of bats flying out, sometimes they would be in big batches, and then a break, we would think they were all out and then boom, another flurry of bats.
In addition to all the bats flying around, there were some hawks who were also waiting for their nightly meal. While the bats were hunting mosquitoes and other bugs, they were also being hunted by hawks. The big blur in the picture below is a hawk.
Mark laughs about all this now because when we first started dating I was terrified of bats (and snakes, and spiders) and now I ask to go see bat colonies and snake farms… and if I’d realized it was also in Texas, I would have dragged the boys to one of the biggest bat colonies in the world, Bracken Cave in San Antontio, Texas. 20 million bats fly out of the cave every night at sunset. Next time we’re in Texas, it’s a must do.
Traveling Expat Family 