Yesterday, driving from Pearland to Sargent Park (on the coast east of Matagorda Island) was an adventure for our Boy Scout Troop.  There was little rain until we hit the two lane highways and then it was squall line after squall line.  The scariest part was driving up the narrow bridge going over the San Bernard river.  It was raining so hard that I couldn't go faster than 30 mph.  When we finally arrived at the end of CR457 and crossed the bridge over the Intercoastal Waterway the rain had slowed to a drizzle.  We found the park and parked near a good sized pavillon.  It started raining harder.  We waited under the pavillon for 20 minutes then ventured out onto the beach to check it out.  No lightening strikes nearby so we encouraged the boys to go out and swim.  The beach there was nice enough, except for the amount of trash!  Shoes, plastic bottles, cans and lots of glass.  I would recommend shoes for anyone visiting this park.  It could really benefit from a beach cleanup.  The boys got to swim for about 2 hours, the forecast for the rest of the evening and the next morning was not good.  So we made the decision to eat lunch and head back to Pearland.  The boys had fun, we kept them safe and got them all home.  Those are all signs of a successful trip, even if we had to change our plans!

Around 7:30PM, Saturday nigt we parked at the Austin American Statesman parking lot on the South Side of Town lake right next to the Congress St. Bridge.  We took a short walk, called Emily to see if she was done with her tubing trip, and invited her to join us to view the bats (Mexican Free Tail).  After living in Austin for more than 2 years and interning at the Statesman last semester, I would have thought she would have seen this display.  Her friends dropped her off and boy were we wowed!  Around 8:30PM the first few bats ventured out from under the bridge.  Within 5 minutes they began to pour out from under the bridge.  It was the most amazing thing to watch.  Check out my photos.  I will add only a small part of my photos, but they are representative of the bats pouring out from under the bridge for at least 20 minutes.  This is peak time for the number of bats that are roosting there under the Congress St. Bridge.  If you are in Austin anytime soon, please take the time and see the bats.  They start coming out just about at sunset.

So, you don't need a tropical storm to bring an afternoon of rain.  When the conditions are right storms will build an develop right over your house and it can continue for several hours.  Of course once the sun starts to come out again you get a chance to fully appreciate the heat of the Texas coast.  Wow, 95 degrees and almost 100 percent humidity now that feels nice!

 Rain brings to mind all kinds of things.  We were supposed get the brunt of Tropical Storm Edouard.  Thankfully we received rain but not in amounts that would cause us real problems.  In fact, it was a nice steady rain that quenched the thirst of our not so green lawn.  This evening the sun is out and the road is dry.  Makes it hard to believe that last night when we went to bed we were forecasted to bear the brunt of this storm.  So, I want to say thanks for the rain.  I hope that we can dodge that bullet again!

We picked up Elyse and headed to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  The three boys appeared to be excited about going to the museum.  We hadn't been there as a family in years.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that the museum was full of people.  AND there were lots of people in line to buy tickets.  That is a good sign!  We love to see people visiting museums.  Of course boys will be boys.  The three can't not pick at each other.  Someone pokes one then the other until it is escalated to the point where one of them is very angry.  So it often goes, the tension gets released then things settle down and we can enjoy the activity at hand.  We enjoyed the museum, saw the Geoloopza exihibit.  I have never seen such large geodes!  I was disappointed with the size of the museum store.  They have more than quadrupled the space given to the store.  I am disappointed, but I am sure some marketing anaylsis showed how profitable it would be.  We paid for a family membership so we will go back again.  We might even purchase something in the store.