AUSTIN, TEXAS – There really are a lot of food trucks in Austin, and designer coffee, and yoga studios. And…wait for it…more bats!

At the Congress Ave. bridge, thousands of bats come out just at dusk, like in Carlsbad, fanning out over the river. Photo on the left is of people waiting for the "show".

The gray haze in the photo on the right is actually 100's of bats flying out from under the bridge!





Apparently there’s a great music scene, which we weren’t able to partake of, because you have to be over 21 to get into the venues. But more about that when we get to New Orleans.

No trip to Texas would be complete without tacky hat pictures, so here they are.

Here’s a small sampling of the contrasts that are so very Texas.






GALVESTON ISLAND, TX Our next stop was Galveston, Texas. We went to the off shore drilling museum where we learned that apparently oil is a renewable resource with little to no impact on wildlife or the environment. Boy, what a relief!

This is NOT the day we went to the beach....






JENNINGS, LOUISIANA:

So there’s nothing particularly interesting about Jennings, Louisiana…. except for this frog in the window of a restaurant we ate at. ….oh and the awesome Cajun food we had in said restaurant.









NOLA: After Jennings, we moved on to New Orleans, where we were able to enjoy a ton of music…in bars….with our kids, two of whom are still considered minors in the US of A. Why were we able to do this? Because in the State of Louisiana, children of ANY age, can be in a bar and drink alcohol IF they are with their parents! Since A & N were with the two people who pose as their parents, they were able to try local craft beers and awesome Bourbon; no questions asked. And the jazz was so cool too!!

While in NOLA we stayed on the hippie bus. We rented bikes from our quirky landlady and rode all over the city.

One day, we went to one of the 2 Katrina museums – only it was closed for the day :( We asked the gentleman next door for more information, and ended up spending the next hour with him. Why? Turns out he's chief David Montana of the Washitah tribe. He performs at Mardi Gras time and spends all year working on the costumes – doing the bead work and feathers for it as well as running programs to teach youth about this tradition. He did a couple of impromptu chants and songs for us at their centre. It was quite remarkable! For more info, here’s a link to a huffington post article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kenny-klein/indian-red-new-orleans-ma_b_5002930.html


CHICAGO: To get back to Chicago, we once again took Amtrak – this time we had enough beds for everyone and the trip was uneventful. En route we got word that our tickets for a Second City show had been cancelled due to a fire at their offices :( So this past Saturday night, we went to the Chicago Dance festival instead.

We saw amazing performances by a wide array of companies, including three pairs of tappers (shown here) who did an ensemble performance of flamenco, Irish river dancing, and black American tap. We also saw a duet from the American Ballet Theatre as well as a fabulous ensemble from the Joffrey Ballet. And all of this was during pretty much non-stop rain at an outdoor venue ….with no raingear!


FLIGHT HOME: At the moment we are on our way home, seated near one of the loudest snorers on the planet….seriously, this guy needs surgery or something!
We look forward to hearing from all of you and seeing many of you in the near future.
XOXO,
RANAD

RANAD's in the U.S. Southwest Y'all!

Hello Y'all! This is our 2015 RANAD Vacation blog. As per request - more pics than ever (use your computer or tablet -it's harder to follow on a phone).

This is actually Amtrak vacation #3 for RANAD; you’d think we work for them! This time we’re headed to the American Southwest.

Instead of sleeping in our seats
or on the floor, this year we
got lazy and decided to sleep
in cabins; 4 cots, 5 people.
Guess who doubled up?

FIRST STOP: SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO. The town is lovely, although once you’ve seen one adobe structure; you’ve seen ‘em all. We enjoyed some music in the Plaza, cooked awesome meals, and went to the fabulous Farmer’s market, complete with hipster lavender donuts (seriously).






LOS ALAMOS: Propaganda much? We learned a very one-sided version about how the Americans built the first atomic bombs and ended WWII. They glossed over the civilian toll both in Japan as well as from the testing back at home.

In honour of our visit, we had Atomic Fire balls.

BANDALIER NATIONAL MONUMENT: Here in NM they call their parks Monuments; not sure why, but they’ve all been pretty amazing. There has been a human presence in this canyon for over 10,000 years. We saw ruins from the Tyuonyi (pronounced Que-weh-nee) who built houses, some 3 stories high (see photo on left of the remains of the foundations of said structures).

Other peoples built multi-floored homes carved out of the canyon walls. Here's Rob climbing back down from one of them.

All of them built Kivas (religious structures) the modern morph of which are the kiva fireplaces/ovens that folks in NM use today.

Looks like we have an extra kid here? We’ll explain in Albu-
querque.





INTERESTING SIGNS WE'VE SEEN ALONG THE WAY IN NM:

TENT ROCKS NATIONAL MONUMENT: This place is known for its hoodoos – formations formed by the elements (also seen in Alberta). Stunning hike.

A zen moment for Aviva at Tent Rocks.








ALBUQUERQUE: So that extra kid? She’s Allie, a classmate of Aaron and Noah at Vic College. Her parents have a chocolate kitchen here in Albuquerque called Cocopotamus.

They’ve supplied truffles to the Oscars and beyond, and they did a tasting with us. YUM!!!!

And for you Breaking Bad fans, we ate lunch in this restaurant….and we even used Stevia in our coffees.









WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT (and Las Cruces):

Enjoy the shots of this enormous park that has sand dunes for miles around.

Just one sobering element; a week before our arrival, a French family was here, and the two parents both perished from dehydration, leaving their 10 year-old son behind.

Silhouette of ANAD atop one of the dunes (R took the pic).

Chiles from the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University.

WILDLIFE: Here are four creatures photographed on some of our hikes around NM. One of these is a plastic toy that took us 5 minutes and a couple of pokes with a stick to figure out it wasn’t real. Can you guess which one it is – A,B,C, or D?

CARLSBAD CAVERNS: We had no idea how spectacular and gynormous this place would be; stalagmites and stalactites the size of massive Roman columns. The Big Room (the largest of the caverns) is apparently the size of 14 football fields with a lofty roof that we guestimated to be at least 10 stories high. These photos definitely do not do justice to the magnitude and total awesomeness of this place.

We descended 75 stories to get down into the cavern and hiked around inside for several hours.

And then there were the bats!!! Every evening the ~400,000 bats that live in one section of the cavern (The Bat Cave) exit en masse. The Park has an amphitheatre at the exit point and a ranger teaches about the bats until they swarm out about 300 bats per second for 20 minutes. It was quite impressive. We were not allowed to take photos, so this one is from the internet.

…..soon after this “Loving” pic was taken, we crossed into Texas and Rob was stopped for speeding. He got a friendly talking to (after the cop learned we were Canuks) and we were sent on our way. Welcome to Texas RANAD!


Till next time....
RANAD
PS The answer to our multiple choice question is 'C'