Student Holiday
I usually dread the “student holiday.” It is a tease of a 3-day weekend, but in reality, elementary students and parents are required to attend parent/teacher conferences that Monday. However, this President’s Day was wonderfully different. Now, I am not saying that we went on a 3-day trip, but the time off did feel like a small vacation.
On Friday, my kindergarten daughter had a Daisy Troop meeting and then went to a dance with her dad at their elementary school. My eldest had a friend spend the night and they were occupied playing sports, both outdoors and in. On Saturday, my 9-year-old had a basketball game in the afternoon and then the girls and I headed out of town to visit my parents on the coast. Sunday morning, we collected shells on the beach and announced all the RVs along the shore visiting from numerous states around the US. We headed to Victoria to see the exhibit New Year, New Art: Emerging Artists from the Southwest School of Art. After strolling through the Nave Museum, we went to the Texas Zoo. The zoo suffered a lot of damage due to Hurricane Harvey and lost several animals to the flooding and received structural damage to buildings. The kids brought along their cameras and recorded the bears chasing one another and the river otters zigzagging through the water. We came home to Austin Sunday night to prepare for our 9:30 and 11 am conferences.
After attending the meetings for both our children, we came home to eat lunch together. We picked up our dog, changed clothes and drove to Pease Park, located in central Austin. We wanted to see the Yippee Ki Yay stickwork structure designed by the legendary Patrick Dougherty. His impressive sculptures are displayed all over the world. We all loved walking through his massive constructions and were in awe of his use of natural materials and the sturdiness of his work. Our children love exploring nature and they were being beckoned to the bed of Shoal Creek. They spent the afternoon finding fossilized rocks and walking along the water’s edge. Pease Park is one of the oldest public parks in Texas. There is rich history behind this area and there are markers lining the hike and bike trail detailing the significance of the property. The park also includes an off-leash dog park north of 24th street that our shepherd/hound mix was happy to scout out.
Sometimes we get so busy with extracurricular activities and commitments that we end up staying in our suburban bubble. It was a joy to use this time to reconnect to family and nature.
