Austin

Last weekend we traveled to Austin, Texas for Brielle's National Taekwondo competition! Her part in the competition was only one morning, but we stayed a couple more days to explore the city and enjoy relaxing at the hotel.

Austin had a lot of attractive buildings, greenery, and a river running through it. It reminded us a lot of Portland. Their slogan, "Keep Austin Weird" also sounded familiar.

Our hotel was a short walk from the Taekwondo competition, which was really convenient. We lucked out to get a large room overlooking the river. There was a king bed for all four of us to sleep in, a sitting area, and a large open space where Brielle could practice her poomse. Right before leaving for Austin, we heard about the "bats of Austin". Apparently, at dusk each night, up to 1.5 million bats fly out from under the Congress bridge, which was right outside of our window! Each night we watched crowds of people line up on the bridge and many colorful boats gathering below.

Every evening we watched through the window for the bat flight. Unfortunately, and amazingly, we never saw a thing. Apparently they might fly out at different times some nights, and while we were there they flew out well after sunset and it was completely dark. We only knew it happened when we noticed that people were starting to leave the bridge. Oh well.

One day we took a walk down by the river and walked under the bat bridge. We could hear squeaking sounds, but the bats were hidden up inside of narrow slats so we couldn't see them. We did get to see several turtles, which was fun. Even though it was overcast most of the time, it was really hot and humid - not Florida humid, but still draining.

Two days after we arrived, it was time for Brielle's competition! She was supposed to arrive at 7:30 to be in the "holding area", although she didn't actually compete until around 9. As we learned, that wasn't bad at all. There were over 5500 competitors in the week-long competition, and for certain events, like sparring, competitors were there for hours. We heard that one night the sparring rounds weren't complete until 3:30 in the morning! Maybe we should hope she doesn't choose to do sparring this year. Our dojang had only one girl participating in sparring, and everyone else was doing poomses, like Brielle.

When it was time for her and her competitors to go the the arena, they were told to make a train to make sure they'd stick together for the walk across the convention center. The 6 to 7 year-old group were the youngest competitors, and the staff members were really nice to them and tried to make it fun.

There were only 5 girls in Brielle's division (meaning, ages 6 - 7, green belt, female). She's actually a blue belt now (2 belts higher), but she qualified for the competition at the green belt level, so she had to compete in that division. Some of the other divisions, like teenage black belt boys, had up to 80+ competitors, and they had to go through a couple rounds before the winners were chosen. So this was a nice, lower-pressure introduction for Brielle. Of course, at age 6, she didn't really seem to understand the significance of being there. She's been in several competitions already, so it seemed like she just saw this as one more. It's great that she still doesn't seem nervous at all.

Master Ha gave her some last-minute advice and support before her turn.

You've probably seen the video below, but here are a couple of photos. Kraig, Ronan, and I got to stand right outside the mats, joined by several of her teammates who came to offer their encouragement and support.

Third place! She's good, but we weren't necessarily expecting her to win, since she was younger than the 7-year-olds in her group. We were just happy that she didn't seem nervous, did a great job, and got to take home some kind of medal (since she's used to getting them by now).

After she competed, we met up with Master Ha and others from our dojang then went out to lunch together at P. F. Chang's. It was difficult to watch her teammates perform since they were scheduled at different times throughout the week and Ronan's patience was being tried (although he did great!). But we did pop in another day to visit Nana's grandson, Sam, and his family, because he was competing in sparring, representing the state of Kansas. The kids also enjoyed some of the inflated sculptures and activities offered by vendors at the convention center.

We think it's quite possible that Ronan will want to do Taekwondo in a year when he's old enough.

Now, to the highlight of the trip - at least for Brielle. Lately she's been obsessed with swimming. It probably started with her love for mermaids, but now she's just interested in learning how to swim and doesn't necessarily want to wear her mermaid tail. At home she wants to go in the spa, and even in the bathtub she asks to wear her goggles and is diving under the water more than she's above the surface. It's great because she's advancing really fast in her abilities. In Austin she was definitely more focused on getting to swim in the pool than on the competition. That's fine - she's 6! Our hotel room windows looked down onto the pool, giving her a constant reminder of the possibility of swimming...and we did it...a lot. Below, Daddy is watching her (upper right) as she shows off her newly acquired swimming skills.

On our last day in Austin, we took a tour on an amphibious vehicle that starts off as a bus driving around town, then drives into the water to serve as a boat. Pretty cool idea.

They provided everyone with plastic duck bills that make a quacking-type sound (because the company is named Duck Tours or something). We looked forward to "misplacing" those things later.

Kraig and I enjoyed seeing Austin by bus. Normally on a vacation the two of us would walk all around a new town to see what we could see. But it was really hot, and it's not easy for two little kids to walk very far, or very fast. So a bus tour seemed like a good idea. We saw the capitol building, local establishments where something significant happened in history, and some neat modern architecture.

Ronan was particularly engaged, kneeling up in the seat and looking around. But he wasn't interested in what the tour guide was describing - he was looking for Cadillacs ("Daddy car!"). He's obsessed with finding them. In Portland, he's lucky if he can see one a day. But Austin was apparently a goldmine for Cadillac sightings - they were everywhere! Ronan was delighted.

He also loved when the bus drove into the river and became a boat.

We had a really good vacation in Austin. The kids were great during the travel, and we spent our time the way we were expecting - a little bit of time for the competition, a little bit of time to see Austin, and a lot of time playing in the pool and hotel room. We liked Austin - I'd describe it as if Portland and Nashville had a baby.