Exploring Austin, Texas with Tween/Teens

My husband had a work trip in Austin, TX and the kiddos (ages 11, 13 & 16) and I got to tag along. The kiddos and I had never been to Texas before and we were really excited to spend 3 days exploring.

The whole trip started with a big snafu… my husband used his company’s travel agency and there was a miscommunication regarding the date of the outgoing flight. He didn’t notice the mistake until just hours before we were supposed to leave. It was stressful to figure out – but there are worse things – and we all made it out on the correct day in the end. Don’t ask me how much the mistake cost, I don’t want to talk about it.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place Downtown and enjoyed free complimentary breakfasts each morning. Meal planning & finding restaurants can be a very stressful part of traveling for me because I have a couple of really picky eaters (myself included). Not having to find a restaurant every morning is a huge help!

When we travel I do my best to plan a range of activities encompassing outdoor, adventure, nature, educational, culinary, art, and culture categories. I also like to seek out venues and experiences that are unique to the area – things were can’t do anywhere else. Here’s what we did on our trip.

Day one: arrive, check in at hotel, go to bed

Day two: Flying Armadillo Disc Golf Course ($10 per person/free under 12) and Zilker Park Disc Golf Course (free) JuiceLand

Day three: Texas Capitol (free) and The Blanton Museum of Art (free on Tuesdays) JuiceLand

Day four: Zilker Botanical Garden ($8 adults/$4 youth) and Barton Spring Pool ($9 adults/$5 youth/$4 children) Moonshine Grill and Bats of Congress Avenue Bridge (free)

Day five: get to the airport first thing in the morning to fly home

I had hoped to read a few books set in Texas before our trip, but we got hung up trying to finish “The Return of the King” by J.R.R. Tolkien and that took longer than I anticipated. We read “L is for Lonestar” to get a general overview of Texas before we went on the trip. And we started “I Survived the Galveston Hurricane, 1900” by Lauren Tarshis the day before we left and finished it mid-trip. We read “The Legend of the Bluebonnet” and “Armadillo Rodeo” after we got back. I’m a firm believer that you’re never too old for picture books – but they have to be the right picture books, Brett and dePaola rarely disappoint.

Overall, I feel like our trip to Austin was borderline necessary. My husband got a new job last June and he has been working a lot the last couple of months. All three of my kids are “daddy‘s kids” and they always want to do activities with my husband involved. It’s a wonderful situation to have kids so attached to their father. And, it hasn’t been feasible for him to join us much lately. Additionally, I tend to get a little stuck sometimes. I get bogged down by never-ending chores like dishes and laundry, and piles of clutter that I never seem to have the time or energy to sort through. I start feeling like I’m not doing a good enough job homeschooling my kids or keeping my house. I can start feeling trapped in a monotonous cycle of make-a-meal, eat-a-meal, clean-up-a-meal, math, language arts, science, history, and then repeat it all on autopilot.

In the words of Chip and Joanna Gaines, sometimes it’s good to “cartwheel past your comfort zones.” This trip to Austin gave me a bit of a kickstart. I was semi-forced to plan adventures and be the only adult in the room. I feel like adventures are important for kids and families and parent-child relationships. Life should have a generous sprinkling of adventures in it. Adventures don’t happen to you if you’re comfortably sitting in your home. They don’t come knocking on your door with an invitation. You must make them happen! They don’t have to be extravagant or expensive. Adventures need only to be special or out of the ordinary with the opportunity of something unexpected to happen along the way!

We hope you get to have an adventure with someone you love sometime soon!