Tuesday 9/23 we entered DinoLand…
Angela and Wesley Owen picked us up and we went to Zilker Park’s Botanical Garden. We met Angela’s friend Teri and her two kids, Emma and Maddie. The boys were very excited, especially Wesley. Here they are studying their maps, so they would know where to go. And here is Jillian who was just hanging out eating a snack.
I love maps!
No, I don't want to share with the boys.
We walked into DinoLand. All of the kids could not wait to find their first dinosaur.
Meaning "Separated Lizard" or "Noble Lizard"
It is a Kritosaurus (Krit’-oh-sor-’us).
They studied it for a while – but Wesley really wanted to find more dinosaurs. So we next encountered…
Meaning " Bambi Robber" or "Baby Raider"
It was several Bambiraptor (Bam-bee-rap’-tor). Angela said it looked like a dinosaur with turkey feathers on it’s arms.
The kids had a hard time spotting these at first…
Meaning "Plumed Serpent"
Once we pointed them out up in the tree the kids thought the Quetzalcoatlus (Ket’-sahl-koe-what’-lus) were nice – but they could not get a good look so we moved on quickly. The sign said that they were huge. With their wings spread out they were as tall as a giraffe and each foot was larger than a human leg.
We next found these two in a small valley…
Meanings "The Pleasing One" and "Crocodile from Post"
The one on the left is a Placerias (Pluh-ser’-ree-us) and the one on the right is a Postosuchus
(Post-oh-soo’kus). When Wesley was looking into the valley he somehow dropped his map and became hysterical. He tried to go in after it. I grabbed Wesley to help him clam down and Angela’s friend Teri got the map. It was a close call. It would have been a bad scene if we could not reach it!
All of the kids were fascinated by the next dinosaur…
I want to see in it's mouth.
It is a Dimetrodon (Die-me’-troe-don)
I like it.
Jillian and Wesley loved it more than the other kids.
Can we have one at home?
Meaning "Two types of teeth"
Jillian really loved it. She kept pointing and getting excited. She just wanted to stay right there and look. Maybe she thought it was a cat. She really loves cats right now. Everyone else was off to see…
Meaning "Edmonton Lizard"
It is an Edmontosaurus (Ed-mon’-toe-sor’-us) and her eggs. It is a large dino – I have better pictures on the links below. But the kids – especially Wesley again loved the baby eggs. He is very into babies right now – and he is most fond of the ones in eggs.
These ones were also hard for the kids to see…
Meaning "Beak Snout"
It is a Rhamphorhynchus (Ram-for-rink’-us). This one was “flying” and there were several others on the tree. But because they were so small the kids did not really notice them and they spent thier time playing on the rocks instead.
On our way to the top part of DinoLand we walked throught an area with lots of ferns…
The Zoo of Ferns
It was called the Zoo of Ferns. This one is a Crocodile Fern. It was pretty awesome. But I did not realize it at first. There were some very cool ferns. All with animal names – and they had similar features to the animals they were named after. All of the adults would have liked to stay and look longer – but the kids could only look at plants with fun animal names for so long…they wanted to get back to finding dinosaurs.
Meaning "Pretty Jaw"
The Compsognathus “Compie” (Comp-son-nay’-thuss) was next on our path. There were several of these small guys.
Wesley kept asking when we would see a Tyrannosaurus Rex. And then we saw…
Meaning "Frightful Lizard"
I did not have the heart to tell him that this is a Daspletosaurus (Dass-pleet’o-sore-us). It is a “cousin” to the T-Rex.
This is my super excited but nervous face.
Wesley loved it! He was so excited. To him this is the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was hard to get him to leave but he was very exciced to see the last dinosaur…
Meaning "Egg Thief"
It is an Oviraptor (O-vee-rap-tor). He is trying to eat these eggs. I was suprised that he liked this one. I thought he would be worried about the babies.
It was a fun trip. They kids had a great time. I wish the park would let you eat there. We would have stayed longer, but they have a no food allowed rule.
Wesley 2y9m27d & Jillian 1y1m10d
So we left and headed up to the bathrooms. While we waited for Wesley Owen to use the potty – the kids climbed onto this bench together. It is really hard to get them in the same space these days. So I was excited. This is the best shot I could get. Still cute, but I wanted more.
We left and had lunch down at the Zilker park playground and train.
It was a great day. Wesley has been talking about it since we left. And I am sure he will be talking about it for weeks to come.
Pictures from the day:
We went to Great Harvest Bread Co. A national franchise that I’ve heard is pretty good. All I wanted was some fresh whole wheat flour. You see, one of their big selling points is that they grind their own wheat everyday in the bakery. I wanted to start a sourdough starter and fresh whole wheat flour is more likely to contain the natural yeasts and bacterias I’m looking for. I’d called a Great Harvest in Seattle (before we moved) and they said they’d be happy to sell me some flour. They weren’t at all taken aback by my question and it seemed like something they did on a regular basis and so I figured it was just something they all did. I guess not. The lady at the Great Harvest we visited just gave me a blank stare when I asked. I asked again and then went into a bit of an explanation. She finally got it. She said “No. We don’t”. Curt and unapologetic.
So I bought a loaf of sourdough instead. I was planning to buy one anyway as it will take up to a few weeks for my starter to be ready. $4.45. Not cheap, but not bad for a hand made loaf of bread. Oh how terrible does bread get? Let me count the ways. I wrote a review for Yelp.com. The full review is below. Boy it was bad, bad, bad, bad!
Review on Yelp:
My first visit to Great Harvest and definitely my last. I can only imagine that this franchise is not up to standards or I have no idea why there would be so many around. The lady wasn’t friendly, the place is kind of a dive (and not in the good local hole in the wall kind of way), and the bread was soooo bad.The worst bread I have ever eaten (and I’ve eaten some lousy bread).
I picked up a loaf of “sourdough” (notice the quotes I don’t want to sully the name of sourdough in general). The loaf was almost $5, but tasted worse than those we buy at the super market (and frankly supermarket bread around here is pretty mediocre). I was expecting more. The bread had the taste and texture of an untoasted English muffin. My 2 year old even said “it looks doughy” and then proceeded to poke it. The flavor was only mildly acidic and the crust, the key to any good loaf of bread was nonexistent. They clearly brushed something on top to give it the look of being well browned (you could see it ran down the sides) but it was just a doughy lump of nothing.
The crumb was extremely even (not a good thing in sourdough). All the bubbles were small and the exact same size. This is a sign of quick rises with commercial yeasts. Sourdough should be made with a natural yeasted culture and slow cool rises.
The crust as I mentioned was just not there. For a good loaf of bread you should see a nice thick crust. The crust would be both crunchy and chewy and darkened by the heat of the oven. The darkening helps add a nutty flavor and gives a nice sweetness. With this loaf, aside from the slimy texture of the top, you’d be hard pressed to find the crust at all.
The loaf was slashed, but the slashes didn’t open. That means it was overproofed before going into the oven or that the oven wasn’t hot enough.
Now I know something about bread. I bake a fair bit myself. But even still I’m not being picky here. We’ll be feeding this bread to the ducks at the local pond and finding a real neighborhood bakery. Save yourself the trip. Try another Great Harvest or better yet bake your own. Even if you’ve never baked before your bread will taste better than this (and look better too!)
Tags: Austin, Great Harvest
Ahoy you bilge rats and land lubbers alike. It is September 19th which means it is Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrgh, it be hard to type like this you scurvey dogs. The talkin’ is easier.
And of course today be also my pappy’s birthday. Coincidence? I think not.
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum to ya dad!
Tags: Talk Like A Pirate Day
It was an unusal dinner tonight. Not because of the baked potatoes, they were delicious by the way, but because of the kids. Wesley our normal bouncy ball fell fast asleep on Amber’s arm. He only managed to eat his applesauce and he did that mostly asleep.
Jillian on the other hand, normally our very serious eater, was a handful. She is becoming more and more of a crack up as she gets older.
