Okay so after Lubbock and Midland, lots of resting and eating, we felt the need to indulge even more-ha! We planned this last stop of our long vacation several months ago, as a late anniversary treat. Friday morning I packed us lunches, we loaded up and drove about 2 hrs to
Balmorhea.
I'd been there a handful of times growing up, its a beautiful natural spring literally in the middle of nowhere, but it was Dillon's first time so that made it exciting for me. After a picnic lunch on site, we jumped into the freezing water- the only way to get in is just to jump because its so cold. In the deepest waters, it gets to 25 ft. deep; we brought our snorkels and swam around. The weather was perfect that day- hot and dry.
After a couple of hours we got back in the car and drove a little ways longer to Ft. Davis- a cute little town in the middle of the mountains. We stayed at Indian Lodge, a historic hotel nestled in the desert mountains.
Before dinner we did a fun activity that we have recently discovered called geocaching- basically if you have a GPS, you can register to find various "treasures" or hidden markers that are located across the world. The GPS gives you clues, and the latitudenal cordinates, and you have to find the object/landmark. We didnt realize how popular this trend was until the trip- we found a box on the side of the road under a rock, and when we checked the log to see how many people had found it, there were several pages of people, and someone had been there just the day before we had. Its hard to explain, but its really fun!
This was the view from our room
That night we went to the
McDonald Observatory, we went at the last minute and we're so glad we did- it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. I've always loved astronomy, and star gazing, but I was worried Dillon would be bored. It was actually very interesting- we sat in an outdoor theatre with about 200 other people on top of a mountain in the pitch dark, learning about the constellations, saw the International Space Station fly over, and got to look through several advanced telescopes. Funny, I was the one telling Dillon I was ready to leave =)
Saturday morning we slept in, drove out, had lunch in Alpine, then drove on
The Gage Hotel in Marathon. We were so suprised- the town is tiny, you drive in and basically there is a hotel, 3 restraunts, 2 churches and a handful of homes- thats it. We felt like were were removed from everything (nothing wrong with that I guess!) We enjoyed dinner at the hotel restraunt, swam, read, swam some more- just enjoyed the beauty of the place. I would go back again for sure, its perfect for a 2 or 3 night stay. My parents have told us about this place for years and we finally understand their sentiment.
Dillon with the camera (its a good photo!)
Sitting outside enjoying wine and the quiet night
There is something so beautiful about the rugged west- I miss it already~
