The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

"We're back, with some more pix from our Texas trip.  A few here were dispatches from the field, but here's our whole travelogue.  Long story short, in October Mum made this crazy last-minute decision to try to go and see the annular solar eclipse.  She found a house-sit within the eclipse path, applied Saturday night, interviewed Sunday afternoon and got invited, and had 3 days to throw together an international trip -- flights, car, insurance, camera and eclipse-watching gear... and US!  This was Scarlett's and my second trip to see a solar eclipse -- we went to Nashville in 2017."


"We were sooooo excited to be on a plane again after over 3 years with the world being messed up.  ...I mean, how could you not love this view!!"






"Our own seat!"



   "Here we are in Toronto, our first stop.  One thing wrong with where we live is how hard it is to get anywhere else."



   "Here we are approaching San Antonio, … Or was this Houston…?… Houston was a disastrously un-signage'd airport and Mum nearly had a coronary trying to make the ridiculous connection.  They had to run down the corridor and yell at the aircrew to re-open the door because boarding was closed (there were NO announcements about boarding and at what gate either!)
   "Mum's suitcase did NOT make the connection.  Fortunately we were not in it."



   "This is our eclipse-watching spot, at Fischer Park in New Braunfels, just about 15 minutes from the house.  We got there reeeeeealllly early to be sure of parking.  No one else was there yet!"



   "This is the view from our spot.  Early clouds had Mum wondering if she should try to make a run for somewhere out there, which was clear.  We stayed put and >whew< it cleared."



"Here we are with our gear.  The camera and binoculars are solar-filtered."



"The projector comes from a shop in the UK called Astromedia: www.astromediashop.co.uk/JTL-Shop/ .  It has lots of cardboard scientific models you can build yourself.  This one has been assembled/disassembled/reassembled for both our trips."






   "We love seeing the clockwork motion of the cosmos.  This was an annular eclipse, which means the moon was a bit farther from Earth, so at maximum eclipse a ring of the sun showed all around it.  If you zoom in on this one you can see a sunspot."



   "Trees act like pinhole cameras and project images of eclipses through their leaves.  Wow eh?"



   "This is the last picture Mum took before annularity, when she just put the camera on video and laid back with the binoculars to watch.  We were near the edge of the path so the ring lasted just a heartbeat of a moment."



"During the four hours or so of the eclipse, I found a me-sized flower."



   "Afterward we ex.plored the park.  This is the butterfly garden.  They were ex.pecting Monarchs within a week or so.  It was fun to think we were at the other end of their migration route.
"Mum wants this bench.  (Mum wants a place that has a garden that could suit this bench.)"



   "At our house-sit (in a very posh house) the cats were kinda standoffish so we didn't get photos with them.  They bring bugs into the house, but this cicada had been under the couch for some time.  We wish Mum had taken time to make sure she got an in-focus photo of us!"


   "The next day, we went to the San Antonio Botanical Garden.  Mum took a million pictures."





   "We just loved the fern grotto, which was full of orchids and had a waterfall and cool tree ferns."






   "This floral dragon is 25 feet high, has 14,916 plants, and weighs 27,552 pounds.  (We wonder, is that when the soil is wet or dry??!)  There were several others including a peacock, a mermaid, Rip Van Winkle and Pegasus."


   "Pegasus is 10 feet tall, has 2282 plants, and weighs 5442 pounds."



   "There was a spectabulous palm house, in which we saw one of the world's biggest cultivated ponytail palms, 27 feet around at the base of its multiple trunks.  Its age was not stated.  It's got to be ancient.  We have one at home.  It's about 35 years old and is only about 6 1/2 feet tall."






   "There were funky little houses.  Not quite we-sized."



   "Halloween being near, there were lots of pumpkins around, and this witch crashed into a bush."



   "A chocolate plant?  Mum, we neeeed one!!"



   "It was so very cool to see such different plants everywhere from what we're used to.  And it was soooo very cool that it was so.... hot!  Mum was thrilled to be running around in shorts and t-shirt in October."



   "The light was going by now, but, this fountain wall was really pretty."



"Near the entrance were a couple of giant-storybook floral sculptures."



   "We need to find out what these are.  We think these should be our official flower.  What do you think??"

   "To be continued...!  Thanks for reading!
   "Love, Sunsette "