Vestigial Tales @vestigialtales - Tumblr Blog

Day-Hiking at Buescher State Park

Finding my groove in this coniferous wonderland, I followed the trail down into the gulch to the sounds of chickadees and warblers until the growth was so dense one couldn't see more than a few feet into the surrounding woodland.

Earlier this spring, both Kris and I made a short trip out to Bastrop for a hike at the state park of the same name. We had a wonderful time during that hike and due to my extensive research (I visited the Texas State Parks and Wildlife website…) I found another state park just a short 15 minute jaunt down the same road where we could hike about 8-10 more miles in a similar landscape.

As many…

View On WordPress

#Central Texas Parks #Hiking #state parks #Texas hiking #Texas State Parks

Day-Hiking at Inks Lake State Park

With trekking poles in prime position and the contents of my pack arranged in a scoliosis accommodating manner, I strode up the gneiss slab with the confidence of those Ricola guys and their shofars from those 90's cough drop commercials.

As I’d mentioned in my last entry, “Day-Hiking Season is Upon Us,” this last month both Kris and I visited four parks and have many more planned. Being located in Central Texas, we are fortunate to have a wide variety of state parks within an hour or two. Additionally, many of our favorite long-weekend getaways extend that range another hour further out. Halloween weekend we packed up our bags…

View On WordPress

#Central Texas Parks #Central Texas Photography #Hiking #Inks Lake State Park #Nature Photography #Texas Hill Country Vacation #Texas State Parks

Day-Hiking Season is Upon Us

Day-Hiking Season is Upon Us!

The weather is starting to turn here in Central Texas, and with that, hiking season is back upon us. Both Kris and I are very excited to get back out onto the trail and I plan on sharing our latest adventures with everyone.

Having spent the last week or so choosing state parks and making reservations, I am happy to report our next three parks are reserved. In the coming weeks we will be…

View On WordPress

#Central Texas Photography #Hiking #Texas hiking #Texas State Parks

Coin Rings and Things

They say that idle hands are the devils workshop. Sometimes I get bored and fall into YouTube black holes. A little while back I ended up in a random excursion into the realm of coin rings. By coin rings, I am talking about turning a United States quarter dollar coin into a piece of jewelry; in this case a ring.

I’m one of those people who enjoy trying new things and sometimes when I see…

View On WordPress

#Coin Rings #Miscellany

Phoenix Sky Harbor Breakfast

I love to travel, but unfortunately I haven’t had the pleasure (other than locally) in some time. On one of last year’s journeys I found myself overnight in Phoenix, AZ after a conference with an early flight out in the AM. Fortunately for me I was in very good company and a fairly quiet airport at 6AM.

Traveling through the Sky-Harbor Airport in Phoenix there weren’t too many dining options…

View On WordPress

#Phoenix AZ #Restaurants #Travel

Heine-keg Lamp

As you already know, sometimes I get bored and head out to the garage to do “stuff.” A little while back after finishing a delicious 5L Heinekin Mini-Keg, I decided it would be fun to turn it into a lamp for the hobby/media room.

I began with an empty mini-keg and drilled a whole in the top and rinsed vigorously and set it out to dry over one of those hot Texas weekends. After the keg was dry…

View On WordPress

#Miscellany

Backyard Birding: Blue Jay Bullies

This year we have quite a few blue jays who have taken up residence in our oak tree in the backyard. Although they are pretty to look at, with their bright blue feathers, they tend to bully the songbirds and go through suet and seed way faster than I would prefer. I should also mention that they don’t exactly have a “song.” In fact, they really just screech all day long.

Can you tell I don’t…

View On WordPress

#Backyard Birding #Bird Photography #Birding in Texas #Birdwatching #Blue Jay #Photography

Whats up with all damn glasses of water?

Okay, just a short rant today about something that has annoyed me for a long time. Whenever we go out to restaurants and order a drink I feel like the server inundates the table with glasses of water. Now regularly this wouldn’t be annoying, however when you are at a tiny table or have a lot of people, all those glasses of water just get in the way. The Earth is like 75% water already, we don’t…

View On WordPress

#Rant #Restaurants

Backyard Birding: Our Little Oasis Update

I live in the burbs. With that said, there are some inherent challenges to birding on a home postage stamp of land. Fortunately over the years, I have found little ways around the hurdles of suburb-living and birding. I like to think that I have reached a happy compromise.

At the moment, we are providing feed for a variety of birds and have a running water source behind the back fence where a…

View On WordPress

#backyard birding #birds #birdwatching #central texas #central texas photography #nature photography #Photography

Backyard Birding: How About Those Hummingbirds

I love to watch hummingbirds, I find them captivating. A few weekends ago we were at a rustic cabin. Where the owner had recently placed a giant hummingbird feeder with fresh homemade nectar! Upon arrival at the cabin there were about a dozen of those little hummingbirds buzzing all around the feeder and crepe myrtle close by.

For those of you who have been in a small swarm of hummingbirds,…

View On WordPress

#backyard birding #birding #birds #hummingbird #nature photography #Photography

Backyard Birding: An Elusive Painted Bunting

During our weekend excursion out to the Das Jager Haus, I had the privilege to spend my days under the shade of a small pecan grove capturing images of many beautiful and bountiful central Texas native birds. The sheer quantity of hummingbirds, titmice, chickadees and cardinals was absolutely insane, but there was one bird that took my breath away; the painted bunting.

For those of you who…

View On WordPress

#backyard birding #birding #birding in texas #birds #central texas #painted bunting #Photography

Das Jager Haus in Fredericksburg, TX

We spent another long weekend just outside of Fredericksburg in a new (to us) cabin in the hill country. This time we didn’t go terribly far off the beaten path. Lately we seem to be far enough out that we don’t have any service on our phones and even the satellite is spotty. I by no means have a problem with that, but sometimes it is nice to have the ability to contact restaurants, shops and the…

View On WordPress

#birds #birdwatching #central texas photography #central texas vacation #Texas Hill Country Vacation #vacation texas #VRBO Fredericksburg

Las Vegas: "Mojito-Face"

Anyway, I wasn’t rude or anything and as soon as I got my mojito I was good, in fact I made “mojito-face.” For those of you who don’t know what “mojito-face” is, see below. We have "pre-mojito-face," ""mojito-face" and "post-mojito-face."

It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and Kris and I had reservations at Carmine’s in Caesars Palace for 8pm. Instead of catching an Uber (and having spent a small fortune already), we decided we would walk the mile or two to get there as we would be covering familiar ground and there were a couple things we wanted to experience along the way.

Walking out of the main entrance of the MGM, along…

View On WordPress

#Las Vegas #Nevada #Restaurants #Travel #vrbo #VRBO travel

Las Vegas: Excess on Every Corner

If there is one thing spending a little time in Vegas has taught me is that excess is standard fare. Whether you are at the Hershey’s store at the corner of NYNY, The Shops at Crystals at the Aria or merely in the lobby cantina of your hotel, you can have whatever you want as long as you are willing to pay the price.

I’d like to start this story by sharing our experiences as the aforementioned…

View On WordPress

#Casino Hotel #Day trip #Las Vegas #Nevada #Travel #VRBO travel

Las Vegas: In search of “Big Elvis”

Before our Thanksgiving journey to Las Vegas, a patient at my office mentioned that I should seek out “Big Elvis” while in town. The patient had mentioned that the imposter king visits a couple of casinos on the strip and sometimes downtown venues on Fremont St. He also mentioned that there are different hours on different days and that part of the fun of exploration was trying to find where he…

View On WordPress

#Casino Hotel #elvis #Las Vegas #Nevada #Travel #vrbo #VRBO travel

Visiting Hoover Dam in a Pink Jeep

We had just finished our morning coffee and were trying to decide what we wanted to do for our last day in Vegas. Running a quick Google search for excursions, I stumbled across a tour group called, “Pink Jeep Adventures.”

Keeping with our weekend’s Vegas theme, Kris and I got out of the city during our last day and visited Hoover Dam. I must say, all this things you hear about Vegas being in the middle of nowhere are absolutely true. Anyway, maybe we should begin at the beginning…

We had just finished our morning coffee and were trying to decide what we wanted to do for our last day in Vegas as we had already…

View On WordPress

#hoover dam #Las Vegas #Photography #Travel #vegas #VRBO travel

VRBO in Vegas

There is just something about Las Vegas. Like a moth to a flame, I just keep being drawn back. Unfortunately, due to the current travel restrictions in place both Kris and I will not be spending Thanksgiving at the MGM Signaturethis year. I was going through some of our iPhoto albums and found some pics from our VRBO suite as well as from around the city and wanted to write-up a quick blog post…

View On WordPress

#Casino Hotel #Las Vegas #MGM Grand #Michael Jackson #Nevada #Travel #Vacation #VRBO travel

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Vestigial Tales