Cinco de Mayo

One might think that being in Texas that we would have done something to mark Cinco de Mayo, but it did not work out that way.  We traveled down to San Marcos to take a glass-bottom boat tour in Spring Lake at the Aquarena near the Texas State University campus. This was formerly a theme park (even had mermaid actresses in the water) near the campus that was purchased by the campus in 1994, but by 1996 it lost so much money it was closed.  Now it is being converted into a sort of natural area, see: http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/.  The boat ride was fun, and the spring water is amazingly clear - all the way to the deepest bottom 30 feet down. There are plants that grow in the water that have little white flowers, but the water is so clear that they are fooled into opening underwater.  They can pollinate that way, but it is not as efficient as opening in the air. We saw lots of other plants, fish (including a spotted gar shown in the blurry photo), turtles, a cormorant, and a nutria. After that, we went to New Braunfels (lots of Germans settled in central Texas) to the Wein and Saengerfest.  We are not really into wine drinking, but we did try some sangria for the first time - it was good (I also had a brat-kabob).  We went to see a friend of ours who is the drummer in the band Dysfunktion Juncktion.  They played a good, diverse, energetic set of songs.  Katie and Kris also stomped some grapes and put their juicy footprints onto T-shirts.  It was unseasonably hot again, about 96 F, but it looks like some overnight rain is on the way.