Days 15-18. Howdy partners

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Hi, sorry for not writing in so long.

For our last day in San Fran we had already seen the main tourist attractions and so we just decided to have a chilled day and walk to the park. When we got there we decided to go and keep walm in the museum - San Fransisco is also known as Fog City and so is quite chilly! The Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park is amazing!! We had been to the aquarium by the pier the day before but the museum was a lot better and had an aquarium too. We spent the day watching the coral reef which was really stunning, and walked through a glass walkway which mimicked the flooded rainforest floor. The also had a planetarium with shows throughout the day included in the price of the ticket so we went to watch that too. I've never been in a planetarium before but the screen covers our entire field of vision so it really feels as if you are moving through the images - brilliant.

The next day we spent travelling to Austin - with a tiny dog sat in a seat behind Liz which squeaked the whole way there! As soon as we got outside the airport the heat hit us and we realised that jeans were probably not the best choice - and this was at almost 11pm! At the hostel there was a group of people outside playing games and drinking so we got to know a few nice people who we then went out with the following night for a girls birthday.

We spent the day yesterday and today at Barton Springs. This is a part of the Lake which is absolutely beautiful - and the water is f-f-f-freezing - which is exactly what you need in that heat! It also has a diving board so we spent hours watching some amazing dives and mostly waiting the occasional face plant and belly flop. It's got an amazing atmosphere and is a must for anybody visiting Austin. As well as that in the same area you can rent a kayak on the lake which we did for an hour but I was quite concerned I might get eaten by a croc so spent the whole time going as fast as my little arms would let me go and trying to stay near other people - hopefully they would get eaten first! The last thing we did was to watch Austins famous bat colony. This is the biggest urban bat colony in the world which has set up home underneath one of the bridges in the city. Every night millions of bats fly out to hunt and it is literally unbelievable to watch as they all fly of onto the horizon and it just looks like clouds in the distance.

After all of the heat of the day it's just as hot at night so last night we went to listen to some live music but tonight we're just going to relax here in the hostel. We fly to Miami at 5:30am Monday morning so tomorrows going to be a longggg day!

Hopefully we wont leave it so long before we write again - my Mum was getting concerned!

Nosheen and Liz

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