Summer adventure #10

Yesterday we loaded up the kids to go out on our weekly adventure. The destination was Hamilton Pool just outside of Austin. We couldn't wait to swim in the cool clear water of the pool and maybe get wet underneath one of its sparkling waterfalls. So after an hour drive to get there we pulled up and saw a sign that said "no swimming due to high bacteria levels." Bummer. In hindsight, maybe we should have called first to see if the water was clean.

Luckily, the park ranger told us we could go in and hike around the pool and take pictures and stuff. Then we could get back in our car and drive a mile up the road to another park where we could take the kids swimming in the river. Back in business. You just don't want to drive an hour with two little kids to go swimming and then have to tell them "hey! just kidding. we're not getting in the water today."

So we made our way to the other park and talked to that ranger who said "sure you can go swimming! at your own risk! and we don't test our water out here!" Of course I was mildly concerned that the water we ended up swimming in was just a mile away from the water we couldn't so much as dangle our toes in without fear of becoming ill. But I just told myself that the water in a running river couldn't be as easily contaminated as the water in a stagnant pool. Right? Right?!

Also, I kept harping on the children to make sure they didn't swallow any of the river water. Or put their heads in it. And Mike told me to make sure we cleaned their ears out with alcohol when we got home. I thought that was a great idea because I wanted to make sure we killed any brain eating amoebas we might pick up from the water. And Mike was all "okay, sure. also it will prevent swimmer's ear." It tells you something about our personalities that he was worried about the common swimmer's ear while I was worried about brain boring amoebas and flesh eating bacteria. Especially since I had a couple of cuts on my legs from shaving and I was concerned the bacteria would make their way in through those, fester and multiply and I would eventually need a double leg amputation. It's a good thing I don't over react to certain situations.

Anyhow, the kids and Mike had a lot of fun swimming in the river. And I tried to act like I was having fun too. Even when I thought about all of the river snakes swimming around that we couldn't possibly see because the water was way too murky from all the flesh eating/brain boring organisms living there. We had a picnic lunch on the shore which didn't concern me a bit seeing as how there was no place to wash our hands except for the small box of wipies I happened to shove in our bag a few days ago. I'm sure it was perfectly sanitary and that wipes are able to kill flesh eating brain boring stuff.

My hubby surprised me on the drive out and back with a cd of the Rock of Ages movie soundtrack. People. This is some good music. Turns out that Emma Mae likes Guns and Roses. And as we listened to Every Rose has its Thorn I completely forgot about the fact that we could all be harboring life threatening micro organisms in our bodies and I just enjoyed the moment.