Mini-putt, a nap (!) and barbecue: Austin Day 5

Today started off a bit rough.  I may have tripped over the power cord of Beth's laptop, sending if flying off the coffee table and crashing onto the floor.  It is dead.  I killed it.  Apparently it is repairable but.... oops.

After that things got better.  This morning after a beautiful walk to Walgreens and through the Intramural Fields, we all, and by all I mean Graeme this time too, took part in a competitive game of mini golf.  And by competitive I mean no scores, balls thrown by hand through various hazards, Hope eating raisins on the greens, the usual when playing any sport with children.  Yes, I just referred to mini golf as a sport.

Emily and Hope had a lot of fun mini-golfing.  The grown-ups did too.  Graeme and I particularly liked watching Beth attempting to get her ball anywhere remotely near where it was supposed to go.  Okay, she had a couple of holes in one but so did Emily.  

After a few holes Hope got tired, gave up her stick (what we aficionados call the golf club) and her ball and sat down for a mid-round snack.  Luckily no one was playing behind us.  We may have irritated a few people had that been the case.  

The course was heavily used by families with young children.  I almost beaned a couple of them with my wicked swing.  I did have to intervene at the end when I saw two boys peering into the ends of some PVC tubing that is the exit point of the balls on the last hole.  I think I saved them some expensive reconstructive surgery.

After a sno-cone, which caused great friction between my two girls, we headed home for lunch and naps.  Yeah, right.  Naps.  I live in such a delusionary state.  However, today Hope napped!  It took  thirty minutes of persistence on my part but it paid off today.  Emily stayed in her room over an hour so at least I got a decent break.

After everyone was awake, a few of Beth's friends joined us and we all headed en masse to the official barbecue captial of Texas: Lockhart.  Specifically, Kreutz's Barbecue in Lockhart.  Lockhart is a small town known for two things: barbecue and the filming location of that blockbuster hit Screen Door Jesus.  Yeah, I'd never heard of it either.  Actually, a lot of films were made their according to the Lockhart website, including What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Waiting for Guffman.  All the others I think are in a similar category to Screen Door Jesus.  The category of "WTF?"

During all my other visits to Austin we go to the Salt Lick for BBQ and we love it.  But this place kind of makes every other BBQ joint seem a bit bush-league.  The BBQ pits at this place take up an entire room.  The room is smoking hot.  The open fire is right near your feet.  The meat is carved on a middle table, weighed, laid on butcher's paper and handed to you.  No utensils, no sauce, just meat.  In their words, they have nothing to hide so they don't give you sauce.  But, you don't need it.  The meat is seriously tender and full to the brim with smoky charcoal flavour.  You know it entering the place.  You step out of the car and your nose is filled with the smell of charcoal and burning wood.  Your mouth begins to water immediately.  Well, unless you're a vegetarian.  Of course, if you're a vegetarian it is unlikely you'll find yourself in Lockhart.  Or in Texas, for that matter.

We filled ourselves with meat.  Well, most of us did.  My girls filled themselves with Wonder Bread and pickles.  And strawberry ice cream.  I mean, why eat succulent ribs when you can eat spongy white bread?  I guess it was a treat for them since I deprive them of the stuff.  Emily once asked me: what's white bread?  At that moment, I felt I'd succeeded in parenting.  Emily did eat some pork ribs.  She really liked those.  Mostly she liked the ice cream and bread.

That's it for our day.  It was another great one.  I know it was because the kids were filthy by the end of it.  Have no idea what's on for tomorrow but you'll hear about it here.