Zilker Park Kite Festival 2011

The stars aligned for us at the Kite Festival last weekend... eventually. The day actually started out with a series of certifiable FAILs. 

When we had gotten our 3-year old and all of our park-day baggage packed into the car, it hit me that we were starting our adventure approximately 5 minutes before my toddler's nap time. I wouldn't have been so bad if we could go from the car to the park in 20 minutes, but I knew we would be in the car at least an hour during our drive from the suburbs, through the maze of downtown traffic and the joys of finding a place to park. Awesome.

So we get on the road and a few more things occur to me:

1. We had no Benadryl. My son has very sensitive skin, food allergies and environmental allergies. Going to the park without Benedryl was not an option. Apparently, buying Benadryl at Walgreens and Randalls and HEB was not an option either, because I stopped at ALL THREE and they no longer carry the stuff. WTF is up with all the store brands taking over? It's not that I'm brand loyal, I just wanted to buy the same, conveniently packaged, pre-filled doses of Benadryl that I had used over the past 2 years. At my third and final stop on the hunt for Benadryl, we settled for the store brand elixir. Good thing we were at a grocery store...

2. We had no food. Plenty for the boy, whom I totally live for. None for the parental units, whom, apparently can kick it at the park all afternoon without food and water. It was so difficult for me to buy food and snacks that I knew were also sitting home in my fridge and pantry. At the check-out I felt like Julius, the dad on the TV show, Everybody Hates Chris. With every beep of the scanner, I was calculating and thinking what else we could have bought with that money, had we planned better before going out. We only spent about $11 on food, but that is totally, half the amount of designer jeans on clearance at Nordstrom's Rack, and half of the amount of those really cute metallic ballet flats IN MY SIZE at Nordtrom's Rack, and the total price of brand new kicks for my son at Nordstrom's Rack, or two pairs of used ones at Kid to Kid.  Just like Julius, I think the worst thing you can do with money is eat it. I also HATE putting it in the gas tank. Which leads me to...

3. We had no gas.  I don't bother thinking about what I could get with gas money. Even though gas prices are insane right now, I like my automobile and we have to get to point B, so I suck it up. We pulled over at a gas station downtown, our only option at that point (ca-ching), and took care of that. 

By that time, we had been in the car about 50 minutes and our toddler made sure we were aware that he was not thrilled to be in the car. We still had to get through downtown, near Zilker and find parking. That was when the whole stars aligning thing happened. We decided to try our luck and drive right down to the lake shore in the middle of the action to find a spot and we did, right next to RunTex! The private lodge next door had free parking for the festival, but the little poster board sign was smaller than the "NO PARKING PRIVATE PROPERTY" sign, and there was plenty of parking. My son loves to ride in his stroller, so when he was us pop up the Bob, he was all giggles. A short walk across the high-low bridge and we found a perfect, not-crowded spot to post up. There was a man playing somber violin in the area, which was like totally un-related background music and made me feel like I was in a Spike Lee movie.

I watched most of the festival lying down. I had been rear-ended a couple of days before, so my range was limited. I couldn't exactly stand or sit to look up at the kites. Laying down on a blanket while my guys ran around and flew kites was quite awesome. 

This was our first year taking our 3 year-old to the festival. Last summer he flew his first kite and fell in love with it. We knew he would have a crazy-wonderful time. Once we got to the actual park, he was like, naps-who needs 'em. We all had a blast. 

What's a Homegirl family blast without pictures? Photo album is up on Facebook. :0)

Austinites, did you go to the festival this year?

Comments

[Leesha]

LOVE IT! lol at being in a Spike Lee movie with the random violin guy-

[Quel]

Thank you, Leesha! I love that you get the Spike Lee movie reference! We are so >here<. :)