Waco's Best

Although there are many things I miss about California and the west coast, I have come to appreciate my Waco home. Some call this the Waco 'suck' factor. When you first arrive in Waco, it sucks! But then, it kind of sucks you in. I never, ever, in a million years, thought I would be staying in Waco for a 5th year. I mean, there is no ocean, no mountains, no big city, no true theatre, and frankly, not much to do after 8pm.

So what is great about Waco?!

1. No traffic/smog

2. Great people!

3. Cameron Park (2nd largest in city park in the nation, Central Park being 1st)

4. Altos de Jalisco (favorite Mexican food place in the area)

5. Diamondbacks (great desserts/happy hour)

6. Fireflies!

7. Lake Waco

8. Suspension Bridge (1st suspension bridge west of the Mississippi)

9. Close to Dallas & Austin

10. Woodway Park (newest favorite!)

Although these things are all great, many of them aren't things to 'do' or at least not things you can't do frequently. However, Woodway Park challenges this idea. It's a park located right off Lake Waco and offers a couple trails for hiking/walking/biking and probably the best place in Waco to watch the sunset.

One advantage of not having mountains is the fabulous sky scenes we get in Texas. Last night, I went to Woodway Park to journal and watch the sunset. Just as the sun was setting, I was joined by Meredith. Here are some pictures of the sunset we enjoyed!

After watching the sunset, we headed to the trail to find some fireflies. As we walked, Meredith inhaled a bug. Literally, she was walking and began coughing. I was laughing so hard. Mostly because this same thing had happened to Meredith the day before when she was walking the bear trail. Two bugs, in two days.

In her honor, I began singing this little jingle (modified from the musical RENT)

Goodbye bug, goodbye bug

Just came to say goodbye bug goodbye

Just came to say goodbye bug, goodbye bug

hello... disease

I'm sure if you eat too many bugs, you'd catch something.

Anyway. As we were walking, we saw a little cotton tailed rabbit. So being the late twenties young women we are, we followed the bunny. As we followed it down a trail, I began to laugh again. It wasn't long ago that we were watching Alice in Wonderland/Alice and the Looking Glass and commenting if we would be stupid enough to follow a rabbit down a hole. And look at us, what we were doing?! Meredith and I got a good laugh out of it as we joked about the Jabberwoky coming for us :)

As we approached a bridge on the trail we stopped to take in the beauty. There were hundreds of fireflies lighting up around us, about 30 every second. It was unreal. I got out my camera to take a video. After many attempts, I got the video below. Although it does not do justice to the scene, I thought I'd post it for a glimpse of what we experienced. You can only see about 7 in this video. I'm not sure how to get a video that does these fireflies justice, and maybe, again, this is just one of the things in life we are meant to experience once (or twice, or as many times as I decide to visit Woodway Park) :)