2nd Week of July (part 2)

Boogs finished his week of Mobile Loaves and Fishes camp on Friday. Daddy and I made it to camp in time to see the end of week slide show. It looked like Boogs learned a lot and had a ton of fun.

We left camp and headed over to a nearby Metro train station. Our plan was to take the train to spend the afternoon downtown in Austin.

We walked around downtown for a bit and then headed to Boogs favorite summer location - The Big Top Candy Shop.

We hadn't realized it was almost a 2 mile walk from the train station to the candy shop. It was 103 degrees (39.4 C), luckily we found a few shady spots to walk through.

Big Top Candy Shop is themed like a circus. There are all kinds of circus posters on the walls, an old fashioned soda fountain bar, and candies from all over the world.

Boogs spent a long time making his decision. He had $5 to spend. He compared prices and ounces to make sure he got the best deals for his money.

 Daddy treated us to snowcones to help us cool off.

From the Congress Avenue bridge, you can see the state capitol in the distance. On our next downtown train ride, we are going to walk over to the capitol, take the tour, and walk the grounds. There were protests planned at the capitol this day so we avoided it.

Boogs was hot and exhausted by the end of our walk. He took a little nap on the train. We really enjoyed the air conditioning on the train.

 On Saturday morning, we stopped by the dive shop to get a few tanks for our next diving adventure.

To celebrate Padi's Women's Day of Diving, our local dive shop, Dive World, planned a night dive at The Meadow Center in San Marcos.

Daddy and Boogs were able to participate, too. Daddy has been on a couple of night dive's before but this was a first for Boogs and I. We met at The Meadow Center at 5pm. We filled out paperwork for the dive and had an orientation about the area. The Meadow Center used to be Aquarena Spring, an amusement park. A few years ago, it was bought by Texas State University and cleaned up. The water comes from an underground spring and is home to several endangered species. There are specific state and federal guidelines and laws for using this area. It was a real treat to be able to dive here without a Scientific Diver Certification.

After our orientation, we unloaded all of our equipment, and got set up. It is amazing how much stuff we need for the three of us to dive - tanks, bcd vests, regulators, fins, booties, snorkel, mask, wet suits, hoods, lights, and dive computer.

We entered the water for our first dive around 7 p.m. The water stays at a constant 72 degrees (22 C) year round. It gets cold underwater even with a wetsuit on.

 Boogs and Daddy gave their ok signs just before we submerged.

 During our first dive, John found a crawfish. He picked it up for everyone to see.

Boogs thought it was pretty cool. Later, John told us every time Boogs stroked the back of the crawfish it pinched him more. Poor John.

 When John let go of the crawfish, it held on for a bit.

I know you can't really see it, but there is a bass fish in this photo with that crawfish in his mouth. As soon as John dropped the crawfish, this bass came out of nowhere and tried to eat it. The crawfish put up a good fight, pinched the inside of the bass' mouth, and won his freedom. It was so interesting to watch.

 Our first dive was an orientation dive. We were able to swim around the area during daylight so we would know where we were when we went for our next dive in the dark.

 Boogs is kneeling on one of the platforms in this photo.

In the top right of this photo you can see one of the three rings divers can maneuver through. Boogs went through each ring several times. Boogs is the middle diver in this shot and Daddy is the one with yellow fins in the bottom right.

Boogs is a good diver. He pays attention, is aware of his surroundings, and keeps an eye on his air pressure gage.

 Here's John showing off his upside down skills.

 

This photo is a group photo of the divers. We took this in between our two dives before it got dark. Boogs, Daddy, and I are the only ones wearing jackets. We were COLD!

I don't have any pictures of the night dive. I did not want to try and manage my dive light and camera in the dark. Underwater in the dark felt like a scene from the movie The Abyss. You could not really see much except what was in the glow of your flashlight and the bouncing lights of other divers. We saw so many more crawfish at night than we had during our daylight dive. My husband is planning a live-aboard trip for the two of us in August. It would include three days on a boat and 7 dives in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Participating in today's night dive makes me feel a bit more comfortable about diving in the ocean at night. I still don't know if I will really have the courage for a night dive in a few weeks. We shall see.

This post is linked to:
Country Kids from Coombe Mill