I‘ve written a time or two before about excursions my family and I have taken, going out and about in the vicinity of our own little part of the world. In truth, it’s an odd thing for me; I’m a homebody (if I put things politely, which not everybody does or should), not inclined to “get out” much, so trips further than going to the gym, to work, to church, or to the grocery store aren’t commonplaces for me. That’s part of why I write about them. I know that my field trips don’t show up as being the kinds of things of which major events are made for a lot of other people, they stand out to me for their relative rarity, even as I am aware that they don’t go far into the field at all.

The most recent little expedition we took was this past weekend, one last hurrah before my daughter started school. (She returned to class on Wednesday. It’s a late start, I know.) We returned to the vicinity of Lost Maples State Natural Area, one of the gems of the Texas Hill Country, lodging for a few days at one of the properties operated by Foxfire Cabins. We’d stayed at another of the properties about this time last year, finding it a generally enjoyable experience, and we decided we’d work to make it something of a family tradition. Hence the return this past weekend, when many of the area schools had already started back up, making for a less crowded time for us to enjoy.

My wife, my daughter, one of her friends (whom I’m still considering how to pseudonymize; I don’t generally discuss minor children by name for privacy reasons), and I made our way down to the location on Friday afternoon, my wife having taken off work and my own job being such that I’ve not been in office on Fridays for some months, now. Our drive was reasonably good, although we got off to something of a slow start, as there were some errands that needed running before we could pack up and head out. Too, we got delayed along the way; stopping off for lunch took longer than expected, as did going to the grocery store along the way. But, as ever, the drive was scenic, with the rolling hills parting at times to offer spectacular views of hardy trees stretching to the limits of vision in the distance.

We got to our lodging, the Alta Vista cabin operated by Foxfire, in good form around five pm. A two-bedroom, one-bathroom place with a wraparound porch, firepit, grill, and picnic table, the cabin–and the neighboring Buena Vista–offers remarkable quiet and excellent views of the towering hills enfolding FM337. There was a bit of a trick to finding it (including a steep drive up an unpaved drive), to be sure, and another window unit would have been welcome, but it was from the outset a good place and restful.

The next morning, all four of us on the trip slept in until close to nine. After breakfast, we went to the main Foxfire facility, right on the upper Sabinal River. There, my wife and the girls swam a bit, the latter playing with the children of another group of families that were having something of an annual reunion on the property; given that I swim just about as well as a rock (about which more later), I abstained. My wife and I got some information about local happenings, as well, and we decided that we would make arrangements to take the Frio Bat Flight tour that evening. Right off the intersection of TX127 and FM2690, the tour takes visitors to the entrance of a cave system that hosts between 10 and 12 million Mexican freetail bats–a colony whose emergence shows up on weather radar as often as not. The guide was informative, and the setting was beautiful–although I was sad to see the falcons hunting the emerging colony miss so many of their attempts.

We drove back to Alta Vista by way of Utopia, missing much of the scenery in the darkness that followed the bats’ emergence. After another long sleep, and a Sunday morning breakfast, though, we were back at it, heading down FM337 to Leakey (pronounced “Lake-ee,” for those not familiar) to see about visiting a river outfitter and floating the Frio. The one we visited in town gave an…unhelpful answer, but the next one we called, Happy Hollow in Concan, was much more accommodating. With them, we made arrangements to rent inner tubes and be shuttled upstream on the Frio River–I believe to the crossing on FM1120, but I could not see road signs from where I was sitting–to enter the river and float on down. While the water was generally low, and I managed to scare my daughter and entertain her friend with the prospect of my drowning where the river got deeper (she had complained of nearly falling through one tube, so I switched her to one with a net, and I went into the water more energetically than I expected), it was a generally peaceful, pleasant experience. Much of the float was shaded, and the people still on the banks so late in the season were friendly.

After the float, a picnic lunch, and more swim time for my wife and the girls–I abstained again, not wanting to tempt matters–we drove back down to TX127, where we put in at The Frio Float, a little ice-cream shop right on US83. I got a small cup of ice cream that I ate with delight; my wife and my daughter’s friend each got floats with Dublin Bottling Works Texas Red Creme Soda, and my daughter got a big helping of a strange concoction of ice cream and toppings. The three of them overestimated their capacities, which made for a bit of a delicate drive back to Alta Vista (once again by way of Utopia, although with much better views in the daylight than in the previous darkness), but things were well settled by the time we got back and lit up both the grill and the firepit on site.

Monday morning, we didn’t sleep in near so much, as we had to eat our breakfast, pack our stuff, and skedaddle. My wife and I both had to go back to work on Tuesday, and the girls had their Wednesday start of school; in preparation for the latter, there was a Meet the Teacher Night we were pleased to attend. It was a sadness to leave, as it most always is to return to the real world from a vacation from it, but we’re already looking towards next year, and we got back to our lives with more vigor for having had the time away.

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