Austin. Mom. Blog. » fish

Russell Park in Georgetown, Texas

Dianna — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:08:06 +0000

We have the perfect lake to swim at. Russell Park in Georgetown, Texas is the lake to go to. We have been a total of three times this summer. Russell Park has a large section carved out for swimming. My two sons love it. My husband and oldest son attempted to catch fish, but had no luck. Each time they did not receive one nibble. The swimming was great, but it wasn’t a place to go fishing. Another setback is that there aren’t grills/pits near the beach. In order to do any cooking you must walk or drive to a grill/pit in another section of the park. It isn’t too far, but inconvenient. Fortunately, we had family members with us to handle the cooking. There are restrooms available on site, but not clean. Something to keep in mind, is that there is a fee to enter the park. It must be cash. We usually do not carry cash so I thought that might be useful information. The fee is $4.00 per vehicle up to four adults, kids under 12 are free, and it’s an additional $1.00 for any adult after the four. I totally think it’s worth it, but only if you like to swim in lakes. If you are a pool person, this isn’t the place for you.

The Beach Area

My Boys with Aunt and Uncle

San Antonio Zoo

Dianna — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 04:04:11 +0000

Zoos are definitely busy in the summer. I haven’t found one day out of the week to go when they aren’t busy. We visited the San Antonio Zoo on a Thursday. We arrived at 11:00 and the first parking lot was full so we had to park in a second lot. The walk was quite far, but we were about to take a long walk through the zoo, so we didn’t mind. Fortunately the parking is free. The zoo included animals like bears, elephants, tigers, giraffes, monkeys, and the newest exhibit included hippos. The zoo had a really cool kids section. Inside an air conditioned building there was a set-up of fishing poles with magnets to pick up fish. It also included a little playhouse for pretend play and small tunnels like caves the kids could go through. Not too far from the designated children’s area is a petting zoo. The boys got to feed and brush several goats. Any interaction with animals are fun for our boys. It took us three hours to walk the zoo. We were heading to the car, but Collin (my 4 year old) saw some train tracks. We couldn’t pass up the chance to let Collin ride the train. It’s going on two years that he loves trains. Andrew (my 6 year old) at first passed on riding with us, but decided to go at the last minute. It was $3.00 for adults and $2.50 for children. It was worth the money. The train ride was actually pretty long and enjoyable. There were several areas surrounding the zoo we had never seen before. So, the train ride concluded our trip and we all had a great time. When I asked the boys what they liked best Andrew said the hippo at the zoo and Collin said the train ride. Typical!

Andrew in front of Giraffe Exhibit

Boys Pretend to Fish

Petting Zoo

Riding the Train

The KidFish Experience

Dianna — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:41:26 +0000

Saturday morning I woke up the boys early so we could be at Lake Pflugerville by nine. I wanted to be there when it first started because I didn’t know what to expect. When we arrived it wasn’t too crowded. We turned in our registration form and then proceeded to get poles and bait. KidFish provided both. The bait was chicken liver. We weren’t allowed to start fishing until nine. The objective was to catch a fish, bring it to their measuring station and then hope your fish would be the biggest one at 12. We stayed for almost two hours and didn’t get one nibble. Unfortunately noboby did either. I’m not sure how the rest of the day played out, but Andrew had a blast. He wanted to stay until 12, but Collin got restless after two hours. I am very pleased Collin lasted that long. We all had a great time and will definitely go again the next opportunity we get.

KidFish at Lake Pflugerville

Dianna — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 23:34:45 +0000

There will be a “KidFish” at Lake Pflugerville this Saturday, June 5th from 9 to 12. Our family hasn’t had the chance to experience this event, but I will definitely let everyone know how it goes. From what I read, the idea behind “Kid Fish” is for children to appreciate the sport of fishing. Also, they hope that children respect the environment and its natural resources. On the city of Pflugerville’s website there is a registration form that needs to be filled out to participate in the event. The form is to be taken to the event on Saturday. It is a free event, but I was told by the recreation department of Pflugerville that if you make a donation, the participant can receive a t-shirt or trophy. I wasn’t told how much the donation had to be. So, my guess is if it’s $100, I will have to pass. Either way it sounds fun and since Andrew loves to fish, we will definitely be there.

Andrew Catches a Fish

Dianna — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 15:06:07 +0000

Well, my son finally caught a fish at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, Texas. We have been fishing a lot with the weather being so nice. My son, Andrew gets pretty disappointed that he doesn’t catch anything. We finally had some luck at San Gabriel Park. We pulled in two fish. They weren’t keepers, but the excitement on the kids’ faces were priceless. We fished for two hours and in the last thirty minutes we caught two. We also went to the spillway of Lake Georgetown. We didn’t have any luck there, but my brother went last year and caught a lot. I’m just happy Andrew finally caught something.

Reeling in a fish at San Gabriel Park

Fish on a Hook at San Gabriel Park

Walter E. Long Park (Decker Lake)

Dianna — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:56:43 +0000

We have been searching for good places to fish at and haven’t found one. We went to Decker Lake on Wednesday and had no luck with fishing. However, it was a nice little place to visit. We took our sons’ jeep with us and they had a good time riding it throughout the park. There was a lot of open area for them to ride through. We did a little research on the park before we went and knew they didn’t have a playground. We had to come prepared. They did have picnic tables and barbecue pits. Our main goal was for Andrew (our oldest son) to catch a fish. We have been fishing four times in the past week and he hasn’t got a nibble. We end up leaving with him disappointed. He would fish all day if we let him. I’ve been told that in order to catch some fish at Decker Lake, we need a boat. We are looking into paddle boats so maybe we will have better luck next time. Maybe wherever we go, we will have some kind of luck.

SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration

Dianna — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:30:11 +0000

We went to Sea World in San Antonio on Friday and had a blast. I’m already in the Christmas spirit and going to Sea World enforced it more. We first went to see the dolphins and fortunately it was feeding time. We paid $5 for four fish. It was worth it. When feeding the dolphins you are able to pet them in the process. The boys’ expressions were priceless. Next we went to the show of “A Sesame Street Christmas.” When the sesame street characters came onstage I got teary eyed. I was overwhelmed on how much our little family was enjoying this. The boys didn’t move once. They were mesmerized. Near the end, my oldest (he’s 5) finally said he was too old for this, but he hung in there. We then headed to a huge play area with sand and rope climbing. My oldest did the rope climbing and my youngest played in the sand. Fortunately both my husband and I were present so we could split up for this. When going to theme parks, I never venture out alone. Next we went by alligator alley where we saw several alligators surrounding a pond. They had a .25 cent machine to feed the fish which we took part in. The boys were aiming for the alligators so they would move, but they had no luck. We then went to the show “Deck the Halls with Clyde & Seamore.” This was a show full of sea lions acting out a skit for Christmas. Once again the boys were mesmerized and didn’t move once. This time my oldest didn’t ask to leave. Sea World had a 4D showing of Polar Express, but unfortunately we didn’t make it in time. We stood in line, but the theater got full before it was our turn. We got to see a 4D showing of Polar Express when we went to Moody Gardens in Galveston and from what I remember it was awesome. On our way out we saw the world-famous Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales and the boys got to pet one. We really had a lot of fun. There was still so much we didn’t get to see because we were short on time so I’m hoping we will make another trip back. If you have a chance to go to Sea World for the Christmas Celebration, I totally recommend it.

Old Settlers Park

Dianna — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:39:10 +0000

The boys and I went to Old Settlers Park today for a few hours. We met up with two friends of mine. They each have a boy that play with my oldest and one has a daughter that plays with my youngest. The boys are the same age and the young ones are also. It works out really well. Every time we go to Old Settlers Park, I tell myself we should go more often. It’s a fairly large park with several playscapes, soccer fields, baseball fields, a pond where you can feed the ducks or go fishing at, and plenty more. We tend to go for the playscapes. It keeps the boys entertained for a little while. The weather kept us from staying longer. It was drizzling off and on. We left after two hours and on the way home the rain really started to come down. We left at the perfect time. I hope we can go again sometime soon.

No Room For Pets

Dianna — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:22:31 +0000

Anyone who has children and pets I give my full support to them. I honestly can’t do it. My boys really want a dog, but I know I can’t handle another task. It took me a whole hour to clean out a betta fish bowl and that was more than enough for me. Sad, right? It’s one little fish and I thought it would be easier to take care of. It just proves that we do not need a dog or any other animal right now in our lives. We also are the “get up and go” kind of family. We wouldn’t be able to do that with another family member that is a pet. I really want the boys to be happy, but I’m not ready. Does anyone have any advice on how to let them down gently?