Our Weekend at the Frio River

Our Vacation at the Frio River

So, last weekend, my husband and I spent the weekend at the Frio River with a few families from church. I have to say, I’ve never been to the Frio, so I was pleasantly surprised. For one thing, the vacation home we rented was nice. Like, seriously nice. This first picture is the view from the back porch. That alone was worth the price of renting it for the weekend. To top it off, it had lots of bedrooms, a game room, and a pool. Oh, and places to grill outside. Trails for hiking. Deer blinds if you decided to come back during deer season. Oh, and it was out in the middle of nowhere–which meant that at night, you could actually see the milky way. I’ve never seen the milky way. Unfortunately, such isolation comes with a price: bad phone connection, and no internet. That’s great for getting away, bad for anyone addicted to Facebook.

This second picture is of all of us getting ready to float down the Frio. We’re all decked out in our swim suits, slathering up with sunscreen, and trying to round up the kids. I wish I had more pictures. By the time we finished slathering zinc sunscreen on our faces (which looked exactly like bad lipstick) we looked like extras from Braveheart. The river was beautiful, not too high, and we enjoyed it before everyone else did. I floated down it twice, once on Friday and again on Saturday, with my husband.

And did I mention there were kids? Yeah, my husband and I were the only couple not to bring their kids, but only because we don’t have any yet. And boy, did they have energy. Like, endless. The oldest was 12, youngest 16 months. And they never quit running. I’m pretty sure they even ran in their sleep. Once we got done with the river, we enjoyed the pool. Two hours on the river, and three in the pool. Games of chase. Another hour at the pool that night. Next day, hiking and three hours playing in the river. If I had half their energy, I’d loose 30 more pounds. Easily.

Also, another detail. It was 10 degrees cooler there than San Antonio or Dallas area. I don’t know how that happened. Did we just get lucky and just catch a three day cool front? Or does the Frio River affect the local weather? I’m betting on the last, actually. Whatever the reason, I loved the cooler temperatures. I can’t wait for fall. High of 90 and low of 68 sound heavenly right now.

However, my favorite thing we did was go to the bat cave. No, not Batman’s bat cave. This cave houses more than 12 million bats, and every night at 8 they come out to eat mosquitoes. Which explains why there were no bugs on the river. According the the game and fish guy who were there and answered our questions, it takes three hours for all of them to fly out. Also, apparently bats are migratory. Didn’t know that. They fly to Mexico for the winter and come back over spring break to raise their babies.

These were the little bats, not big ones, and so were not creepy. In my opinion, I think they’re cute. A couple of bats fell out of the sky while we were there. One of them landed pretty much right in front of me and then decided I was a stalactite. This little guy just hurt his wing. The game and fish guy couldn’t tell if he broke the bones or if he just broke the skin. He release him not long after we took the picture. Hopefully, our little bat friend made it and is now flying with his friends again.