Vacation: 1st stop Southern Texas

On New Year's Day we embarked on a much needed vacation away from the bitter cold of interior Alaska. It was -47 degrees when we left!

In preparation for the second leg of our trip (Minnesota), Jen sewed a wolverine/wolf fur ruff from Martin W. (Jen's co-worker), onto Isabel's winter down sack.

Isabel sheds some layers for the first time in her life and prepares for the warm outdoors of Texas.

Dave and Karen brought us to Estero Llano Grande State Park right away so Jen could find birds and Isabel could experience being outside without 10 layers of clothing.

Adventurous Grandma braves the snake infested grasses of the park, preparing Isabel for her many future years of camping and hiking with mom and dad. Actually we saw no snakes but we did find an aligator.

We noticed the park was offering a guided bird walk the next day so of course Jen wanted to join in so Scott went with her. We saw many new birds including a Tropical Parula, Vermilion Flycatcher, and many others.