Budweiser on the porch, poached eggs, a winery, pale ale, and bats

The title of this post summarizes my weekend. I spent Friday evening with Katherine drinking Budweiser from cans on her porch. I live in Texas, after all. Saturday morning Katherine invited me over for a late breakfast which consisted of a potato pancake and two poached eggs with fresh cilantro and cheese on top. When her boyfriend, Joe, came home from Austin, he suggested we go check out Driftwood Winery in Wimberely, TX. Off we went to sample wine on a lovely July afternoon. I sampled six different wines made from local grapes and the three of us enjoyed a bottle of red wine outside, overlooking the hills.

By the time we left the winery, it was close to 5 PM. I hadn't eaten since my late breakfast at noon and had only consumed wine since. We stopped at a bar near the Blanco River where I had a large pale ale. After that, we stopped by a professor's house where I consumed more pale ale. Still no food or water. Just wine and beer. We returned to San Marcos around 8, where Blake met us at a bar in town. I had yet more pale ale and finally consumed a veggie burger.

Fast forward to 3 AM. I woke up with a TERRIBLE headache. I searched frantically for the advil and gulped down three glasses of water. About two minutes later, I was kneeling over the toilet expelling the contents of my stomach. Nine hours of drinking without food or water is something I don't think I will dabble into again.

My headache was gone by Sunday morning and Blake and I decided (after hours of boredom) to find something inexpensive to do. Thank science for google! We came across a wonderful online guide to Austin and learned about the largest urban bat colony in North America that is located in downtown Austin. Every night at dusk from April to November, 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from the Congress Ave Bridge to feed. Blake and I headed up to Austin, camera in hand, to witness this unique sight. After waiting for two hours, the bats emerged! There was a lot of fluttering and clicking. You are toast, insects! During the wait for nightfall, we witnessed many birds flying over (including a green heron), the gorgeous sunset, a turtle, the moon rising and a water moccasin swimming down below.

I consider the weekend a success, except for the vomiting.