The City. Or...

How Moving To The City Woke Up My Inner Outdoorsman.

When I was younger, growing up in Small Town, Texas, I spent a fair amount of weekends in the woods with my dad, uncle, and cousin.  We camped, made fires, told ghost stories, and generally caused a ruckus.  My uncle worked for a big international paper company which gave us a lot of room to roam because he knew the best plots of land and had keys to them all.  It was awesome.  We saw all sorts of forest.  So forest is pretty much where my time was spent.  When I wasn't out with my dad and uncle, I would learn a few things from a few short stints in boy scouts, but that was more of a place to be babysitted than anything.  Our troop never really went anywhere.  It was pretty small with a lot of older kids, so I lost interest as a few years went by.



At the age of 15-16, new interests emerged.  I got old enough to drive and it was fun exploring these new cities I hadn't been.  Girls notice you more when you have a car.  So my outdoors lust died down, and I fell more into the exploration phase of 'city life.'  Eventually I moved on from that by moving to Austin, I figured out how much more there was to be had outdoors.  Austin is called a greenbelt for a reason.  So many parks and trails, so much natural beauty in a format I hadn't seen before; with very few trees!  The area I came from had muddy rivers and tall evergreens everywhere.  Here there are beautiful flowing hills and squatty semi-mountains.  The water is clear enough to see through and there are so many little secret springs that end into many a beautiful oasis.  It's all things you'd imagine seeing on a post-card.  So far I've only seen a few, but my favorite little area is this place called Hamilton Pool.  It's a 75 foot waterfall that falls into crystal clear turquoise water that forms a natural pool into an almost horseshoe-style limestone area with a walking path that circles behind the waterfall and around the other side.  It's a gorgeous thing to see.

Trails behind the apartments I live in are only a couple minutes walking distance, and have beautiful little creeks flowing through them, steep rock faces, and narrow, winding paths.  I can't say enough about how much I like Austin.  It's what I've always wanted in a place that I could call home.  I don't need to sell anybody on this place.  This place pretty much sells itself, and if you don't want to buy it; you probably don't belong. 

--Hook