Following a relatively relaxed Austin Trip 2025: Day Two the third full day of our trip was the most action packed day we had planned so far. We started a little earlier at [Desnudo Coffee](desnudocoffee.com] and then woke the kids up for a quick breakfast.

The big event for the trip was an ATV tour about an hour outside of Austin with Texas Adventours. The waiver process and instructions are pretty detailed, so being the anxious rule followers we are this mean leaving extra early and double checking every thing. We arrived pretty early at the front gate and made our way up to the barn. We completed all the necessary training procedures and took a few picture before getting in the UTV. Kaleb was the driver and I was the copilot of sorts.

Our guide led us through several different trails around the Lighthouse Hill Ranch. It involved all different types of terrain and obstacles for us to navigate. I had my Insta360 camera and did a bunch of recording of both video and photos. Kaleb did a great job driving and knew how to approach each of the different technical terrain features. The tour was an hour long, but flew by. The country out there is really beautiful and we lucked out with the weather being warm, but there still being a nice breeze to keep us cool.

Lunch was up next and we drove down to Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. The location is huge and must be packed during summer weekends, but on this Tuesday there were only a few dozen people dining. For my drink I tried a Big Red soda and it was great with a flavor like bubble gum. My meal was a giant pulled pork sandwich with beans, coleslaw and potato salad. The sandwich was phenomenal even if it was a bit messy, and the beans were the best I have ever had. We got some desserts to go and continued on our big Texas adventure.

The final stop was at the Hamilton Pool Preserve. The small nature preserve has limited availability and we had to reserve a spot a few weeks in advance. We booked the afternoon time slot which goes from 2pm to 5:30pm. I was a little nervous at first when the park ranger mentioned how there were Cottonmouth snakes around and to be snake aware. The trail to the pool was pretty short and we saw a baby armadillo digging through the leaves along the path. The pool itself was amazing and the water was crystal clear and had a bunch of big catfish swimming in it. They have some of the pool roped off because of rocks falling in, but you can go out to a very deep spot. We hung out there for a couple hours and enjoyed the nice weather. Before hopping in the car we ate our desserts from Salt Lick and drove back to the hotel.

While we were resting in the hotel thunderstorms rolled in and we thought we would be stuck in for the night, but right around sunset the rain stopped. I asked my wife if she wanted to go check out the bats again and we quickly made our way outside. The bats had started flying out before we got there, but we were still able to watch them for about twenty minutes before it was too dark to see them. The river was so still and the reflection of the skyline looked amazing from the bridge. Now we needed to find some dinner before calling it a day. Initially we hoped to go to the mexican restaurant at the edge of the river, but it was closed due to a maintenance issue. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we ventured up to 6th street for Velvet Taco. They have some really unique flavors of tacos and they were so good. I went with the Spicy tikka chicken taco - crisp tenders, spicy tikka sauce, buttered cilantro basmati rice, raita crema, Thai basil, flour tortilla. It was delicious and was the perfect way to end our busiest day.