Barton Springs! Barton Springs!

Wikipedia defines Barton Springs pool as "a man made recreational swimming pool located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Texas".

Katy defines Barton Springs pool as "Baaaah! Omg, let's go to Barton Springs!"
Basically, if you come to Austin in the Summer & don't go to to Barton Springs, you're doing it wrong.
It's a giant-ass (technical term) swimming pool filled with water from the Main Barton Springs. So basically, some freaking genius was like

"hey let's block off two sides of Barton & add a diving board."
& his associate was like "A giant-ass swimming pool?!"
& he was like "A giant-ass swimming pool! It'll be bad ass!"

And it was.

It really is quintessentially Austinish. Very much a large variety of people. Hippies, families, families of hippies, swimmers, sunbathers, the occasional topless lady, the unfortunately placed old man in a speedo (I wanted to, but failed to muster up the courage to ask said old man for a picture) & all around a good time.

My last visit was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday.

In fact, that entire Sunday had been a success. It had been proceeded by a night out downtown with The Brit- which is always lovely- and began with the luxury of sleeping in! (is it sad that I now consider 9 am sleeping in?) Breakfast burritos & queso were had at some random Mexican cafe (East Austin, you can't walk 3 steps with out running into at least 5 of them) where we also enjoyed the styles of a 2 man Spanish speaking band equipped with 1 guitar, 1 accordion, & 1 awesome mustache.

Then off to Barton Springs where we met my home girl Kelli & a few of her Yoga teacher friends for some fun in the sun

The Brit showing little to no interest in being featured in my

Barton Springs Blog

I didn't feel much like swimming which was just fine because the weather was beautiful and the day was choice for people watching from my spot sprawled out under a tree. Though the perma-chilled water was bliss for swimmers, I'm sure being that this particular Sunday saw a high at 102 degrees

Right outside the gates, a large gathering of hippies were set up with a fully equipped drum circle.

(side note: UrbanDictionary.com defines a drum circle as followed:
"Drum Circle: This is where stoners & hippies go to play drums together.
Dude, how did I end up in that drum circle? That girl doesn't even
shave her pits!"
Thought this was appropriate)

This particular gaggle of hippies refer to themselves as The Circus, and I'll have to admit it was pretty groovy. Kelli had come prepared for The Circus with a pair of hula-hoops and the two of us ventured out from the gates to try our hips out at some hoop action.

On the right! That's me!

It was pretty cool. There were lots of girls & a couple of guys who were pretty damn impressive with their mad hooping skills. One chick at one point had one on her waist, one around her knees, and one on her arms that towered above her mohawked head. (In related news: people still have mohawks?)

And you don't have to do Yoga to admit that the above picture is pretty cool. I missed a photo op for the big group of people doing acrobatic couples yoga and ended up being camera happy after the show when the professionals were giving tutorials, but I think you can gather how impressive it was.

Hippies in their natural habitat, the Drum Circle.

So after about 3 1/2 hours of Barton Springs, the day started to dwindle.We packed our beach towels & water bottles & headed out the gates around 7pm. I was informed that The Circus really didn't get good & started until after dark, but I figured I really didn't care to see what that entailed on this day (though I bet there would have been plenty of pictures to take!), but I'll consider it for next time.

What a successful Sunday.

So, in short. When you come to Austin, do it right & take a trip down to Barton Springs Pool. You'll be glad that you did.