Austin, TX

Hello everyone! So we have free internet available in the Executive Lounge which was, we found out on check-in, part of our room package. Score! We have a room on the 26th floor.

We arrived on Saturday night (US time) and by the time we got from the airport to our hotel and ready for bed it was about 1 or 2 am. Then we had an EXCELLENT sleep in our lovely king size bed and got up at 9am to get ready to go to SF Fiesta Texas. It's so awesome that I finally got to go!

On the way we stopped on the side of the motorway for Taco Bell - the first time we'd been. It was average. At SF our favourite ride was the Poltergeist but by the end of a ~32 degrees C day we were too pooped to go on for a second time. The queues were pretty small, the most we had to wait was about 10 or 15 minutes. The other rides we went on were Superman, Boomerang, Goliath, The Rattler, The Twister (never again, I tell you), RoadRunner Express, Big Spin, and a couple of the smaller ones. We were there from about 1pm till about 6 (close was at 8pm).

By today my chauffeur had become a bit more at ease with the whole driving on the wrong side/different road rules thing. This morning we drove to Austin Zoo which seemed kind of in the middle of nowhere but probably isn't to Texans. We somehow missed the reptile house though, which we only realised at the end, when we were, again, too pooped to be bothered :( But it was an interesting place, the pamphlet said 90 % of their animals had been 'rescued' from either poor owners (who apparently think it's ok to own wild animals), circuses, labs etc. So they had petting animals, like goats and sheep and alpacas, as well as big things like bears, lions, tigers, cougars etc. A lot of things we hadn't seen before. Adrian liked the tortoises and I liked this little thing called a kinkajou which was very cute and sleepy and looked like he needed a cuddle (from me, of course).

Anyway, will call in again when I can get to the computer and have more news. This afternoon we have to take the rental car back and tomorrow the conference begins, though it's in the hotel so Adrian doesn't have to walk far ;)

xxx