Swimming in the springs

Before I left for Texas I saw how hot it was going to be, so I knew swimming to beat the heat was a necessity. Because of this, Jon and I were able to hit up in-town Barton Springs one day and 30 minutes outside of Austin, Krause Springs another day.

Barton Springs is a large man made pool in the channel of water fed by natural springs. Because of this, the water is always cold, between 68 and 72 degrees. Even for a hot day, this was a wee chilly!

 You can see to the far right in this picture is an area blocked off by a fence. This is where the current is more aggressive and it is free to "get in". There were tons of people with dogs on that side. To get into the main area is $3 each.

The place filled up! And not to generalize, but almost everyone we saw was between the ages of 20-30 and had tattoos :) I didn't swim here as much as I wanted to, because it took me some time to get the confidence to rock my bump in my bikini. Once I did, I realized what a non issue it was and was mad I wasted so much time worrying!

We went to Krause Springs another day, which is in Spicewood Texas. It is straight out of a movie, completely beautiful and off the beaten path.

The man made pool at Krause, also fed by a natural spring and naturally colder. This day it was what felt like 115 degrees, so we didn't care. I was so surprised at how green Texas was!

And the natural spring, where we hung out! Kids were jumping off the bluffs and using the rope swing, it was the perfect summer destination.

This place was $6 per person to get in, but seriously worth it. The grounds of this property were absolutely stunning--complete with a snow cone stand! They must have put gravel in the bottom of the springs too because it wasn't slimy when we were walking around. We met so many nice people here and didn't want to leave.