Adventure Monday After Dark

In an effort to avoid the Memorial Day crowds, we opted for an evening Adventure Monday. Our first stop brought us to the Frigid Frog for shaved ice. Ace chose the Spider Man. Ben opted for the Tweety Bird.


Then, we were off to our main event: a visit to see the Congress Avenue bats, the largest urban bat colony in the world. The bridge serves as a summer home to an estimated 1.5 million Mexican Free-tailed bats. And every evening, just after sunset, the bats emerge to fill the night sky, and feast upon 20,000 pounds of insects. We arrived early and read up on the winged mammals.


And then, the buddies goofed off with a bunch of other kids with various games of tag and other silliness.


Dusk hit and we settled down onto our picnic blanket, ready for the spectacular show we've been hearing about. We waited. And then, we waited some more. Some of us patiently; some of us not so much.

At 9:30pm, a full hour past sunset, the bats finally emerged. But unfortunately, it was a little too dark to see them. Thanks to the spotlights of a bat tour boat, we caught a few glimpses of the creatures. We'll be back for an encore visit in August, which is supposed to be the best time to view the bats.