Davis Mountains State Park (July 10-13, 2016):

Well, Roadtrippers was pretty accurate on the estimated time it would take us to drive to Davis Mountains State Park. 7 hours, and the kids were great. Movies on the iPad are the best! We also played travel games, and took naps. It was a pretty small park, but it was very nice and you are surrounded by mountains from almost every angle.

A few of the highlights:

The McDonald Observatory was very cool! We went to the Star Party on Tuesday night and we were able to see Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars on their telescopes. They have an outdoor seating area where the guide points to the many constellations in the sky. The observatory is about 15 minutes away from the park.
It would cool down to the 70’s at night.
I took the kids to Balmorhea State Park where they have a freshwater pool built around the springs. Ali loved the diving board and Gabriel spent most of his time trying to trap fish into his water bottle, with no luck. This was a 35 minute drive from Davis Mountains but it was totally worth it.

Gabriel and Shaun bonded while hiking for an extra hour after us girls decided to head back. He ended up with over 13K steps that day, and he was pretty happy with himself! He loves his time with Opa. He was so happy when he got back.