Day 43: The Turles Visit Barton Springs

There are a lot of things to love about living in Austin. I've discussed a few in some of my previous posts. Well here's another one to add to the list. We have Barton Springs Pool.

Barton Springs is a pool located in the middle of Zilker Park near downtown Austin. The pool is man-made but it was built in the Barton Channel and fed by Main Barton Spring so it maintains a year-round temperature between 68 and 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of this it's a very popular site for residents, especially during the summer months. I've only been there once a few years ago on the 4th of July, but the wife and I are going back today. It should make for a good time since it's been so hot and dry here this summer.

I imagine the turtles would enjoy the spring as much as any human. I'm assuming this to be the case because they're Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and most turtles live in or near water for their entire lives. For more evidence that they might enjoy the occasional swim just take a look at the intro to the 1988 cartoon series. Before they got dropped down that sewer grate they were living in a fishbowl full of water (not exactly he best habitat for a turtle, I'll admit).

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I didn't get this in before we actually went to Barton Springs Pool, so here's an update.

We went there. I jumped in, but it took some coaxing to get my wife to do it. A friendly woman even offered to push her in, but eventually she did it on her own. The water was pretty chilly when we got in, but we became acclimated pretty quickly. We swam some laps and talked about how we were living an X-Files episode because there was likely a monster living in a cave below the pool. Unfortunately the Barton Springs Monster never showed itself and we left feeling tired, but refreshed.