Vacations are the perfect time to get lost.

I'm good at getting lost.

I perfected my skill last night after dinner last night. Erin and I picked up Logan and his friend Colton after their day at Ballet Austin. We were going to all go to the Salt Lick for dinner, but a local gal we chatted with at the studio told us it was almost an hour away, and typically there was a long wait. It was already 6:30, and the boys had to be back at the studio early the next morning, so we opted to head to the County Line. It was very tasty, with a beautiful view.

We saw a photo opportunity on the back porch of the place, and asked a woman who was about to order if she'd take a few photos of the four of us. She let us know we'd picked the right person to ask. "I do pictures," she said with a certain smug enthusiasm. We learned swiftly that her name was Teresa.

Teresa took several shots of us. We stood up. We sat down. We looked up. We looked behind us, at the sun, of course indirectly.

Eventually, we wrangled my phone out of Photographer Teresa's hands and headed down the hill to bring the boys back to their dorm.

I put Ballet Austin as our destination on Mapquest, so that was a bit of a setback.

Once we dropped off the kids, I put Ramada Inn into the Mapquest.

About 17 minutes later, we realized that I'd input the wrong Ramada Inn.

Eventually, I'd gotten us so lost that I drove and Erin attempted to navigate our way home. I was never so glad to see a generic Ramada Inn motel room in my life.

But we had a great evening, despite the extra-long tour of Austin.

Everything's a bit more fun when you're out of your element, navigating somewhere new.

As for today, I got up before Erin (this has become typical), and at 8:41 am, while I was getting my coffee, I got a text from Logan. It read: "All the kids have their parents here already!! Why don't you love me?!"

Today was the day we had the chance to watch the kids go through their class day. I thought it was kind of a drop-in thing. Logan was only faux-disappointed, as it turned out, and he was happy to see us when we eventually arrived around 11.

We watched a couple of his classes, went out to lunch and parted ways until tomorrow.

As for the rest of the day, we puttered around Austin, saw a bunch of cool stuff, drove on many highways. We're having a relaxing evening so far, and we may go out later.

It's nice to relax. And tomorrow's our last full day in Austin. We have a lot to do before and after Logan's performances tomorrow at 2:30 and 4:30.

One thing's for sure. There's a whole lot more to do in this city than we'll be able to accomplish on this trip. It's clear that Austin needs to be unpeeled and savored like a big, tasty fried onion, slowly and with intention.