Stop #5: Stone Oak Ranch RV Resort, Georgetown, TX

We were looking forward to seeing family and friends along our journey and this stop gave us just that. Rather than finding an RV campground in the Austin area we opted to booking at Stone Oak Ranch RV Resort as it was closer to our niece Andrea, our main reason for this stop. From the moment we pulled up to check in we knew we had made the right choice. This campground seems fairly new and has very nice amenities including a beautiful club house with a fully equipped kitchen, sitting and eating areas, shuffle board and billiards tables, fitness center, outdoor barbecue and entertaining area, and a beautiful pool. There's also a brand new outdoor kid's play set and pickle ball courts. We enjoyed biking around on the paved roads and loved that UPS delivered our packages straight to our RV site (it's the little things!).

On our first day we met up with family at the beautiful San Gabriel Park in Georgetown. The kids loved the playground but the best part was hanging out on the side of the river, looking at the ducks and enjoying the beautiful weather. The following couple of days we took things slow, enjoying the campground, visiting the nearby grocery store (there's a brand new HEB near the campground that's huge), and having our niece over for dinner - our first ever guest!

San Gabriel Park w/our niece.

Such a beautiful park!

When searching online for interesting sights near Austin a few came up but most were about an hour away from our campground, so with that in mind we chose one of them to visit during our stay: Enchanted Rock. We did the Summit Trail to reach the top of the dome. Since we got there close to mid day it was pretty hot towards the beginning of our climb. Thankfully, as we ascended we were able to get a steady breeze which felt great from then on. Our six year old daughter did awesome on the trail and reached the summit without any issues. My son and I, struggled a bit more with the heights at different points along the trail but were able to pull through and reach the summit as well. The views along the way and on the summit were amazing. So well worth the effort! Plus, there's many huge boulders along the way that serve as nice places to stop, get some shade, and play. I would certainly avoid going there in the hot summer months as there is little shade but do try to visit if in the Austin area in the cooler months of the year. We were there on March 1st, and the weather was unexpectedly warm for that time of year, yet still cool enough to make it pleasant.

Fun at Enchanted Rock

Pit stop for pictures.

At the summit. :)

We made it to Austin a couple of times and had a wonderful time exploring the city and most importantly catching up with a dear friend and her beautiful family. On the first day, we visited the Museum of Ice Cream and Thinkery. The Museum of Ice Cream was very fun, albeit a very expensive ice cream run. We had been to their pop up in Miami Beach and this visit seemed to be over sooner than we expected - we would've spent more time in each exhibit if we knew it wasn't as big. We still had fun and left with a big sugar high after consuming several ice creams and cotton candy.

Waiting to go in.

Sprinkle pool!

They also had cotton candy!

We then took the kids to burn off some of that energy at Thinkery which they loved, specially the outdoor play area. This children's museum has a few interesting rooms for the kids to learn about science, play in a pretend market, and make their own creations. It's a must if visiting Austin with little ones.

Outdoor playground at Thinkery

The kids loved this market

On our second trip to the city we met our friends at Peace Park. From the play structures made with natural material, the nest where you can hang out while listening to the sounds of nature, the beautiful trees along the nature trail that were also great for climbing, and the creek where the kids spent most of their time pretending to build dams and bridges... this park was amazing and rightly so, the kids did not want to leave. Austin won us over with it's gorgeous green areas, cool architecture, and friendly wild life (we saw a ton of deer hanging in people's yards!).

Playground at Peace Park

Nest at Peace Park

The kids loved this creek

We did a lot and yet there's a lot more to do in this area, like Barton Springs Pool, McKinney Falls State Park, and Zilker Metropolitan Park. You could easily spend 2-3 weeks here to explore more.