Oh yeah baby, the VIP lane for me

One of our Trustees gifted the entire faculty with shuttle service AND 'backstage' access to the lovely annual Trail of Lights. 

 Kicked off our walk with some hot chocolate AND marshmallows...if one is going to have sugar, may as well go whole hog.

VIP bracelet~tres cool am I?  And the adults who were there early, shamelessly helped ourselves to the table of glowsticks~supposedly for the children.   They turned out to be genius at finding colleagues at the end of the evening.

Another extremely gorgeous perk was the ability to use those FANCY A/C porta potties~the kind you see on movie sets.  Trust me, in Austin the festival capital of the world, you spend plenty of time queuing up for those plastic strawberry-scented toilets (and shall I remind you of our average temperature?)

So, it may sound weird to the rest of you, but we were excited by the use of these!

 

And finally~the entrance tunnel.  We had the park to ourselves for the first hour.  Bliss.

 As I have a nephew in love with Pooh, thought I'd take a photo for him.  Thought it was me or the angle, but this just looks sinister.

 So, I tried another angle.  And took a poll of the colleagues standing around.  We decided the under lighting is what gives him a creepy aspect.

The Zilker Tree~the ultimate destination of the Trail.

The final tunnel.

The tradition is that you go inside to the middle and spin.

Dizzy yet?

 Ended back at the hospitality tent for warm cinnamon doughnuts.  Bliss.