Thursday was a long day filled with a LOT of cows. In total, we saw an additional 33 cows!

The morning was nice and laid back, with our first stop being Whole Earth Provisioners on Lamar. Mom really liked the store and some of the neat stuff they had. Our first cow was just across the street, the "Kaleidoscope Cow".

This cow was covered in fabric, which was pretty unique. It had holes cut through it and kaleidoscopes that you could look through and turn... That is, it would have had more than one if people hadn't torn the other two out. Jerks.

Unfortunately, taking pictures of the kaleidoscope itself doesn't do it justice, it was better (though not a LOT better) looking through normal.

We grappled for a parking space at Whole Foods next, since there were a number of cows in their area. I hate driving downtown and I hate parking downtown even more. We ended up on the lower level of their garage, which isn't too terrible, but since we had lunch plans for 11:30 at Shady Grove with a friend of mine from work and it was already 11, I really was hoping for a more convenient parking space.

The cows around Whole Foods were a mixed bag, and we even missed one in our rush to get to lunch. There was a very pretty flowery one that I liked, "Flower Power Cowlection", and a skeleton cow, "Morning Glory and Death", I thought was cool but mom didn't care for.

Then there was the tourist cow, "Tacky Taurist", which was intentionally... Tacky. The continental spots were neat, though.

And the "Discow". Shiny and sparkly and certainly a lot of work.

...but very similar to the "John Hancow" from the Boston showing.

Also reminiscent of one we had seen before was the "Cow Quarium".

...Except I have to say I think the Boston version was more impressive.

Many of the cows in Austin cannot compare with the Boston cows at all, though. There are themes that are pure Austin or simply Texas. From Wednesday's "Texicow" sayings and pictures to cows Thursday...

Music runs deep, as seen in many places, such as on the "Moosical Moosaic", "Flamencow", "Moosaic", "Peace, Love, and Harmooony", and "Cowjunto Music".

 What would Austin be without its bats? "Udderly Austin", "Batsy at Twilight" and "Batcow" (hopefully a better picture later) feature or highlight our fondness for our bats.

 

 And some things are just typical Austin... Keep it Weird and bluebonnets, for example, from "Moosic Capital" and "Flowerida".

But this Cow Parade has had some rather unique cows, such as the "Cowch" in the lobby of the Driskill, and it actually fit in rather nicely and didn't seem at all out of place. The seat was even somewhat comfortable, if a bit low.

Or the "Cowcycle"! The streamers on the handle bars were a nice touch.

And the "Psy-cow-dellic Cowsward Puzzle" was cool and one of the ones we made a point of finding because mom is a crossword puzzle fan.

And finally there was this bizzarre thing, which almost defies understanding. The lower boot even has part of an animal jaw with teeth, tucked in among the fishing lures and feathers.