Last weekend I had a wonderful time in AUSTIN, TEXAS.
First, the who, how, where, and when: My sister Sally and I stayed at Embassy Suites in the Arboretum area of Austin. Her college-age daughter joined us for part of the trip. This Embassy Suites is right behind the Google headquarters in Austin.
HOTEL: The hotel was beautiful, with swans and koi in a pool in the lobby. The breakfast and "happy hour" manager's receptions were ample and free. But the traffic around Austin was terrible from about 4:30 to 7 p.m., so if you are planning a trip, you should stay near your activities or else arrange your day so that you don't have to return to your hotel in-between your day of sightseeing and your evening activities. The traffic was not only bad on the expressways, but also on all the side streets.
CAR RENTAL: From the airport lobby, simply walk across a street to rental cars from all major car companies.
We arrived in Austin around 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 26, and stayed until Sunday evening.
After renting a car and checking into the hotel, we headed to South Congress Street for lunch at GUERO's. (Thanks to Jennifer and Holly for the recommendation.)
I liked the salsa bar at Guero's. The Tex-Mex food was more upscale than the Mexican food I'm accustomed to eating. Sliced steak tacos with onions and cilantro are available in NC, too, but I'd never seen a picadillo enchilada with mole sauce before. Besides Guero's, the only other place I've had pork tacos with grilled pineapple was a little Mexican restaurant in Wilkesboro. With pigs so abundant in NC, I'm surprised more restaurants back home don't serve this. It was probably my favorite thing at Guero's, and we sampled quite a few dishes.
After lunch, we walked up and down South Congress Street (pictures of Congress Street at the end of this blog), looking at the inviting outdoor cafes and the interesting shops, two of which contained boots that are true works of art. Some pairs of boots at a boutique-style shop cost $1,000 or more, but most of them were in the $650 to $850 range.
Up the hill from Guero's, at a much larger boot store called Allen Boot Company, most of the ones which I picked up cost "only" about $400-$500, which seemed economical after looking at the ones in the boutique. A popular boot brand seemed to be Old Gringo.
One of my favorite shopping spots was Uncommon Goods, an emporium with antiques and odd items, such as trophy heads of African animals, a longhorn steer, a horse, and a black cow. The booths at Uncommon Goods had a very eclectic collection of items, not just trophy heads.
We wandered across the street to Amy's Ice Cream, which offers flavors such as Guinness (yes, it is beer-flavored ice cream), coconut three leches, chocoberry, and orange amaretto. Yummy!
Before we knew it, it was time to head back downtown to catch the expressway to the hotel to get ready for the evening. As we drove down Congress Street, which is a long, straight road, we were impressed with the view of the Capitol building in the distance, appearing to sit right in the middle of the road. The state capitol building is a classically-designed rose-granite domed building. Modern skyscrapers line either side of the road leading up to it.
Closer shots of the capitol and of the most interesting skyscraper.
In real life, the capitol has a pink hue instead of just tan.
On the way back to our hotel to rest up for the evening, we fought what we thought was heavy traffic. But when we headed back out again for our evening at the Broken Spoke, we discovered that the earlier traffic was nothing compared to the barely-moving "parking lot" that the expressway had become by the time we headed to dinner at 5:30. All main roads in big American cities are usually congested at "rush hour" but even the side roads were clogged. It took over an hour to travel the distance that MapQuest and Google said would take 14 minutes, but thankfully we were fortified with Amy's Ice Cream and had good company to pass the time. Finally we reached our desination:
The house specialty at the Broken Spoke is chicken-fried steak, so of course we ate some of that. It was probably my imagination, but I thought I could feel my arteries hardening as I swallowed.
We also ate some of their barbecued beef brisket, which tasted really good but was not as tender as I expected.
The band that played while we ate dinner was entertaining and more honky-tonk than twangy country-western. They played peppy versions of old favorites such as "Hey, Good-Lookin', What'cha Got Cookin'?" and "Good-Hearted Woman in Love with a Good-Timin' Man", in addition to some songs I was unacquainted with, such as "When Rita Leaves, Rita's Gone."
Both the band and the crowd must have been regulars because the lead singer picked us out as strangers. Even though we were sitting at the back of the restaurant, the lead singer came over to our table during one of their songs and talked to us as the rest of the band played; then he returned to the stage and introduced us as the "pretty ladies from North Carolina". Presumably, no one else there needed an introduction, but they were curious as to who we might be.
We had planned to take a 2-step dance lesson at the Broken Spoke after dinner but we finished dinner around 7:30 or 7:45 and the dancing wasn't due to begin until after 9 p.m., so we decided to head out and see what else was going on in Austin.
One thing we found was a chain of movie theaters which serve food and beverages during the movie. The "Alamo Drafthouse and Theatre" employees told us that there are small tables in front of the seats and that waiters bring food and drinks during the movie. The theater was doing a great business, but I had been to a theater like that in Charlotte years ago and thought it was distracting. Other people must not have enjoyed the experience at that particular theater in Charlotte, either, since the theater went out of business. When I'm at a show, I like to concentrate on the show. If I'm going to eat during a movie, I just want to mindlessly stuff popcorn into my mouth, and I'd appreciate it if my fellow movie-goers do likewise. Having neighbors in the theatre unwrapping candy is distracting enough; I don't want waiters and waitresses serving and collecting money during a show. Thankfully, there were no movies starting any time soon. It's just as well; eating in a dark theatre (other than the aforementioned popcorn) doesn't sound appealing. I like to see what I'm eating, even if it is chicken-fried steak.
We also stopped by the 6th Street area, known for its bars, one of which has flaming drinks. It's festive, and is often compared to Bourbon Street in New Orleans, but it is a lot tamer. Sixth Street reminds me more of Underground Atlanta in the 1970's...a fun place for young people to hang out and get smashed.
On Friday, the breakfast staff was making omelets, and they were delicious...very generous with the ingredients, all fresh. Embassy Suites includes breakfast for free, and it was surprisingly good: fresh fruit, yogurt, cereals, breads and pastries, oatmeal, and lots of drink choices.
After leaving the hotel, our first stop was the Bob Bullock State History Museum downtown near the Capitol building. The theatre seats were like the ones at Disney World, with surprise features that you don't normally expect from your seating, such as air blowing on you at certain times (when a hurricane strikes during the movie), or the seats moving in correlation with the action in the movie. The second floor covered the time period of Texas history that we were mainly interested in--the wars between Mexico and the territory/republic of Texas, on down through Texas's involvement in the Civil War and then women's suffrage. We spent the vast majority of our time on that floor, so I can't really comment on the rest of the museum, but the exhibits we saw were interesting, and a little humorous sometimes. Do the first two sentences of this plaque strike you as a little funny?
When we began feeling overrun by school children who were visiting the history museum, we decided to walk across the street to the Blanton Museum of Art. The main vestibule has a sandstone floor with tall walls on all four sides that have been layered (like thin bricks) with strips of a wavy-textured acrylic in gradations of blue, with the darker tones on the bottom and the colors getting lighter as your eyes rise to the top until finally the strips are white. The effect is that the vestibule looks like a pool, except that the people in it are dry. Pretty cool. The exhibits were interesting. I enjoyed both the traveling exhibit (temporary exhibition), featuring western art, and the European art exhibits.
Outside the history museum is a gigantic Lone Star, the symbol of Texas:
We met my nephew Wes, who lives near Austin, for lunch at 1600 S. Congress Street at a restaurant called South Congress Cafe, owned by someone named Trudy (who also owns other restaurants in the Austin area). The food was great and definitely worth the wait, which was about 15-20 minutes. I was very happy with my unusual and delicious salad, but my nephew's sea bass was the outstanding dish at our table...until dessert arrived, that is. We all shared two desserts: a cherry/pecan bread pudding and a butterscotch creme brulee.
We checked out some more shops after lunch and then headed back to the hotel, this time leaving the downtown at 4 p.m. with the intention of avoiding traffic, but we weren't early enough...we still found ourselves locked in a traffic jam. We had planned to go to the Continental Club to see a jazz band, but we dreaded the thought of fighting the traffic back into town, so we opted to stay near the hotel. We ventured over to some nearby shopping centers and stopped off at a Whole Foods Grocery Store for some fresh fruit and a midnight snack. Not exactly the Friday night in Austin we had planned, but it was fun nevertheless.
On Saturday, we met my nephew's family at Zilker Park's Botanical Gardens. Most of the flowers were dead, of course, since it was January--only a couple of roses were blooming-- and a lot of the plants had died back. When one of us was looking for a particular fern and commented that he couldn't see it, my nephew's stepson piped up and said, "Well, read the sign, it's a ghost fern." I'd forgotten how much fun elementary school kids are. We enjoyed the dinosaur section of the gardens--notice the oviraptor in the background on this photo?
--and also the children's garden. We all took turns sitting in the butterfly chairs and on the beautiful wrought iron benches.
Next, we crossed the road and went to the part of Zilker Park which contains a large playground. We all rode the little Zilker Zephyr train
which chugs along next to the river and winds its way back on a 25-minute round-trip. As we passed under a bridge and were looking down into the river, we spotted a very large snapping turtle...easily 30" long and probably over three feet from nose to tail-tip. There were smaller turtles around, too, sunning themselves or swimming. As I watched the big snapping turtle swimming along the river bank, I thought about all the swimmers who jump into Barton Springs in the summertime and probably float right past this over-sized reptile. I was glad I wasn't in the water with it.
On S. Congress St. is an entire block of food-trailers with picnic benches for outdoor dining, like you might see on the midway of a fair. We headed there for lunch.
We bought food from shiny trailers on each end of the block.
The first, called the Mighty Cone, served food in paper ice cream cones.
After lunch, we bought cupcakes from a silvery (Windstream?) trailer on the opposite side of the long block of food vendors. The business was called "Hey, Cupcake".
We sampled each others' cupcakes: carrot-cake, red velvet, double chocolate, and a Michael Jackson cupcake, which was chocolate with buttercream frosting.
South Congress Street has a laid-back, funky feel. It's a fun place to hang out together and people watch!
After lunch, we walked across the street to the small flea market that was open since it was Saturday. I found an interesting glass vase with a glass "rope" coiled around it. I talked to the artist awhile, who offered to give Mason a free glass-blowing lesson if I bought it. Then the artist told me that he and his wife need diapers for their baby, so he would knock off $10 from the price. So I bought it.
Across the street at one of the little artsy boutiques, my sister found a wonderfully imaginative metal sculpture of a dog. Its head wobbles since the neck is a spring, and it has a hanging tongue so it looks like the dog is panting. I liked a donkey sculpture, which must have been made by the same artist,
We said good-bye to our nephew and his family, and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our evening--a concert at Austin City Limits! Before the concert, we ate dinner at Lambert's--Sally had a lamb sausage dinner, and I ordered two side dishes: macaroni and cheese and "seared green beans with pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and tomato pieces." Delicious.
KebMo is one of my sister's favorite musicians, and his concert was the motivation for our trip to Austin. We were not disappointed; it was great!
What a perfect venue for musicians. The SRO floor is great for dancing to the music. I sat on the front row of the mezzanine and Sally sat on the row behind me. KebMo is from New Orleans; his music is definitely tinted with the feel of that city. He started off with a song called "Muddy Water" and ended with a rousing rendition of a song called "Make Myself a Better Man," written by another musician/songwriter from New Orleans, who shared the stage with him (but whose name I didn't catch). The musicians traveling and playing with KebMo were from Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, and a town in Georgia--Warner Robbins, I think. The songs he played that I really enjoyed are too numerous to list in a blog, but some of them are Just Lookin', I See Love, You Don't Have to Shave Your Legs, We Don't Need It, Walk Back In, She Just Wants to Dance, Still Got a Crush on You, The Itch, The Door Is Always Open, Am I Wrong, Gimme What You Got, and Soon As I Get Paid. Do yourself a favor and check out KebMo if you've never listened to him. At the concert he didn't play More Than One Way Home, Life Is Beautiful, Let Your Light Shine, Everything I Need, or Whole 'Nutha Thang, but he played and sang his heart out through several encores, and sadly, the concert had to come to a close.
Sunday morning was also filled with music at the Stubb's Barbecue Gospel Brunch. Spinach enchiladas, bacon, fresh biscuits, scrambled eggs with chorizo, potato chunks, and toppings of peppers, onions, and marinated cactus were served with a beef brisket as tender as I've ever had. The musicians were all male, and mostly named King, which somehow seemed appropriate at a Gospel Brunch.
After brunch, we headed back to Zilker Park to see the sculpture garden we had noticed on Saturday, but hadn't had the opportunity to visit. Since Umlauf Sculpture Gardens wasn't quite open yet, we drove over to an exhibit in one of Zilker Park's public buildings. The exhibit, called "Splash!", was about water in and around Austin. It featured information about the Edwards Aquifer, which covers a huge area under Austin. The aquifer spills out of the ground in the form of a cool spring at the rate of 50-60 million gallons of water a day. Pretty impressive, right? That water escaping from the porous, rocky ground is what forms Barton Springs, as well as the river that flows downhill from it.
Umlauf Sculpture Gardens displayed statues created by a sculptor named Umlauf who was also a professor at the University of Texas. A brief video explained the lost-wax process of creating metal sculpture. The sculptures covered a range of subject matter and styles--mainly realistic or expressionist, I would say.
We had a few minutes before we had to head to the airport, so we stopped by the Driskill Hotel, a classy old hotel in the heart of Austin. It's been the scene of many important occasions, including inaugural balls, debutante balls, and special events for UT. Here are a couple of scenes from inside the informal part of the hotel--the upstairs bar and lounge:
And below are some street scenes from South Congress, as promised:
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