Austin, TX

Austin is the capital of Texas. It is a great mix of major college town (University of Texas 50,000 students), political city, high tech metropolis and old time western honky tonk town. Music venues seem to be everywhere, even more so than Nashville, and encompassing a broader array of styles. Our stop here just happened to coincide with South by Southwest, Austin’s annual music and film festival, so the town was hopping!

Downtown is an eclectic mix of new high rises, expansive parks along the river, bars and barbeque joints and funky college oriented shops. Restaurants run from upscale hip, to funky new wave to food trailers scattered throughout the city including Hey Cupcake Airstream Trailers. Austin is definitely a good town for foodies, with almost anything you could ask for.

People seem very friendly for the most part, and Austin has a pretty comfortable atmosphere for a large city (800,000 population). The residential neighborhoods right near downtown still have single-family homes. You can find older bungalows right next door to trendy remodels and architecturally dramatic new homes. The suburbs are more typical of what you may find anywhere, but the heart of the city seems truly unique.

Mary’s close friend Shoshana moved to Austin last year. She is still settling in, but seems to really enjoy the variety and unique aspects of the city. She showed us around and gave us a good feel for the place. Mary and Shoshana taught an animal communication workshop one weekend.

We went to a live show called Esther’s Follies - a very fast-paced collection of skits, songs and magic acts. The material changes regularly, but the show has been running continuously since 1984. The stage backdrop is a window that opens right onto the street and passers by are often caught up in the action. Some of the cast even goes out on to the sidewalk with props and signs as part of the show. The show was very funny, intelligent and clever and the magic stunts were fantastic. We had a great time.

Congress Street Bridge is a rather long span across the Colorado River that winds through downtown, but it is not THE Colorado River. In a renovation project in the 1980’s, several inch or so wide slits were cut longitudinally into the underside of the bridge decking. These small crevices turned out to be great roosting spaces for bats. Hundreds of thousands of bats now roost and raise their young from mid-March until fall. The nightly spectacle of up to 1.5 million bats flying out from under the bridge draws quite a crowd of locals and tourists. Mary and I watched them the night before the full moon.

We also made a couple of excursions into the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin. Lake Travis is a suburban area of new commercial and residential development. The lake is also a center for recreational boating, but the water level is currently pretty low. We visited a couple of very nice small towns. Wimberley is a small artist community, and Fredericksburg is a German heritage town. Both were very nice with some good restaurants and interesting architecture. This area is also where Lyndon B Johnson grew up and had his ranch.

The geography and vegetation reminded me of the area of Southern California where I grew up, Thousand Oaks. Oak trees, dry grasses and brush dominate, only in Southern California the brush is Chaparral, and in the Hill Country it is Juniper Bushes/Trees or Cedars as they call them here. The topography is rolling hills as you might expect, but there is one magnificent feature that is quite unexpected. Enchanted Rock State Park encompasses a couple of very large monolithic pink granite boulders that rise up 425 feet from the surrounding landscape, almost like Ayers Rock in the outback of Australia. To Mary and I, the rocks seem to be the remains of a magma core from a very large caldera. When on the rock you can see a surrounding rim on the horizon that would make the caldera tens of miles wide. It is quite easy to hike the ¾ mile trail to the summit…you just walk right up the side. The rock surface is so grippy that you can literally walk up (and down) vast areas of the rock. It is also easy to experience the profound energy of the place as you lie on your back and close your eyes or gaze into the sky. While the rock is mostly bare, erosion pockets in the surface catch water and dirt and support a surprising variety of plant life. If you are in the area, Enchanted Rock is definitely a must see.

The weather has been fantastic during our two weeks here, mid 80’s during the day and low 60’s at night. Next we’ll be heading toward Big Bend and west Texas.