Keep Austin's Animals Weird

People are so worried about keeping Austin weird that I think they are failing to notice how weird the local fauna already is. The photo to your left is not a Photoshop trick, it is truly a dog climbing a tree at Auditorium Shores. Apparantly, this vertically-inclined canine decided that all the leash-free freedom she enjoys is just not enough, she wants the freedom to hang out in trees also. Who am I to crush this four-legged furball's hopes and dreams? I just snapped the shot, gave her some encouragement and moved on.

Now, some would say that one weird thing is just not enough to keep Austin weird. For you naysayers, I offer to you exhibit dos (to your right). This, my friends, is a squirrel who has decided to evict the previous tenant (a coleus) via execution (and digestion) and has moved in and made himself comfortable.



I will be keeping an eye out for more proof but trust me, Austin's animals are weird.

Butler Park After Dark

Just west of the Palmer Events Center (between Riverside Drive and Barton Springs Road) is Butler Park. The park was named in honor of the Butler family that donated the land to the city. It's a great park that offers excellent views of downtown from the observation hill, meandering walkways, a relaxing pond, lots of local vegetation and cool dancing fountains that you can play in (sorry, no dogs).

Once the sun goes down, the dancing fountains are joined by a light show. We're not talking Bellagio here, but it is an entertaining show and whoever set it up did a great job. Another awesome way to be entertained in Austin.

This is waiting for you at the top of the hill

The Long Center at dusk

Vietnamese @ Lulu B's

 

Part of the charm of Austin is the fact that a lot of great restaurants are located in trailers. Flip Happy Crepes, Torchy's Tacos and now Lulu B's are just a few that come to mind. Lulu B's opened in January of this year and has been churning out absurdly fresh and ridiculously good Vietnamese street food ever since.

We had the Pork Sandwich and the BBQ Chicken Vermicelli Bowl and both were out of this world. Both items were full of super fresh veggies, cilantro and spicy, tangy meat. The portions are good and with drinks (glass bottled Coke is always a plus), the bill was $14.

I've heard that the lines can be pretty long during peak eating times. We went at 2pm and though there wasn't a line, there were still a decent amount of people there.

The Texas National Science Center

You like this totally sweet panorama photo I snatched from online? It shows the Hall of Geology and Paleontology at the science center. The Texas Memorial Mueum, otherwise known as the Texas National Science Center, is yet another FREE thing to do in Austin. It's located next to the U.T. Football Stadium (which is tough to miss) and houses many fine exhibits.



The main exhibits are the aforementioned Hall of Geology and Paleontology (dinosaurs, fossils, meteorites), the Great Hall (gems, Pterosaur skeleton), the Hall of Texas Wildlife (local fish, nocturnal animals, dioramas) and the Hall of Biodiversity (evolution, DNA, viruses).



The Texas National Science Center is yet another great place to learn about the history of the state and the admission fee is super sweet.

Town Lake Trail

We decided to check out a different section of the Town Lake Trail. We usually stick to the area between Barton Creek and the Congress Avenue Bridge, but today we started at MoPac and looped around at the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge. It turned out to be a little over three miles. On the left is a photo from the area underneath the MoPac bridge. It looks like some type of game that marries water polo with kayaks, po-yak? kaya-lo? wat-ka-lo-yaking? Whatever it is, I'm sure this sport has an awesome name. Looks like fun.



On the north side of the lake we walked by the massive Austin High School campus with it's fields upon fields of various sports. While some parts of the trail are wide open and can be quite hot in the midday sun, there were also many parts that were well shaded and surrounded by trees. We eventually came to the pedestrian bridge and followed it around to Zilker Park. The photo on the right is a view from the bridge over Barton Creek. The bridge in the distance is Barton Springs Road.



At the corner of Zilker Park there is a cool place called Lou Neff Point Gazebo. Sadly, my pal Wikipedia let me down when I looked for info on Mister Neff but the City Of Austin homepage filled the void. According to the site: "Named for Lou Neff, who served alongside Lady Bird Johnson as a member of the Town Lake Beautification Committee, this scenic overlook is one of the most popular and beautiful areas in the city."

 

Snakes 101

When we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week I noticed that they have Nature Nights every Thursday in July. This week the subject was snakes, and Heather loves snakes, so off we went. The parking lot was packed so we had to park on the La Crosse cul-de-sac. After a short walk, we arrived at the center and paid our buck.



We caught the 8pm presentation in the auditorium. Snake expert Dr. Travis LaDuc gave a great talk and brought along a few of his scaly friends. Travis is the Assistant Curator of Herpetology at the Texas Natural History Museum at U.T. and his love of snakes was infectious. We are looking forward to visiting the university museum now to see more. Next week, the Nature Nights at the Wildflower Center will have a presentation on birds of prey.

  Red touches black, friend of Jack

Red touches yellow, kill a fellow

Dan touches snake, poop he'll make

Chile On The Patio

Another Austin landmark, another dandy dinner. The Shady Grove is no stranger to hype, in a town full of patio-dining, it is one of the kings (perhaps it is the Wikipedia of patio-dining). Could it possibly live up to all the praise? Are you really that much cooler for dining under that big old tree? Who am I to judge?



One of their signature items are the Green Chili Fries, crispy fries topped with green chili sauce and queso. Yeah, they were a little soggy, but they are truly good. But the food isn't really the point, the reason people come to Shady Grove is for the patio. It's a nice patio, the huge trees offer up some nice shade and the atmosphere is relaxing. Is the food good? No complaints here.

Trifecta Of Goodness

Three huuuuuuuge accomplishments today! (Note: photos "borrowed" from the JNB Diary blog)



First, we picnicked in Zilker Park. We packed up some burgers, corn and fixings and commandeered a table in the shade with access to a grill. The previous tenants had had quite the party. Our intuitive CSI-like skills revealed that it had been an oyster bake with hot sauce, Heinekens and cigarettes. It could have also been that they left all the remnants behind. After the unfortunate task of cleaning up the mess, we had a fine pic-a-nic.

Next, we braved the frigid depths of Barton Springs Pool. At 68 degrees it takes a while to acclimate the more sensitive areas but it's most excellent once your breathing regulates. As a bonus I got to check out the open-air changing slash bath room. Straight out of Roman times minus the vomitorium.



To complete the trifecta, we saved the best for last. After a few times of eating the infamous Salt Lick at the airport, we finally made it to the motherland. Sorry but I cannot put it into words and the photo to your left brings tears to my eyes upon each and every viewing. Go there. Now.

Austin Nature & Science Center

Not more than a mile from our humble abode is the Austin Nature & Science Center. We decided to walk and soon found ourselves staring at a bobcat. Of course the bobcat was in a cage, but cool nonetheless. Also present was a wily coyote, a red-tailed hawk, a pair of frolicking raccoons and a few other assorted local fauna. While small, the center is pretty nice and the pond area, which features the Eco-Detective Trail and the new Dino Pit Exhibit, is a cool reuse of an old gravel pit.

 

Lady Bird Wildflower Center: No Wildflowers But Still Plenty To See

Lady Bird Johnson died on July 11th of 2007 and to honor her memory, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center offered free admission today. Some Wikipedia wisdom: Lady Bird Johnson and actress Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center in 1982 to protect and preserve North America's native plants and natural landscapes. Officially renamed Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1998, the mission of the center has been to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes.



While this is not wildflower season, there was still plenty to see as the center is just beautifully designed and laid out. There's lots of water features, winding paths and the architecture is very nice and natural looking. There was also a nice assortment of reptiles and amphibians which I documented below:

Beauty And The Beast Of A Crowd

A few weeks ago while out for a walk on the Barton Creek Greenbelt, we decided to check out the beginning of Beauty & The Beast to see if it would be worth coming back to see in the future. This is the 50th year of summer productions at the Zilker Hillside Theatre and while it was opening week, it wasn't too busy. We were impressed that everything was live, no taped music and no lip-syncing. Since we had walked and it was getting dark, we decided to come back to check it out.



So tonight was the night and I guess either the news got out or people are just looking harder to find free entertainment. Whatever the case, the hillside was paaaaaaaaaaaaaacked.

 

We got there a half hour before showtime and the above photo shows the best seat we could find. Obscured views, tons of people and more people arriving. Even though the singing was good and the choreography was well done, we decided to leave at intermission because it was just too hard to see. Also, remember that this was a Thursday night, weekends must be insanity.

Lake Travis? I'll Pass

Perhaps it was all the hype. Perhaps I just don't care much for lakes. Perhaps I am just a party poopster. Perhaps I just overused the word perhaps. Whatever the case, I did not find the Lake Travis area to be pretty. Sure the water is a nice color and you can't go wrong with the rock slash water combo, but it just didn't do it for me.



Maybe we just chose the wrong section to get a view of the lake. We went to the Mansfield Dam Park and had a hard time finding a shady spot. The beach was rocky and the scene on the water was that of personal watercraft and their high-pitched whines. I did see a wakeboarding boat launched but they had to look for calmer waters so I didn't even get to see any action.

Good day to sail

 

If you're into slicing up water with no true purpose and 

creating noise pollution then Lake Travis is for you.

Show Love For Umlauf (Just Pretend That It Rhymes)

After a Chuy-tastic lunch of Tex-Mex viddles, we hoofed it over to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. While the grounds are not overly impressive and the cost is a tad high for the size of the place, it is still a decent enough stroll. The home of many of Charles Umlauf's sculptures reside here in a tranquil garden setting.



Wikipedia, the true king of all media, has this to say: In 1985, Charles and Angeline Umlauf donated their home, studio, and 168 Umlauf sculptures to the City of Austin. Six years later, in 1991, the city built a museum to display the artwork on adjoining city property with private funds. Volunteers staff and maintain the museum using donated funds, while Austin's Parks and Recreation Department maintains the xeriscaped (fancy pants way of saying they use as little water as possible) garden.

Is the Hill Country Galleria Really Considered Austin? aka Do People Really Spend $2,000 A Month To Rent Apartments There?

So very sorry for the super-longified title but it had to be done. Yes, the Galleria is nice and it is enjoyable to walk around in a mall where you can get run over by a car at any second. Plus you don't have to worry about crowds (because there are none!) or having to lug around bags of merchandise (because you can just stop at Barton Square Mall en route and buy what you need at all the same stores).

I should also mention that the Hill Country Galleria is quite far from Austin. I guess if you live in and around Lake Travis it isn't too far but then I don't think that should be considered Austin either. I've driven through Lakeway and um, I just don't get it. I guess for all the people who's primary goal is to have more and better stuff than everyone around them, the Galleria is perfect. Plus it will keep them out of the downtown area so everybody wins.

We ate dinner at the somewhat famous Rosie's Tamale House which is right down the road from the Galleria. The salsa was great and the tamales were good. Not much ambience, a big room with cheap decor. It is what it is, nothing more and nothing less.

Hamilton Pool Preserve

We made the trek up to Hamilton Pool Preserve today. Wow. What a great place. According to my good bud Wikipedia, it is a natural pool that was created when the dome of an underground river collapsed due to massive erosion thousands of years ago. Sounds terrifyingly awesome.

Under normal circumstances the waterfall spans 45 feet but, since it has been so dry this year, it was more of a trickle in spots kind of thing. Impressive nonetheless. The shot to the right shows the dome in all it's glory. After spending some time here we hiked about a mile to the Pedernales River.

  

Bonnell Like Bottle Or Bonnell Like Chanel Or Bonnell Like Toe Nail

However you pronounce it, Mount Bonnell offers a nice view of the city, the university, Lake Austin and the fancy-pants houses that line it. According to the demigod Wikipedia, it has been a popular picnicking and tourist spot since the mid-1800s and has an Everest-like elevation of 780 feet above sea level.



According to legend, (and Wikipedia, therefore it's true) Mount Bonnell was once called Antoinette's Leap, after a young woman who leaped to her death to avoid capture from Native Americans that killed her fiance. To me, whatever happened in the past is old news, I'm all about the here and now. So here's some pics right now:

Big Sky Over Austin

 Zoom It In

Looking Good U.T.

Rich People Have Nice Shit

Freedom Isn't Free, It's A Hefty Farkin Fee

We planned ahead for the big Fourth of July extravaganza down at Auditorium Shores. With an expected crowd of over 100,000 peeps and my estimate of free parking within walking distance at around 97 spots, we decided to drop off a vehicle in a strategic location earlier in the day. The bonus move was to stock the parked car with all the folding chairs and other assorted festival-attending needs.



Around 7:30 we caught the bus and took it to the corner of Lamar and Barton Springs. We grabbed our gear out of the previously stashed car and hiked down to Auditorium Shores to find a decent spot. The main area where the vendors were set up across from the Long Center was paaaaaaaaacked so we opted to set up in the area in front of the Palmer Events Center. We could still hear the symphony from there thanks to the speakers that were set up all over.



Imagine our delight when the fireworks began and we had some how chosen the most perfect location ever. They were shooting them up directly in front of us.

The only wrench in the operation came when we tried to vacate the parking lot. After 15 minutes of sitting in a clusterfluster, Heather manned up and displayed some traffic-cop skills and freed the log jam. Free at last, free at last. Happy Birthday Mer-kah, here's my buck-oh-five.