Serendipity

Although Austin seems to have about six restaurants and twelve bars on every other street, Friday morning we found it challenging to find a place for breakfast. After driving down street after street I finally spotted a place downtown called Jo's. During our meanderings this view of the Longhorns stadium came into sight. Similar to Alabama, college football is very, very important to Texans, including our Jonathan and Alissa who have season tickets.

As we were coming to expect, the restaurant had both good food, and a good look.

Have I mentioned that tacos are on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner? They are, with only slight changes to the fillings--I'm sold on it! Roaming around downtown, checking out the shops, we came across the sign for Austin City Limits, the longest running music show on television. For most of the 39 years they've been on television, the programs were taped at the University of Texas, however, in 2011 they moved into the new Moody Theater.

Scooting up those stairs to get a closer look, a fellow asked if we wanted our picture taken together in front of the sign. Sure thing! What's weird is that I cannot find those photos taken by Tony, but that's not the point of this story. The point is that he asked us if we would be interested in the tour which started in about five minutes. Sounds like a plan.

Tony, our guide, was so enthusiastic you couldn't help but fall in love with the place. My goodness he was cheerful. Our group of about 15 followed him as he told us all about the lighting, sound system, and the move to the new place which seats 3,000, rather than the original theater's 800 seats. They were doing a sound check for the evening's show featuring, Cheech & Chong, War,  and Tower of Power--a blast from the past. As he took us into the green room, we saw the various dressing rooms off to the sides. For every performer, an artist designs a poster, all of which are incredibly cool.

The photography galleries of past performers were absolutely terrific. I took this shot of Dolly for a certain someone I know.

On the third floor is a room for the really big wigs who come to town, including President Obama who used the space while on a fund raising trip to Austin. Because Willie Nelson was the first performer on the show, and is also one of the investors in the new property, he pretty much dominates this special room.

When I asked Tony if he was a musician, he chuckled saying, "pretty much everyone in Austin is a musician." Although the tour was not on our radar previously we were very pleased that we took it.

Next trip to Austin we need to make sure and see a show there.

Zilker Park is a 350 acre park just a few miles from downtown where all manner of activities take place. Jonathan told us about Barton Springs pool which we looked for diligently. Somehow we missed the sign, so instead we parked and walked over a pedestrian bridge,

crossing what I guess is called Lady Bird Lake. As you can see the day was overcast which was a blessing, however the humidity was much greater than we expected! Before crossing, a gentleman told me there was a place called, Deep Eddy on the other side of the bridge; we went in search of that. It was really something--a spring harnessed into a swimming pool....

another first for me. I wonder if other places do this? I guess it must be said that I've led a pretty sheltered life, mostly working and raising a family, so I haven't seen as many things as some folks. Can you believe I've never even seen a real snow fall?

Once back in the MINI, we did see the sign, took a quick look at the BS pool, and headed back to S. Congress for some lunch. We'd heard the pizza was terrific at Home Slice and we agree with that assessment. Sitting at the bar was our best choice as the place was packed. Am I ever glad we did! I don't know which was better, our slice of pizza or watching these two work.

The girl assigned to making salads was behind the bar throwing up a damp towel for practice, hoping one day to be a crust maker. I watched in awe.

For the life of me I can't remember what happened next, but I do remember having dinner with J & A, after meeting up at their apartment. It's hard to believe it's been two years plus since we moved them there! Pretty much they haven't changed a thing except for the new art Bruce hung for them before we went to eat. Jonathan still needs his Dad. :) Actually Bruce taught him how to do it for himself, so the next time he buys something it won't sit for long before going up on the wall!

Cabo Bob's was our dinner spot, a, you guessed it, taco place. Except here they made the corn tortillas, cooking them in front of you on a spinning griddle. Very cool. Jonathan was aghast his Mother had never heard of Cabo. What can I say? Apparently, according to this, I might very well want to go there!

Finally, with the workweek over, we could spend some time together.  Check back tomorrow to see how we spent a supercalifragilisticexpealidocious Saturday!

The Hill Country

Besides food and live music, Austin is known for being an exercise conscious city. Early Thursday morning I took a little walk on the trail that runs alongside the Colorado River. At one point, a family came along and this little girl was just too cute. In spite of her parents instructions to keep going, she insisted on staring at me. I told them perhaps she was waiting to have her picture taken, and apparently that was correct because after I did so, she pedaled back to them.

I can't for the life of me remember any of my children wearing sunglasses when they were little. Perhaps they should have? In addition to the little rider, I saw this man who perfectly exemplifies the notion of multi-tasking.

Yes he is walking the dog, his child, himself, and lifting weights while he is at it!

If you've ever spent any time in West Texas, you know that it is a mighty dreary place. Mile after mile of nothing. Even after all these years I can still remember how long it took us to get across Texas when we moved to California in 1977. Brown, flat, and just plain ugly to a Floridian accustomed to green. The hill country outside of Austin, on the other hand, is lovely, with rolling hills (duh), trees, and beautiful wildflowers decorating the roadways.

Leaving the hipsters behind, we headed to Longhorn Caverns State Park in Burnett, Texas, about 60 miles from Austin. The ride was smooth and the scenery wonderful.

Honestly, I could not get enough of those wildflowers! I never dreamed we would have such a treat and some years I might not have, however, recent rains have made them pop.

Now, you may have been in a cavern before, but I had not and was anxious to do so. I have no idea how I found the website on the morning of our departure, but I'm glad I did. The structure below was built by the CCC beginning in 1937. An exhibit inside told us more about the CCC camp and the hard work they did.

As well, there was this as part of the exhibit:

Things don't change very much, do they?

Do you know the difference between a cavern, and a cave? I didn't either so I asked our guide who told me that a cave has only one opening, whereas a cavern can have several. The history of the caverns is so darn fascinating, having been used by all sorts of folks through the years. I suspect you won't click on the link, so I'll just tell you that at one of it's many uses was a speakeasy! Our guide was excellent, explaining at some points more than I wanted to know. As such, I'm trying to show you only a couple of photos because I could very well be accused of the same! Our group heading in:

There were several types of rock inside that I won't bore you with, but what I will do is show you what I mean:

Above are the bumpy rocks, and below are the fantastic smooth stuff:

It was pretty much incredible to me to think that we were, at the deepest part, 85 feet underground!! There were very few stalactites and stalagmites, but we did see some,

as well as one area where the walls were nearly covered in quartz. We walked 3/4 mile in, turning around, heading back to daylight. I mention that because at one point the guide turned off the lights, plunging us into the darkest dark I've ever been in. The workmanship by the CCC using rudimentary tools is pretty remarkable.

I can now check seeing a cavern off my list of things I've never done before. Seriously, go see one if you get the opportunity. Thinking about all the life under our feet sort of freaks me out.

By now it was nearly 2 in the afternoon and we toyed with the idea of heading down to San Antonio, however we decided it was probably too far to make it back to Austin before dark. Instead we stopped in the town of Burnet for lunch, followed by a little wandering through some shops, and their town square. One thing I was so happy to see along the Texas highways was the town populations on the signage. I need to know these things.

The folks in this store were so nice--the woman's name was Gayle. I wandered around while Bruce did a wee bit of work on his laptop in the MINI.

One thing I discovered while making my way through about six rooms filled to the brim is that the color yellow was not very popular despite the above shelf. Believe me, this was the extent of it. One thing that I cut off on the right hand side is a Tommy Tippee cup which was so popular when my children were young. The older I get, the more I recognize the stuff in these "antique" shops!

The town square was super cute with more antique shops and a few restaurants, one of which I went into. It's a long story, but in a nutshell, the woman who collected all these bottles was bored when she was around 80 and took a job as a Sonic Restaurant car hop for about three years!

I won't surprise you to learn that according to the man I was chatting with, she was the oldest car hop in the nation! 

Back on the road again, the next place we stopped was Bertram, a town about a quarter of the size of Burnet ,which is pretty darn small itself! This was quite the surprise:

What the heck, let's look at the profile shot:

Not something one sees everyday. Nor do I see this term everyday, or make that, never in my lifetime:

Washateria. I wonder if they made that up back when washing a load of clothes only cost 20 cents? I just checked, and it is in the dictionary, but I bet I'm not the only one who has never seen it.

The rest of way back to Austin was mildly eventful because Mrs. Peck got behind the wheel. Mrs. Peck does not like flyovers of which there are a number in Austin. Mrs. Peck decided to take what they call the "farm road" which runs parallel with the interstate. Mrs. Peck does not like to drive on roads that are  way up in the air.

Although it took longer, Mrs. Peck was happier. Alissa told us about the Rainey Street Historic District which was only a few blocks from our hotel. Since J & A were busy Thursday night, we went there ourselves, dining at El Naranjo, which in Spanish, according to the chef who stopped by our table, means The Orange Tree. Well now.

Our first taste of a mole, this one made with 17 ingredients. Despite the empty dining room, we were assured that it was a fluke. Very, very delicious. As it turns out, most of the places on Rainey Street are bars, which we learned by going inside and asking. Hipsterdom:

If I were any good at scanning I'd show you a photograph of myself when I was less than a year old, sitting in the same kind of chair. Is this what it means to be hip? Quite a number of the other places have long picnic tables out back where people eat and drink almost cafeteria style. After our meal, we stopped into Bangers, just down the street, to listen to a little music.

I'm pretty sure we weren't the oldest folks there, but I can't swear to it.

All in all, it was quite the day. To be continued....

p.s. I stand corrected--Judy says she's seen the "Sound of Music" at least 3,000 times!

Journey to the Land of the Hipsters

It did not take long for Bruce and I to discover why it is that Jonathan and Alissa are so happy in Austin. What a great city--not too big, not too small.

As you can see I'm in love with sitting next to the window, whereas Bruce is all about the aisle seat. Because we flew Southwest, things were a little different, re: Bruce is not the big wig on SW like he is on Delta. That said, we paid the extra money to board first, getting good seats near the front. Furthermore, Bruce, being the frequent flyer that he is, knows a few tricks, one of which we employed. Putting our bags overhead, he directed me to my preferred seat, then proceeded to sit in his preferred seat, leaving the middle one open. Do you think anyone took that seat? Of course they didn't! Brilliant! Worked both on our way out there, and our way back.

What Forbes did not include in these rankings, is the vast array of places to eat. Our first stop was for a milkshake at a food truck park, located on Cesar Chavez, one of the main streets heading through downtown.

Guess who is driving the blue Mini Cooper? Can you believe it?? Originally we were meant to have a Mitsubishi (!), however, Bruce asked if we could have the MINI instead and they said YES! Even five years later I still miss my MINI, so how happy do you think I was? Very happy indeed.

The picture above about says it all--three meals, wi-fi, and live music. All any Austinite can hope for in one place. Actually, only a couple of the trucks were open which generally seemed to be the case in quite a number of the "food truck parks" we encountered. There was one adjacent to our hotel which, during the five days we stayed there, only one or two were ever open. Of course, we weren't there at lunchtime, so who knows?

Before leaving, we had a list of things to do from Alissa who generously sent links and the like to get us acquainted. As well, I'd done a fair amount of searching for things we might like. Then too, in a awesome stroke of luck, the New York Times recently published this handy dandy guide to the hill country. Starting our tour of Austin, we made our way to South Congress, otherwise known as SoCo. See the weird back in angle parking? Seriously difficult!

Making our way down the street, we were looking for a place to have lunch, eventually stopping at the Magnolia Cafe.  I knew the place was cool as soon as I saw this building just across the street.

Seeing the RCA street art brings back loads of memories for a certain age group, to which I belong!

Sorry We're Open indeed.

Austin is known for having great food and we both agree that it is a well-deserved reputation. Good grief our lunch was good. It was a mixed crowd of hipsters and us regular folks. Back on the street we moseyed through some shops and this won't surprise you one bit--I bought an adorable orange shirtwaist dress with lions printed on it. Did I mention it was hot? It was, so much so that I changed  into the new sleeveless dress immediately!

There were boot stores, boutiques, art galleries, and oh yeah, this:

and this:

I can't speak from experience because I'm not a big cupcake fan, but later on Alissa told me they are so popular they have three trucks. We moseyed down the street, looking for the Continental Club where later on James McMurtry was to play.

You may not have heard of James McMurtry, few people have, but you may have heard about his dad, Larry McMurtry, the author of one of my all time favorite books, "Lonesome Dove." Joseph, our singer at the market, introduced Bruce to his music through his former radio show, Sunday Morning Coming Down. Bruce fell in love with his songs; each one is a story of sorts. As you can see from the above photo, people are pretty casual about how their music venues look. Because it was closed, we made our way down the street and around the corner to the Texas Folk Life museum where they were having a little show about, of all things, Fritos.

To his credit, I caught him on one of the few business calls he made during our trip. Seriously, it was fascinating to learn how Fritos became the success they are today. More street art on S. Congress:

Bats are a way of life in Austin, what with the nightly fly-out from under the bridge of some 1.5 million bats!!! According to J & A, some nights they actually don't come out, or if so, much later than sunset. And no, we did not stand on the bridge to see it. Maybe next trip.

Despite my new adorable sleeveless dress, I was still hot and thirsty. I needed some ac and something to drink. Stopping into a Mexican place, we took a seat at the bar next to two ladies who turned out to be celebrities of a sort!!! Of course I did not know it when I began chatting with them, but pretty soon I learned their last name--Von Trapp. Does that ring a bell? It should. Meet Annie and Sofia Von Trapp:

When Sofia (left) went to the restroom, Annie told us that she was a singer. That, of course, is not good enough for me. Probing further, I learned that her great grandfather was the real Captain Von Trapp, and Kurt Von Trapp is her grandfather. Together, with her other three siblings, they perform as The von Trapps. They were super nice; we had a great time chatting and learning some of the details about the family that are not shown in the "Sound of Music." My sister-in-law Judy has watched the movie maybe 30 times because she loves it so, making me excited to share this cool happening with her. I learned as well that the group is working hard to move into contemporary music scene. There's more to this story, but I'll quit while I'm ahead!

Does it sound like all we did was eat and drink? You are almost right about that. By now J & A were off work and we could finally see them. Meeting them at

we got our first taste of yet another, oldie but goodie, what else? Fried chicken!

See the $1 can of Pearl beer sign behind them? Austin is very much a beer town which is not great for a wine drinker. It took about four days until I was served wine in a wine glass, which now that I think about it, may be part of the whole hipster thing.....?

After a little more sightseeing we finally went to our hotel--around nine we sent them home so that we could have a little nap before going to see Mr. McMurtry who was to go on at midnight!! What? The Pecks going out at 11??? Yup! We did it and were oh so happy we did.

Apparently, for nine years the top two on the marquee have been performing on Wednesday night at The Continental Club--some people like to stay up late it seems. The place is small with mostly high tops and padded benches along the side. We were very close and being able to sit down was a bonus!

Larry is wearing the white hat on the left. After a bit, another musician came on stage, showing off his moves with an accordion!

Amazingly, we were not too tired, despite the late hour and the time change. Finally, around 2 AM, we fell asleep at our Holiday Inn, in the land of the hipsters.

More tomorrow.....