Austin, Texas - A Friend in Training

​Have you ever met someone, and you feel like you could really, really like them if you got to know them better. That’s how I felt about Austin. I liked everything I saw, and I enjoyed everything I did, but I didn’t feel like I got to see or do enough to totally fall in love with Austin.  But I definitely got to see enough that I want to go back and spend some more time. I know I keep saying that, and it is truly the indication that my travels need to slow down to spend longer time periods in each area to get to know it better.  I am learning.  I could see Austin being one of those places where I could rent a spot for three weeks and live there and get to know the city better.

I arrived late the afternoon, and set up the beast.  It was really nice campground, a little crowded, but beautiful. You could tell it was well-maintained... plus all the RVs were nice there so you knew it was a pretty upscale park. I was parked between a huge fifth wheel, the kind that attaches to a big pick up truck, and a 45 foot class A bus that was simply gorgeous.

Someone I knew from one of the social apps agreed to act as my tour guide for the evening so out I went to pick him up. We drove around the city a little just looking at the architecture, which seem to almost all be brand new. Where to start?  How about the first Whole Foods market?  I HAVE to see that. So onward we went to the original Whole Foods Market. I’m not gonna say much about this because frankly all the new Whole  Foods Markets look just like this one. It was cool knowing this was the first, but that’s about as far as my being impressed went. I will say once again that their pastries looked amazing and that we did wind up buying a few supplies for everyday use. (note here, if you buy flavored seltzer’s and leave them in the back of your car to store them, when it’s close to 100 outside... those explosions that scare the sh&$ out if you later... that would be the seltzers telling you that they are not happy and they want out of their cans NOW).

Justin had told me about a place called hope outdoor garden that I should visit, but for some reason it said it was closed when I checked on-line. So instead we decided to go to something I read about online that was a graffiti art exhibit on a failed condominium project. Well, it turns out that what I read about and his recommendation are one in the same. Hope Outdoor Gallery began life as a condominium project one about 3/4 of a block of land going up at least three stories high. Something went wrong with the zoning and the project was abandoned. Well, I have to say, that was the condiminium livers loss.  This is one of the most exciting urban places to visit. First of all the vibrancy of the art was awesome. Second of all it was late afternoon and there were tons of people around climbing all over the structures - some painting, some admiring, some just climbing for the fun of it. There was just a great vibe going on; it was palpable.  I watched as people spray-painted their own art over the masterpiece that was painted yesterday by someone else.  I watched as people just stared in amazement.  I watched as people clicked dozens of pictures.  I watched for a while.

I wound up talking to a woman who was a local resident. She told me the history and told me that she comes every day, because every day the entire thing changes. Something gorgeous today is covered tomorrow. The art is both permanent and ephemeral at the same time. She told me that this was quintessential Austin - great art,  great artists,  but little permanence.  Hmmmmm, lots of stuff embodied in that statement, huh? The other interesting thing that she told me, and I could observe myself, is that the place is virtually spotless. Local kids and even the homeless people work hard to keep it clean. The artists off and throw their spray paint cans down in the grassAnd people come and pick them up and toss them in the cans. Oh, the trash cans are all spray painted, the rocks are spray painted, the weeds are spray-painted. Everything is a canvas. And I could not get enough of it. But like all good things, this too must come to an end. The city of Austin is considering “re-erecting” this in a local city park. I don’t know if the owners of this property have decided that enough is enough, or the city of Austin, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that this would be better off in a public place, or what.  But somehow it feels that something great will be lost if this isn’t the organic and evolutionary project that it’s become.  I have posted a few pictures here.  I am posted a whole bunch more at the end of this post.  I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did.  When you are looking at them, check out the people too.  They are an integral part of the art!

Well, we finally decided it was time to go. Since it was getting close to dusk, I wanted to get to the bridge where the bats fly so I could see them. Every day during the summer months hundreds of thousands of bats come out from the roost under the bridge on Congress Street to go feed on local corn fungus. Their food source makes their flight smell like corn tacos… Ha ha!  But the beauty is in their patterns of flight. It starts off with one bat, then two, then they come out in a swarm and fly counterclockwise up into the sky.  That’s what I read, and I was anxious to see it in person.  So we get to the Congress Street bridge and there are hundreds of people standing on the bridge. Now we just have to find parking and get out there. Easier said than done, but we found the spot a couple blocks away, race to get to the bridge... only to find everyone gone. One guy was standing there and said they came early. Damn, we missed them!  Well I got a picture of the statute commemorating their consistency.  Yay (he says faint heartedly!).

We were already parked so off we went walking. North Congress St. was pretty much a city street like any other, lined with high-end hotels, some with very upscale outdoor cafés. It was starting to get dark, and we headed towards Sixth Street. This is where the real Austin shows it’s colors. There were throngs of people on the street (probably hungry from watching the bats and smelling corn tacos) -  walking with a mission, strolling without,  going into restaurants,  and just standing around chatting. Every store front was either a restaurant, a bar, a game arcade, or a set of stairs leading upstairs where the strip clubs seem to be. Barkers stood at almost every entrance trying to entice you - three dollar drinks! Beer! Shots! You name it, they barked it. One barker, a well-built, well tattooed man, stopped me and said I should come upstairs for a fun time. I looked at him and told him that was not MY idea of a fun time. I guess from the way I said it he knew exactly what I meant, because he looked at me and said “not mine either” and he winked.  It was pretty funny.

What really made things special was that practically every restaurant or bar had live music playing and the windows and doors were open so you could stand there and listen.  Of course, you had to try and drown out the cacophony of all the other music establishments vying for your attention.   It was wonderful walking down the street listening to different music -  rock, jazz, country, folk... something for every taste. We walked up and down the entire strip listening to music, watching people, reading menus, and finally settled on a Mexican restaurant. Of course it was the only restaurant that did not have live music, but the semi-quiet was appealing at that point and the food was wonderful

This is definitely not a sign you see on most city streets. 

The next day I drove around to get more of a feel of the area. I read that South Congress St. was the place to go, so I figured I would drive through the area.  North Congress St. is the high-end-hotel crowd;  South Congress St. is the funky Austin crowd.   It was much more hip; much more wacky. There was a hat store, there was a costume shop, there was a secondhand store that looked like a hipster heaven.  Not a chain or box store in sight.  Good!

Death by bread and butter... .what a way to go. 

Another recommendation was to go to central market, another supermarket. I was so sure about doing yet another supermarket after having not been particularly impressed with Whole Foods, but I decided to go. Wow, this place was amazing.  I have to say I was literally overwhelmed by the beauty of all the food and the beauty of the people - this was Hipster Heaven. Samples were in abundance including a bag in front of each of the dozens of varieties of fresh bread’s and to make matters even better, there were big vats of fresh butter strategically placed to make the bread samples even more yummy. I tasted cheeses I tasted various vegetable chips, I tasted a couple different gourmet popcorn, and they really were different and delicious, and I tasted a couple different drinks. What a nice lunch I had. They definitely should mark this as a major tourist attraction.

Sorry for all the super market pics, but it really was too awesome not to share! 

Back in the car I was driving all around the city and saw the Iron Bear Bar, which I’d been told was a fun place, including theme nights like karaoke. It was only 4 o’clock, but I was tired and in the mood to sit for a bit. In the bar, nicely air-conditioned by the way especially in this heat, there were a bunch of regulars. I said down and was immediately drawn into their conversations. My phone buzzed with a text on one of the social apps.  It wound up one of the guys I was talking to online was in the bar.  So we continued our online conversations in person. What a small world. And what a nice way to spend an afternoon.

The next day I drove to Barton Springs, stopping for lunch at a place that was recommended by the office folks in the RV park where I was staying. The menu looks promising and I was thrilled when I got to Texas size glass of water because, let me tell you it was hot. I ordered a house made veggie burger with green hatch chili sauce instead of just lettuce and tomato since hatch chili is a specialty this time of year (evidently). It took for ever for my order to come out, but I was enjoying my Texas sized water and people watch. The server brought out my food and looked down and asked me why I got a veggie burger. I told him I was a vegetarian and he told me to hatch green chili sauce had beef in it… Yuck! Why would they do that. Anyway it was a veggie sandwich for me and let me tell you the grilled veggies were good but they were nowhere near as good as that original sandwich looked.

I drove up the hill to Barton Springs.  As you rose higher on the road, it felt more rural.  I was entering the park but was not aware.  Then there was a sign for Zilker Park and the vistas just opened up.  Classic park in some ways, but different because it was in the middle of the city.  We have Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, and this was very much akin to that, especially the open areas on Belmont Avenue in Philly.

Barton Springs is a natural spring fed river that was damaged in the 1920s and made into the pool that it is today it covers 3 acres not including the level down where people play in the river with their kids and their dogs. The spring threat fed water is a constant 69 to 70° that was quite refreshing when the temperature outside was in the high 90s. The water was crystal clear although it had a lot of floating debris from the trees surrounding area. Still lovely and refreshing. I laid down on the grass and took a nap for a bit and that was nice, but it was hard to sleep with the sounds of all the kids playing and having fun. It was an interesting mix of feeling like you were out in nature and.  at the same time just at the local swim club. But remember too, this is in the middle of an urban city!  Parking was tough, but I enjoyed the long walk through the Zilker Metropolitan Park where Barton Springs is located.

This was the lower part of the river, after the dam for Barton Springs Pool.

I almost forgot to include pics from a local neighborhood park (there are many in Austin).  What was particularly special here was that they had a mountain bike area.  It was pretty cool watching someone doing the whole course.  I was impressed with the course and with the rider!  So, this pic set goes out to Adam and Gabe...

More pics from the Hope Outdoor Gallery.  I Hope you enjoy them!

Yay for the Bears.  I could use this for my logo.