Our Visit to Austin, Texas

 

 

 

 

 

 

From June 23rd to the 27th Melissa and I visited my sister Anita and her husband Jim...and family...in Austin, Texas.  They had just recently moved there from Plano (a suburb of Dallas) and we wanted to see how different it was in the state's capital...and of course to see my wonderful relatives there.  We stayed at their house, where my nephew Gregory...very talented at foreign languages and music...is also residing.  Also down the street lives my niece Teresa, who with her husband Joe has started her own family with little "Baby James"...and another on the way.  Our hosts showed us the town...including a very funny bus tour, complete with duck whistles to toot at the passers-by with...and we got a very good initial impression of Austin.  It was fun to walk through the state capitol building and look into its supreme court, house of representatives, and senate chambers.  The landscape in front of it was also beautiful, and they had a fitting memorial to African-American history there.

Austin, of course, is not only the capital city of Texas but is also the site of the University of Texas, where the Longhorns rule.  We saw the tower from which the terrible sniper attack occurred in 1966 and walked the downtown streets, where I was told they shut down traffic on weekend nights and make it all one big festival for night-lifers.  There is Lake Austin, a drainable, damned-up reservoir along the sides of which dwell many of the ultra-rich. Austin also has a great park that runs along the sides of its river and is a magnet for runners, walkers, bikers, and dog-walkers.  Speaking of dogs, this city is reputedly very friendly to them, with many businesses open to allowing them in their doors.  There is also a bridge downtown underneath which a multitude of bats live and come out in a spectacle at twilight...of course, we have something similar in Gainesville across from Lake Alice at the University of Florida.  For such a conservative state as Texas, Austin is an oasis of liberal thought and lifestyle...oh yeah, that reminds me: we had lunch at an enormous restaurant called The Oasis that overlooks a pretty lake a few miles west-northwest of town...

The love and hospitality that Anita, Jim, Greg, Teresa, Joe...and even little James...showed us would have been enough to merit return visits, but Austin is definitely an additional incentive to get back on a plane in the not-so-distant future and pop back on in.  Oh, I forgot to mention their pets: Gracie the very big orange cat, and Ellie and Violet the sweet little dogs...

Here's a description of the above photos:
#1: Walking to the Texas state capitol, with Anita leading and Jim following...
#2: Selfie of Melissa and me within the capitol dome...
#3: Shot of Greg and Anita from The Oasis restaurant...
#4: Same location: Teresa and little James...
#5: The funny tour bus we went on...it converts into a boat midway through the tour...
#6: The African-American History Memorial in front of the state capitol...