Cross Country Road Trip: http://wehnervacation2013.blogspot.com/
Alaskan Highway Road Trip: http://wehneralaskahighway2013.blogspot.com/
Monday, April 4, 2016
APRIL 3: HOUSTON TO RALEIGH – DAY 10
The last day of our trip was the travel home. We welcomed an hour delay that allowed us to
get a little more sleep We stayed close
to the airport and the security line was unusually short so that all went
well. We flew in and out of Charlotte
because the flights were significantly less than Raleigh, but today we had to
pay the price of an added 3 hours of driving to get to my happy place, the
couch. I knew the day I booked the
flights I’d regret it today, and I did, until we got in the car and enjoyed the
ride home together despite some unusually heavy traffic.
Final Thoughts on ‘THE TEXAN 2016’:
To be fair, our visits to each area were brief but the they left strong first impressions. I think we all agreed that San Antonio was the most fun place to visit for a long weekend but Austin had the most to offer if you were relocating. Both are worth a visit. If you stay downtown in each, most of the best sightseeing can be done on foot but you will miss interesting things on the outskirts of both cities if you do not have a car.
Houston is big, not like New York or Chicago, more like Atlanta. Downtown is walkable but there is a limited number of things to see downtown. Traffic was a big problem and a large percentage of the commuters appeared to have a death wish. Galveston was much nicer and Corpus Christi / Padre Island were less impressive than I had imagined. All of it was interesting to see.
If we had to plan the trip again knowing what we know now, we might make slight modifications but for the most part we do it just the same, except I would have bought Final Four tickets earlier.
Our next trip will be to the United Kingdom, including Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. I hope to blog that trip as well.
Final Thoughts on ‘THE TEXAN 2016’:
To be fair, our visits to each area were brief but the they left strong first impressions. I think we all agreed that San Antonio was the most fun place to visit for a long weekend but Austin had the most to offer if you were relocating. Both are worth a visit. If you stay downtown in each, most of the best sightseeing can be done on foot but you will miss interesting things on the outskirts of both cities if you do not have a car.
Houston is big, not like New York or Chicago, more like Atlanta. Downtown is walkable but there is a limited number of things to see downtown. Traffic was a big problem and a large percentage of the commuters appeared to have a death wish. Galveston was much nicer and Corpus Christi / Padre Island were less impressive than I had imagined. All of it was interesting to see.
If we had to plan the trip again knowing what we know now, we might make slight modifications but for the most part we do it just the same, except I would have bought Final Four tickets earlier.
Our next trip will be to the United Kingdom, including Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland. I hope to blog that trip as well.
APRIL 2: AUSTIN TO HOUSTON – DAY 9
As much as we enjoyed Austin, it was time to move on. Today was Cara’s and my 20th
Dating Anniversary. Not a lot of fanfare
but we were enjoying the trip. After a
slow start we packed up and hit the road northeast to College Station, home of
the Aggies. We took scenic rural
highways through rolling plains of greenery and livestock... lots of
livestock. Our first stop in College
Station was for lunch at Jason’s Deli, Cara and the kids were craving salads
and baked potatoes, unfortunately BBQ was not going to be on the menu. We parked on campus and walked around Texas
A&M. Kyle Field, their football
stadium, is located in the heart of campus, directly across from the student
union, and is quite impressive. The
grounds have lots of landscaped areas and sculpture art. We all agreed it was a nice campus,
impeccably kept with a great master plan.... yet we didn’t really care for
it. The buildings were large and had
lots of open space between them. This
probably is comfortable to students who grew up on a Texas ranch but I felt
like it was out of scale to be comfortable.
The campus is surrounded by retail and residential development, yet they
felt detached from the campus.
When we were done with our walking tour, we jumped in the car and made our last stop at the George Bush (#41) Presidential Library. Presidential libraries we came to find are less libraries and more museums. Throughout most of the country we have found just about every state tries to claim Lincoln in one form or fashion but in Texas it is all about Lyndon Johnson with a growing presence of the Bush Presidencies.
After another 90 minute drive we arrived back in Houston where it all started. We checked into our hotel near the airport and unloaded the car just to repack everything for tomorrow’s flight home.
By pure coincidence, we happened to be in Houston where the NCAA Final Four is being held and tonight Villanova beat Oklahoma and UNC defeated Syracuse. We were rooting for Nova (Cara grew up north of Philly) and UNC (living in NC). I tried to make arrangements for us to stay till Tuesday so we could go the championship game but the flights were booked from Houston to Charlotte because of UNC. We decided to head down to NRG Stadium and get in the fray. We weaved through the crowds, took in some of the atmosphere, and took a few pictures.
From there we drove into the heart of Houston’s downtown to look around. The city was bustling on a Saturday night with all the Final Four activities. On the way back it was late and no one was in the mood for a full dinner. We tried to stop at a grocery store but ended up at Wal-Mart in what might not have been the best area of town. It was your typical Wal-Mart experience – an especially flamboyant transgender, an inappropriately dressed large women, a guy juggling heads of lettuce, and the usual 10 deep at 4 open and 20 closed cashier lanes.
When we were done with our walking tour, we jumped in the car and made our last stop at the George Bush (#41) Presidential Library. Presidential libraries we came to find are less libraries and more museums. Throughout most of the country we have found just about every state tries to claim Lincoln in one form or fashion but in Texas it is all about Lyndon Johnson with a growing presence of the Bush Presidencies.
After another 90 minute drive we arrived back in Houston where it all started. We checked into our hotel near the airport and unloaded the car just to repack everything for tomorrow’s flight home.
By pure coincidence, we happened to be in Houston where the NCAA Final Four is being held and tonight Villanova beat Oklahoma and UNC defeated Syracuse. We were rooting for Nova (Cara grew up north of Philly) and UNC (living in NC). I tried to make arrangements for us to stay till Tuesday so we could go the championship game but the flights were booked from Houston to Charlotte because of UNC. We decided to head down to NRG Stadium and get in the fray. We weaved through the crowds, took in some of the atmosphere, and took a few pictures.
From there we drove into the heart of Houston’s downtown to look around. The city was bustling on a Saturday night with all the Final Four activities. On the way back it was late and no one was in the mood for a full dinner. We tried to stop at a grocery store but ended up at Wal-Mart in what might not have been the best area of town. It was your typical Wal-Mart experience – an especially flamboyant transgender, an inappropriately dressed large women, a guy juggling heads of lettuce, and the usual 10 deep at 4 open and 20 closed cashier lanes.
Texas A&M
George Bush Presidential Library
NCAA Final Four
Friday, April 1, 2016
APRIL 1: AUSTIN – DAY 8
April 1st is April Fool’s Day for you but it is also
our wedding anniversary. We had several things
planned for our day but the itinerary had to be altered due to some bad
weather. Instead of our morning walk, we took a drive
south to San Marcos and then east toward Lockhart, the “BBQ Capital of Texas”. San Marcos is a nice small town off I35. We visited briefly and walked around their
main square. I have long wanted to go to
Lockhart; my only disappointment was we could only eat at one of the well known
BBQ joints. We chose Blacks BBQ... which
has a second location in Austin, but hey we’ve come this far and we weren’t going
to settle for anything but the original.
It was awesome. Cara had a single
beef rib which doesn’t sound like much except this thing looked like it came
off a dinosaur! I of course had the
brisket. Difficult to say one was much
better than the other, both were better than anyplace else I’ve ever eaten, but
I’d have to give the nod to Opies in Spicewood.
After we finished lunch and visited downtown, we returned back to
Austin. The drive back was much
quicker. We took a toll road with an 85
MPH speed suggestion - Texas is growing on me,
With the rain past us and clearing skies, we walked portions of Lady Bird Park and Zilker Park near the river and then up and down the infamous South Congress, aka SoCo. SoCo is filled with funky shops and restaurants. We had several folks suggest Home Slice Pizza so even though we were still stuffed from lunch we tried a slice. As good as advertised, if you like NYC style. We enjoyed window-shopping and people-watching before walking back through the parks to our rental and heading back to the hotel for a much needed break.
Our last venture out for the day was to take a ride through some of the wealthy neighborhoods in West Austin and up to The Domain Area for a small dinner at... of all places... Shake Shack! We had never heard of Shake Shack until we were in NYC this past December. We all liked it but Elle fell in love with their burgers and shakes. We about fell over when we found there are two recently opened in Austin. It was an unexpected treat, especially for my little girl, and a nice end to our visit to Texas’ Capital City.
With the rain past us and clearing skies, we walked portions of Lady Bird Park and Zilker Park near the river and then up and down the infamous South Congress, aka SoCo. SoCo is filled with funky shops and restaurants. We had several folks suggest Home Slice Pizza so even though we were still stuffed from lunch we tried a slice. As good as advertised, if you like NYC style. We enjoyed window-shopping and people-watching before walking back through the parks to our rental and heading back to the hotel for a much needed break.
Our last venture out for the day was to take a ride through some of the wealthy neighborhoods in West Austin and up to The Domain Area for a small dinner at... of all places... Shake Shack! We had never heard of Shake Shack until we were in NYC this past December. We all liked it but Elle fell in love with their burgers and shakes. We about fell over when we found there are two recently opened in Austin. It was an unexpected treat, especially for my little girl, and a nice end to our visit to Texas’ Capital City.
San Marcos
Lockhart
Lady Bird Park with Downtown Austin Skyline
Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue
SoCo
My next purchase?
Notice the 'all right, all right, all right' quote in the bottom right corner, Yep, I'm back to saying that again.
Because is there ever a time when lasers shooting out of a cat's eyes isn't awesomeness?!
Outside the Shake Shack, Elle found her name on a license plate.
Just 4 months ago in NYC we discovered her favorite and ate at Shake Shacks three times. We truly did not think we'd see one again for a quite awhile.
MARCH 31: AUSTIN – DAY 7
We got a bit of a late start this morning to avoid rush hour since we were
heading downtown. First stop was Top
Notch Burgers of course. How was the
food? I have no idea, we just went to
see it and take a few pictures. Top
Notch is where some of the Dazed and Confused movie was filmed, a cult
classic. Before we were in the car 15
minutes, Cara was begging me to stop saying “alright, alright, alright” in my best
Matthew McConaughey voice. From there we
made a U-turn, found a place to park and started to explore Austin on foot.
(A small aside, no place on Earth could possibly have as many parking garages per capita as Austin... and few of them are for the public. I don’t know how many people the State of Texas employs but the result of a push for a small Federal Government must be a huge State Government.)
The University of Texas was quite nice for a public institution. The campus is well kept and maintains the isolated campus feel although it is nestled in the city. Overall we really enjoyed our self-guided tour. We grabbed a quick bite at Potbelly’s adjacent to campus before heading south.
Our next stop was at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. It is a nice museum that is worth a visit. We would have enjoyed it more if we were not just at The Alamo and got much of the same history lessons but in even greater detail.
From there it was a short walk to the Texas State Capital Building. In a word, impressive.
(Ok, one more tangent. Seeing the Texas State Capital Building just reminded me how sad the NC State Capital Building is. We have visited most of the state capitals and so far the worst, in my opinion, are:
50. Alaska
49. New Mexico
48. New Jersey
47. North Carolina
Oh and don’t get me started on that wreck of a Legislature Building. I get it, it is an Edward Durell Stone, but let’s be realistic, it was late in his career and outside of some hand waving I’m assuming his flunkies did most of the work. Just because he is famous, why do North Carolinians have to look at it every day? Keep Radio City Music Hall and MoMA... and please implode that eyesore.)
(A small aside, no place on Earth could possibly have as many parking garages per capita as Austin... and few of them are for the public. I don’t know how many people the State of Texas employs but the result of a push for a small Federal Government must be a huge State Government.)
The University of Texas was quite nice for a public institution. The campus is well kept and maintains the isolated campus feel although it is nestled in the city. Overall we really enjoyed our self-guided tour. We grabbed a quick bite at Potbelly’s adjacent to campus before heading south.
Our next stop was at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. It is a nice museum that is worth a visit. We would have enjoyed it more if we were not just at The Alamo and got much of the same history lessons but in even greater detail.
From there it was a short walk to the Texas State Capital Building. In a word, impressive.
(Ok, one more tangent. Seeing the Texas State Capital Building just reminded me how sad the NC State Capital Building is. We have visited most of the state capitals and so far the worst, in my opinion, are:
50. Alaska
49. New Mexico
48. New Jersey
47. North Carolina
Oh and don’t get me started on that wreck of a Legislature Building. I get it, it is an Edward Durell Stone, but let’s be realistic, it was late in his career and outside of some hand waving I’m assuming his flunkies did most of the work. Just because he is famous, why do North Carolinians have to look at it every day? Keep Radio City Music Hall and MoMA... and please implode that eyesore.)
Austin is a great town with unique shops and restaurants. On the edges of the city we noticed funky
little neighborhoods and a tremendous use of neon and artistic signs. Downtown does not disappoint either. We stopped along Second Street to see the Austin
City Limits theatre and Willie Nelson statue.
The Dirty Sixth (aka Sixth Street) is lined with bars and live music. We took a rest and ate dinner at P.F. Chang’s...
I’m sure there are some great local Chinese places around here but it’s hard to
find anything that’s not Mexican or Tex-Mex around here.
Before we left for the night, we stopped back at UT so Elle could see one
of the College of Communications classroom buildings. She is very interested in marketing,
communications and film-making. Along
the way we found a sculpture of 50 boats, strange, completely out-of-place, and
pretty cool. On the way back to the
hotel we stopped at HEB to get some fruit and called it a day. Tomorrow we will investigate South Congress
and some of the city parks.
Austin is the jewel of Texas. Our
impression was that it would be a great place to live in your 20’s as a college
student with some money or a young professional. There are fantastic mansions along Lake
Austin and Lake Travis and large ranches on the outskirts. If you are not out socializing and/or wealthy,
I’m not sure this is the place to for 30 and 40-somethings raising a family on
an average income. That might be unfair,
after all we’ve been here a grand total of two days so far but that’s our first
impression.
University of Texas
Bullock Texas State History Museum
Texas State Capital
Saint Mary Cathedral
Downtown Austin
Willie Nelson at Austin City Limits
Courthouse
The Driskill
UT Boat Sculpture
Thursday, March 31, 2016
MARCH 30: SAN ANTONIO TO AUSTIN – DAY 6
We checked out and headed north and west to Fredericksburg, a quaint small
town in the Texas Hill Country with a German flair and a vibrant main street
with several blocks of eclectic shops. Luckily
the rain held off while we walked up and down Main Street and did a little
shopping. They have quite the collection
of benches lining the street, the wagon wheel benches were our favorite.
We experienced our first bad weather on the drive to Spicewood and the Travis Lake Area. We took the long route through Spicewood to have lunch at the famous Opies BBQ. It did not disappoint, maybe the best BBQ I’ve ever had. We have yet to make to Lockhart, the “BBQ Capital of Texas” so I’ll reserve judgment till then. They had an awesome line of T-shirts that used famous rock album covers and replaced the band’s name with Opies BBQ. I’ll probably regret not getting one. The Travis Lake Area was disappointing, not nearly as nice as it looked on a map.
Late afternoon we arrived at our hotel in Austin to take a break and let the rush hour traffic subside before heading back out to explore.
We meandered through the neighborhoods of West Austin including Tarrytown to Covert Park at the top of Mount Bonnell. The park and walking path at the top of the hill was a pleasant surprise – a must see if you are in town. From the top you have fantastic views of the Austin skyline and the Lake Austin portion of the Colorado River. Multi-million dollar homes line each side of the river. We found a dead end route to a few of the homes that did not have gated drives to see them up close. We found an empty lot that we had guessed must be worth half a million dollars. Boy were we wrong. We looked it up and found it could be had for a mere $5 million, land only.
We ended our day with a small dinner at a Cheddars near the hotel and prepared for a big day tomorrow.
We experienced our first bad weather on the drive to Spicewood and the Travis Lake Area. We took the long route through Spicewood to have lunch at the famous Opies BBQ. It did not disappoint, maybe the best BBQ I’ve ever had. We have yet to make to Lockhart, the “BBQ Capital of Texas” so I’ll reserve judgment till then. They had an awesome line of T-shirts that used famous rock album covers and replaced the band’s name with Opies BBQ. I’ll probably regret not getting one. The Travis Lake Area was disappointing, not nearly as nice as it looked on a map.
Late afternoon we arrived at our hotel in Austin to take a break and let the rush hour traffic subside before heading back out to explore.
We meandered through the neighborhoods of West Austin including Tarrytown to Covert Park at the top of Mount Bonnell. The park and walking path at the top of the hill was a pleasant surprise – a must see if you are in town. From the top you have fantastic views of the Austin skyline and the Lake Austin portion of the Colorado River. Multi-million dollar homes line each side of the river. We found a dead end route to a few of the homes that did not have gated drives to see them up close. We found an empty lot that we had guessed must be worth half a million dollars. Boy were we wrong. We looked it up and found it could be had for a mere $5 million, land only.
We ended our day with a small dinner at a Cheddars near the hotel and prepared for a big day tomorrow.
Fredericksburg
Mount Bonnell in Austin
(Zoom in on these pictures to get the full effect.)
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