Wehner Texas 2016: MARCH 31: AUSTIN

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.)

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.