Our annual trip to a US city, where Sharon attends the MLA conference, and Chris gets to go explore a new city.
Friday
fly to Austin, get settled in hotel
starving, get late lunch at touristy “dive bar” on 6th street
walk around, back to hotel, then back out
hang out on Congress Ave bridge waiting for bats, eventually a few appear
dinner at Guero’s Taco Bar, big operation, kind of touristy but good food
Saturday
South Congress Ave: Uncommon Objects, Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds, Tesoros Trading Company, lunch at Lucky Robot Japanese Kitchen
Umlauf Sculpture Garden
Barton Springs Pool (just walked through, intending to comeback later in the trip, but then it got flooded by the freak rains and closed)
Zilker Botanical Garden
taxis suck, we have finally relented and use Uber
MLA opening reception (Sharon), Chris crashes it, free food and alcohol!
by sheer coincidence, Roller Derby bout next door! Pizza and some godawful canned margarita
Sunday
Sharon to MLA conference, Chris free to wander
Austin “B-Cycle” bicycle share to West End neighborhood and lunch and wandering
Segway tour of downtown, like in Pittsburgh!
self-guided tour of Capitol building, belly of the beast, strangely accessible to public
back to hotel and joining up with Sharon
dinner at Z’Tejas, good food
lots of time spent in BookPeople, great bookstore
2nd try at Congress Ave bridge bat viewing, later in evening, different vantage point, much more successful!
Monday
B-cycle to west side of downtown to set up Car2Go account
short test drive up to Capitol area, lunch at Thundercloud Subs (thanks Nisa!)
Bullock State museum, great exhibits although excessively fawning about Texas
B-cycle aaaaalllll over UT Austin campus
biked across town to Austin Jones Contemporary art gallery, closed to public today, fuckers
back to hotel, dip in the pool!
dinner with Sharon and Emily at Bangers beer garden on Rainey Street (Mega Mutt Monday event)
late night visit to Red 7 club to see Quintron and Miss Pussycat, who I knew of but really could not care less about but I figured I need to go to at least one show while here. Opening bands was The Nots, who were AWFUL. But the crowd loved ’em. Kids are stupid.
Tuesday
Grab Car2Go, head for the hills! (Hill Country west of Austin)
driving down RedBud Trail, fancy neighborhood, felt like Hollywood Hills or Riviera
Bee Caves Road to Cuernavaca neighborhood, Commons Ford park, Laura Bush liberry
Oasis restaurant at Lake Travis, terribly campy tourist trap but great view of the lake
back into town and to the Blanton art museum, great stuff if you skip most of the “European masters”
relaxing back at hotel, still have the car on the meter …
back to UT Austin campus for the incredible daily sunset event at the James Turrell Skyspace (thanks Scott W.!)
drove out to the Broken Spoke on S. Lamar for some pretty amazing honky tonking
Wednesday
were going to get another Car2Go car and see a few more things in the last two hours we had to spare, but then there was some screwup with my Car2Go account, so scratch that
taxi ride down E. Cesar Chavez through East Austin
Salt Lick BBQ at airport
Bye Austin!