We have been traveling for a month today. We will be home in less than a week, and I am looking forward to seeing my children and grandchildren, sleeping in my own bed, puttering in my studio and finding how our yard and garden made the transition from Spring to almost Summer. The next days will be mostly driving and not a lot of sightseeing. Today we learn if once in the state of Texas it is possible to find your way out again.
I promised more on Austin. The way we have been traveling, staying in one place for only a day or two, doesn't really allow for an in-depth process of getting to know a city very well, but we get a taste and maybe we'll get back some day. We picked out things that interest us to see and, in Austin, after the Johnson library and Museum we were looking for something more mindless along the lines of "local color." If I were in Portland I would wander up Hawthorne Blvd. In Austin it is South Congress Street, which actually looks quite a lot like Portland's Hawthorne, including the view across the river toward downtown.
I love independent stores that reflect the owner's aesthetic. We found them in abundance on S. Congress.
Oh my! Just look at these chunky, clunky, ancient scissors! Did I want them? I did!—but not for $85.
And remember my interest in finding the biggest ball of string in America?
Not quite the biggest, but awfully big and very fabulous. Priced at $225. I didn't buy it either.
We paused for a good, cold, local beer at an oh-so-portlandesque establishment complete with snotty, hipster waiters.
We felt, at the end of the day, that while we couldn't take in the whole of Austin and its many identities, we had connected with one small aspect of the city and it was good.
Keep Austin Weird, y'all....
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Lovely posts on your trip - enjoying them all. Have to tell you though, it's Austin not Austen.
ReplyDeleteIt takes more than a day to drive across Texas unless you're a trucker.
Diane
You are usually a great stickler about grammar and spelling: why do keep calling the Capital of Texas AustEn and not Austin?
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed our State!
That's the same part of Austin that we enjoyed on our visit a few years ago. Your photo of the boots is where I got my turquoise ones!
ReplyDeleteYou've done a great job of keeping your readers "in the loop" on your grand adventure. I understand, though, how you're looking forward to being home. No place like it!!!
ReplyDeleteI've never made it to Austin, maybe I should! Love the "stuff" but the boots are the best. May I use them for Friday Feet? Glad you are headed home. Are you going I-15 or I-5? Or US-395? Hot here also - 95F in Placentia today.
ReplyDeleteFor all the times I've driven across the country, Texas always feels like I'll never get out of it. I clocked it one year: the trip across Texas was one-third of the miles between Monterey Bay, CA and Jacksonville, FL. Yep. Big state! Hope you found your way out! Great adventures!!!
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