Austin 2011

What do you do when you have airline credits about to expire? Pick a city and go. We chose Austin. We heard it was the "San Francisco" of Texas, the only place in the state that voted for Obama in 2008. It is also one of the great music cities of the USA. Rena and I flew there in April 2011 and spent 5 nights at a cute B+B. We visited the standard tourist places. 6th street where you go to hear music. The State Capitol is the largest in the US. Is that a surprise? The U of Texas is a highly rated school in many fields. Close by is the LBJ Library. Whole Food Market has their flagship store in Austin and has an unbelievable amount of stuff. Under the South Congress Bridge lives the largest urban bat population in the USA. But they didn't fly the evening we checked them out! We had a rental car so it was easy to drive to nearby San Antonio for a day to see the Alamo (remember ?) and the Riverwalk. On the way back we tried the Salt Lick BBQ, one of the many famous Texan BBQ's. Hard to stay trim and slim if you eat like that very often. We kept busy for 6 days doing the above plus some theater, museums, parks, and eating. The only problem was that even in mid-April, it is hot in Texas. Go in the winter.