We ate lots of delicious Tex-Mex cuisine.
We visited old friends. One of Rayne's friends collects, grows, and sells cacti and other succulents. He had multiple greenhouses filled with the most amazing plants! Of course, the only time I nearly tripped was in the cactus greenhouse.
We wandered around some shopping areas. My favorite store was called Uncommon Objects, and was the coolest antique store I've ever been in. Each area of the store presented a perfectly arranged tableau.
Austin has loads of unique, progressive shops, like this one, that sells all environmentally friendly products for the home. We saw their products (paper towels, toilet paper, and hand soap) in nearby restaurants.
We also went to Barton Springs, the famous (and gigantic) spring in the middle of the city. Actually, the spring area was created by the systematic damming of the Colorado River, so it's actually a spring run that's been cemented in. We went swimming -- in November! The water is sixty-some degrees. It felt wonderful.
On another day, in a different part of the park (and river), we went canoeing (actually, it's a reservoir called Lady Bird Lake that was created by another dam). By this point the shutter button had fallen off my camera (I'm hard on these things!), so I didn't take photos. But it was a magnificent day. We paddled in the late afternoon light up the river, toward the downtown skyline. We saw the new, "green" city hall, and slid under a bridge right as a freight train went by.
The rumors are true: Austin is a pretty cool place. (I'll get a new button for my camera soon.)
2 comments:
Oooh, I'm so jealous that you got to go to Uncommon Objects! Another friend of mine told me how cool it is.
Glad you had a good time. Looks like you packed a lot in!
Looks like you had a swell time. That was an impressive display of cactus.
Post a Comment