I am going to use some of my down time to write about
my trips to Austin, San Juan, Nova Scotia and Arizona. My intention was to write these
within 2 weeks of the trips but I never had the time to sit down between
planning TEDxJacksonville, my job and moving to Cambodia. Hopefully I can finish before the end of the year!
Asghar had to go to Dallas to attend a conference in late
August so I used that as an excuse for us to explore Austin over 36 hours. We
left Dallas pretty early on Saturday morning and arrived in Austin around
eleven. It was a pretty comfortable three hour drive. We checked into our
Airbnb apartment which was located in the fun neighborhood of Hyde Park. It is
centrally located and a short ten minute ride into downtown Austin.
First up was the Lyndon B Johnson Library. The building is big rectangle; you can’t miss it on the UT campus. It was great to see all the cultural mementos from the fifties and sixties. I had never been to a presidential library before and it made me want to visit more.
Congress Avenue runs north south and is a
major to do in Austin. We visited the historic Drexel hotel and the Capitol before
heading to South Congress (SOCO). Now this part of town is amazing! We spent a
lot of time exploring shops and food trucks. Our favorites were Amy’s ice cream
and the Mellizoz Tacos. Asghar found a record store and spent some
serious cash on a dozen records.
Austin is also known for its bats! We wanted to catch the bats in action and luckily there was a festival aptly named Bat fest that night. We walked over and caught the bats and a beautiful sunset. The experience lasted all of 5 minutes but thousands of them came in one instance. It
really is quite an experience. After exploring the booths at the festival, we headed back to our apartment to get ready for dinner. A friend recommended Uchiko for dinner so we took the suggestion and made a reservation for two for eight pm. Paul Qui is the executive chef and was recently on Top Chef Texas. We opted for the tasting menu and were blown away by the freshness and flavor of the food. It was definitely a pricey experience but well worth it.
We opted for breakfast at Olivia’s in SOCO and loved their
layout and design. Next was the Austin
Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria. This was more about nature than art. You can
walk the trails and explore the beautiful grounds but the art was underwhelming. However, the drive
to the museum was beautiful because you pass a lot of scenic overlooks on the
shores of Lake Austin. Our last stop of the day was 360 bridge. An Austinite suggested the site for the views
of Austin. It is a little difficult to find because there are no signs. You
have to know the spot before the bridge and then it is a short 5 minute hike to
the top.
We loved our quick taste of Austin and hope to explore it in
depth during SXSW one day!
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