Austin: Day 1.0

For my first (and only) full day in Austin on this trip, I really tried to pack it in.

We got up early for breakfast at Voodoo Donuts, an infamously good little Portland donut shop with a location in Austin. (We didn't get Voodoo when we were in Portland a few years ago, we ate at Blue Star.)

Dave got the raspberry filled voodoo doll, I got the mango-filled, Tang-encrusted one. Both were delicious.

Dave dived back into his conference and I began a walking tour of downtown Austin, beginning with the capitol grounds (better picture of that tomorrow). I sort of forget that Austin is the capital of Texas, but the capitol building is neat. The grounds had lots of seats, and I was a little early for my next stop to open, so I just sat knitting on a bench for a while, people-watching. I remember thinking, "It's 8 a.m., I'm sitting, and I'm in the shade, and this is about fine, temperature-wise, but almost hot. I'm going to die today, aren't I."

That's a real purdy capitol ya got there

First real, substantive stop was the Bullock Texas State History Museum, which had cultural and historical exhibits.

"Come and take it" being the alternative TX state motto

The rodeo exhibit was interesting to peruse, and they had a neat art installation, Comanche Motion - a modern, pop art take on Native Americans today. 

Obviously, Texans are proud of their history, but I felt the exhibits mostly did a good job of balancing different views, such as the Texan, Mexican, and American views (at the time) of Texas's revolution.

I thought about visiting the Blanton Museum of Art, which is right across the street, but I didn't have enough time to do that and be on time to have lunch with my law friend, Chad.

I did have time, however, to visit the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, a free street art and graffiti exhibition. I hear it's being torn down this year to build a new condo complex (real estate prices being what they are right now in Austin) and it will be moved outside of town.

When I was there, it was fun to see the different levels of graffiti, but I think a lot of people don't pay attention to the request not to paint over other people's work, because every photo I see of the gallery is different.

At this point, though, I think it's a bit of a free-for-all because it will all be demolished anyway. I saw little kids with spray paint cans going to town.

HOPE Outdoor Gallery

I made it down to Guero's for a taco lunch with Chad and his family - I went to law school with Chad from 2006-2009 and visited him in Albuquerque when they lived there. I hadn't seen him since that time, but he was always one of my favorites in school, and it was great catching up with him and Laura, his wife, and meeting his adorable twins! It's amazing how little we change, even if our life circumstances do.

Next stop was a visit to the new central, downtown branch of the Austin Public Library, which is truly the most superlatively [everything] library I have ever stepped foot into.

Right away, the staircases make you feel like you're in some kind of modernistic Hogwarts. The collections are clear and easy to find, the kids' section is behind closed doors for noise control, they have an outdoor reading porch (!!), and they have a roof garden. A roof garden!!

Of course, none of this comes cheaply - the librarians told me that the building, which opened in October 2017, came at a cost of $125 million. Still, it really pays homage to the idea of making our places of learning into palaces.

View from the rooftop garden

In fact, I felt so welcome, even as an out-of-towner with no card, that I ended up spending more time in there than I did the state history museum earlier in the day. I saw a display on Texas cooking, so I picked up a few books and leafed through them for recipes. I wanted to make copies, but the librarian told me I could scan for free, so BAM, now I've got Salt Lick BBQ's recipe for peach cobbler and Easy Tiger's recipe for sourdough bread. (More on Easy Tiger tomorrow.)

After my completely astounding experience at the central library, I headed back to the hotel to regroup a bit, then walked over to Craft Pride for a happy hour beer with coworker Andréa.

This bar is serious!

I had a lovely flight of sour beers, mostly from Texas. Definitely an awesome beer bar.

River trail - loved this shade

I walked back through the river trail to meet Dave and his coworkers for dinner at Lambert's BBQ, a tasty, somewhat upscale barbecue joint downtown. Brisket... Fried okra... Banana pudding... Mmmmm.

The infamous bat bridge was right nearby, so we walked over and grabbed a good spot for the dusk migration. 

Bat graffiti under the bridge

I really wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty neat. The bats are teeny, they all came out at around 8:45 p.m., and they flew out in a swarm that you could see for a half mile or more. What an interesting, odd attraction for the city of Austin!

I had intended to go to Parker Jazz Club, which is owned by Chad's friend, but we ended up going back to the hotel bar for some beer and conversation with Dave's coworkers. He works in Chicago and doesn't get to see the D.C. friends anymore, so it's important to keep those relationships up. I really enjoyed them, too, and they didn't just talk about financial aid the whole time!

Come back tomorrow for my last half-day in Austin.