Austin, TX

TUES., MAY 10, 2022 thru SAT., MAY 14, 2022

Gary & I left Houston on Tuesday, May 10th, and traveled 164 miles on Hwy 290 West to arrive in Austin at Oak Forest RV Resort. It was a pretty ride through picturesque ranches and small towns. We passed by the largest horticultural grower in the USA… Altman Plants in Giddings, TX with acres of greenhouses. No sign out front but a google search quickly uncovered what they were. 

This is the first time for us visiting Austin! After getting set-up, we quickly hit the pool with Cheryl & Joe, who had arrived here a few days before us. This pool was a little more refreshing than the one in Houston. Although similar to Houston, Austin is having a heat wave. Just our luck! But, that’s ok, we planned our activities accordingly. On Wednesday, May 11, we all visited the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum. Extraordinarily interesting. I read a handwritten letter from Jackie Kennedy to LBJ just after President Kennedy’s funeral. Jackie was thanking LBJ for his kindness and forging such a good working relationship with her husband. Brought me to tears. Another interesting letter was one from the Smothers Brothers apologizing for their years of unrelenting criticism of LBJ on their show. They had a change of heart.  Priceless to read these things. LBJ was able to get a great deal of legislation into law while in office. He cajoled, flattered, and threatened to get senators and congressman on his side. It was called getting the “Johnson Treatment.” His legislation still impacts many facets of today’s society… Civil Rights, Medicare, Social Security, the Arts, environmental impacts and on and on. 

Lady Bird herself was well educated. She was the first president’s wife to appear without her husband on the campaign trail and the first president’s wife to become a millionaire in her own right. She was also an advocate of preserving the natural wonders of the U.S. 

A remarkable museum. We’ve been fortunate to visit a few Presidential Libraries, and we love them. You learn so much about the time period. It makes no difference about your political party leaning, you’ll find them fascinating. Trust me. 

In the evening we planned a boat tour on Lady Bird Lake hoping to see some of the 700,000 bats that fly out of the Congress Avenue Bridge around sunset. Austin hosts the largest colony of bats in any urban city in the world. Once babies are born, the colony doubles to 1.4 million each year. We were meeting up with Austin friends… Olivia & Cesare for the boat tour and were thrilled that their daughter Celia was also able to join us. Love this family! (We’ve known Olivia since she was a little girl. Her Dad and Gary were business partners for a number of years doing footwear design.) The Tise family added to the commentary that our guide was giving us. We did see some bats, although no where near the blanketing of the sky that can happen during certain times of the year. Apparently September is an ideal time. Still a beautiful night on the water, and picturesque views of the skyline. Such a fun night! We had to say goodbye to Olivia, Cesare, and Celia but had plans to see them again the following evening. 

Gary had found free parking near Zilker Park, and we had walked part of the hike & bike trail to get to the boat dock around 6:00 pm, and noticed we were the oldest ones walking the bike trail. Austin is a young town! Median age in Austin metro is 35! 

By the time the boat tour was over it was about 9:30. The tour guide had stayed out longer to allow us more opportunity to see the bats. This isn’t Sea World or Disney where things are on a clock so the bats were launching out of the bridge later than usual because of the heat. Consequently it meant we were walking back to the truck in the dark. The only people on the unlit hiking trail was a dog walker and a runner with a head lamp… until a couple who had been walking towards us, decided to turn around and follow us… putting a hoodie up in the process. Not good. We kept walking and they eventually stopped following us. There was only two of them and four of us, and we were being watchful. Plus Cheryl was with us… she knows karate! She’ll defend us! And the three of us can run faster than Joe… he has gimpy knees. 😂 We got back to the truck and made it home safely. 

Compliments of Gary… a short video of our evening boat tour to see the Congress Ave Bridge bats.

Thursday, May 12th, we all visited the Blanton Museum of Art, part of Univ. of TX at Austin and free entry on Thursdays. The museum is 190,000 sq ft. It goes on and on. For Gary & I, our favorites were more of the modern works. There’s also a permanent stone structure outside the museum by American artist Ellsworth Kelly. It’s 2,715 sq. ft with 33 luminous colored windows. Very church like. They also had a temporary exhibit by Columbian artist Oscar Munoz. Interesting works about identity. 

Once again in the evening, we were joined by the Tise family. This time Celia was our private tour guide for a Ghost Tour around the city! She was terrific and we loved it! It wasn’t easy since we kept veering off in different directions to take photos since we hadn’t been in this part of Austin before. At the end we cooled off with drinks at the historic and beautiful Driskill Hotel (1886) which is supposed to be one of the most haunted hotels in the U.S. with hauntings from a jilted bride, a child who died accidentally tumbling down a flight of stairs chasing a ball, and a haunted painting. We had no such incidents while we chatted over adult beverages. Then, all too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Olivia, Cesare, and Celia! But we will see them again when we’re back in Galveston next year. We’re family now! 

On Friday morning, the 13th, the four of us visited the Texas Capitol building. It’s 15 ft. higher than the US Capitol. Everything is bigger in TX! Beautiful building. The first state capitol burned to the ground. This new state capitol was completed in 1888. It is a renaissance revival style building, three stories tall with a four-story central block and features a dome. The Goddess of Liberty sits atop the capitol. We had a guided tour of the inside but did a self-guided tour of the outside grounds. The historic grounds offer a park-like setting around the capitol with 21 monuments/sculptures to visit. It’s impressive! So worth a visit!

In the afternoon we all enjoyed some pool time. 

On Saturday Gary & I linked up with long time dear friends Meigs and Paul for an early dinner at Tillery Kitchen & Bar in Austin. Great location overlooking the river and an eclectic yummy menu. Thank you for the chauffeur service, Paul! And thank you both for treating us. Very kind of you. It was fabulous to catch up! Paul also took us for a ride to see the new Tesla plant in Austin, which will also be Tesla’s corporate headquarters. The plant covers 2,500 acres with over 10 million square feet of factory floor making it one of the largest factories in the world. It’s beyond huge! Meigs & Paul were friends of ours in Nottingham for over 30 years. They now live in San Marcos, TX. 

Also a big thank you to Joe for giving us a lovely surprise on Saturday. We came back from dinner with Meigs & Paul to find our truck windows had been cleaned in prep for our departure on Sunday. Joe left a “business card” on the front seat of the truck (photo below).

We’ve had a marvelous time in Austin! Still plenty that we haven’t done so we would totally come back again. But tomorrow we move on to Belton and visiting family!