Austin and Around

This April, we spent a few days in and around Austin, TX. Here is our itinerary:

• Day 1: Austin landmarks and entertainment
• Day 2: Wineries, chocolate, and Krause Springs
• Day 3: Natural Bridge Caverns and San Antonio River Walk Parade
• Day 4: Houston, we DON'T have a problem!
• Day 5: More Austin landmarks

The complete album is here.

Day 1: Austin landmarks and entertainment

Apparently, everyone who comes to Austin has to take a picture of the State Capitol across the Congress Avenue Bridge, otherwise your visit doesn't count. I got this shot out of the way early on, on the very first day. The Capitol is the tiny silhouette at the very end of the panorama. It is really very pretty, there will be more pictures of it later on.

Incidentally, this is the same bridge that features prominently in bat watching, which we are about to do a bit later. Just imagine, as I am taking this picture, 750,000 pregnant bats are hanging patiently upside down under the expanse of tarmac, waiting for the time to go out and eat... 

We already took care of the "go out and eat" part at Cooper's, which is an iconic Texas BBQ establishment in Downtown Austin. That morning, we woke up at 4 am Boston time, to make our 7 am flight, and arrived in Austin in the early afternoon. Our dear friends and hosts, Gene and Elena, already had a whole entertainment program lined up for us (based on our preferences, which we discussed in advance). It involved bat watching 7-8:30 pm and a comedy show at 10:30 (Austin time, that is, an hour later by our internal clock) - all of that sounded really good, we just had to somehow stay awake that long. To help with that, we had some coffee on S. Congress Street (which is behind my back as I am taking the photo above). The coffee was really unusual, unpleasantly sour, but woke us right up.

We took a short walk by the river and boarded one of these boat for the river cruise.

The cruise starts at around 7:15 pm, goes up the river a bit, talking about Austin sights along the way, and then turns around and comes in position just below the Congress Avenue bridge a little before dusk (which is 8 pm this time of year), so as not to miss the bats flying out from under the bridge like... uh-oh, I better stop now because the comedy show is supposed to be later on.

Here is a picture that Gene took of Alex and me, as we are busily taking pictures of something else...

... probably this very bird here. This is a Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron.

As our little ship moves on and the guide tells us about the local landmarks (most of which I promptly forgot), we spot a couple of Egyptian Geese at the water edge.

This species is native to sub-Saharan Africa, but has somehow established thriving populations in many parts of Central and Southeastern Texas. (The funny thing is, I just recently saw one in Amsterdam, which is even more unlike Africa than Texas, climate-wise.) Next to the geese is a Great-Tailed Grackle, which is rather specific to Texas and Southwestern states. It has bright-yellow eyes and a much more interesting song than other types of grackles: it whistles, hisses, and clucks, almost like a jay.

As I said, most of the stories about the Austin landmarks were lost on me. Still, here is a view of downtown Austin: the tall building that looks like an overgrown flash drive has something to do with high-tech, and the unusual building in the background, which looks somewhat like an owl, is supposedly designed by an architect who was not admitted to the University of Texas (in Austin) and graduated from Rice University instead. (Owl is a mascot of Rice, and apparently there is quite a rivalry between the two universities, although probably not as epic as the one between O-H-I-O and that other school up North...)

Here is a close-up of the Owl building.

Just before 8 pm our boat positions itself just below the Congress Avenue bridge, along with quite a few other boats and kayaks. The top of the bridge is lined with a thick fringe of people, all waiting for the bats to come out...

... and here they come!

First on the extreme left of the bridge (as we are looking at it from downstream), and then from a second location somewhere in the middle...

... the two streams merge...

... and a long line of bats is flying all the way down the river. 

Scientists estimate that there are currently about 750 thousand bats under the bridge. They are all pregnant females, and once they have their babies sometime in June, this number will promptly double to 1.5 million. And if you are like me and wondering where are the males who impregnated them all, apparently they live in a separate colony, somewhere in downtown...

Another interesting fact: bats eat 2.5 times their weight in insects nightly. This tidbit fondly reminded Alex about our defunct Mosquito Magnet, and I even wondered briefly if we could convince a few bats to take residence in our attic... I would much rather have bats than mosquito bites.

After the cruise ended, we crossed the Congress Avenue Bridge again, and I took the same picture - now after dark.

It was getting to be a pretty long day, with the memory of the BBQ fading, so we decided to stop at the Russian House before the show, for a bite to eat and for some of their flavored vodkas. Apparently, they have 101 flavors...

... we tried two: apricot and pomegranate, had some pirozhki with cabbage, and enjoyed the quirky decor. 

With our sense of well-being fully restored, we went to Esther's Follies. It was rather funny, and also Texas-specific - or maybe just nostalgic - I couldn't imagine anything like this happening in Boston today... This is a picture I took before the show.

These are actual windows looking out on 6th Street in downtown Austin, and the Follies make clever use of the fact during the performance. After the show, 6th Street on a Saturday evening is something to behold... Having just traveled to Amsterdam and found their famous red-light district somewhat underwhelming, I can say that the 6th Street can definitely give them a run for their money. 

That was the end of our first, very long, day in Austin.

> Day 2

Day 2: Wineries, chocolate, and Krause Springs

Our second day, Sunday, was much more relaxing. We slept late, which was much needed, and then Gene and Elena gave us a delicious breakfast, packed up all the necessary supplies, and took us on a tour of the Texas Hill Country. Despite the hilarious primer at Esther's Follies, I am still quite hazy on Texan geography, but given that Texas is quite a large state, it is not unreasonable to assume that it can engulf a country or two... Texas Hill Country, in particular, is famous for its wineries, among other things.

We started with wine tasting at the Becker Vineyard. When you purchase a tasting, you get a free sample plus 6 tickets, and a list of about 20 local wines: red, rose, white, dry and semi-sweet...

The grounds are beautiful, too bad I didn't take any pictures. We were sitting in the shade, on a stone terrace, looking out at the beautiful landscape, every once in a while making forays to the tasting station to redeem a ticket, and eating cheese and crackers that were part of the necessary supplies... I was concentrating exclusively on the reds, some of them were pretty good, we especially liked the Petite Sirah. Here is a picture that we took after the tasting: there is a field of blooming poppies right outside the winery, with another field of blooming lavender next to it... They have a shop with lavender products as well, which I ignored because I still have the ones from the farm on Maui.

After we were done at the winery, Gene drove a little way back down the same road, because Elena noticed a "Chocolate Tasting" sign on the way up. Sure enough, there was a Chocolates El Rey store, and we were just in time for a tasting. Each of us was given a tray with 12 small samples, like they show on the website. We tried them all, and I liked the darkest one best... surprise, surprise!

Then it was time for a swim! Krause Springs is a privately owned camping and swimming site. It has 32 springs on the property, and these springs feed a man-made pool at the top and a natural pool at the bottom, with a waterfall. Here are some pictures taken at the top pool.

From the hole under this ledge, the water trickles down and becomes the waterfall over the natural pool at the bottom.

Here Gene and Alex are inflating the rafts, which were also part of the necessary supplies, along with the electric pump. We were not quite alone at the pool, but it wasn't crowded and we spent a couple of hours swimming or just relaxing in the rafts.

Now here is a close-up view of the waterfall and the entrance to the grotto behind it...

... and here I am swimming out of the grotto, from behind the waterfall. The grotto is small but very tranquil and beautiful.

And here is another view of the Krause Springs waterfall, which concludes this peaceful day.

> Day 3