Glen's Travels: Austin (May 26 - 30th) - Austin is Famous For 3 Things....

Austin as a Tourist

May 26th - My quick trip to San Antonio is now over (which is disappointing because San Antonio is a really very cool). I am definitely hoping to make it back one day.

Anyway, had a bit of a sleep in, a quick dip in the pool, breakfast....then checked out of the hotel and hit the road back to Austin. I got into Austin mid-afternoon, took the rental car back to the airport, grabbed a cab and headed to downtown Austin, checked into the hotel I was going to stay at during the conference (The Hilton Garden Inn - $170 per night - special conference rate!!!!)

The hotel was OK....nothing fancy, but it was one block away from the conference center and in the heart of Austin, therefore it really was in a great location.

I was going to meet Jacquie and Nancy for dinner - and despite the fact that it was hot as hell - mid to high 90's, I wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon walking around to get a "feel" for the city.

It did not take long to see that Austin's 3 major "claims to fame" (in no particular order)

Claim to Fame #1

It is the home of THE University of Texas (the Longhorns) - and as you can imagine, the city/University is definitely "over the top" regarding their football team

The Main Entrance to the campus (featuring the famous UT Bell Tower....actually kind of infamous....in 1966 a University of Texas student named Charles Whitman perched himself at the top of this tower and started shooting. Before he was shot dead by police, he had killed 13 people and injured many more)

On a happier note - also on campus is the Longhorn's football stadium (plus their 25,000 seat practice facility plus the indoor air conditioned practice facility plus the alumni lounge, the longhorn store etc. etc.)

It is hard to use pictures to show just how huge this thing was - the main stadium seats approx 107,000 fans!

I was able to use the ole "Hi, I am from Canada, and a huge Longhorn fan can I see fill in the blank" (luckily they did not ask me to tell them how many national championships the team has won....the answer to that is 5 by the way)....but the security guard was REALLY nice and gave me a quick tour of the facilities and the alumni lounge.

As I said, they take their football VERY seriously

This is the display room of past University of Texas football greats - Vince Young, Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams etc. just to name a few.

Claim to Fame #2
It is the State Capital of Texas, and in keeping with the "everything is bigger in Texas saying", the state capital building is taller than the U.S. State Capital in Washington. Tours of the building are free...but only after clearing some SERIOUS security (way more than at any airport I've been through).

Also, one piece of trivia....George Bush Jr. was the Governor of Texas, prior to his becoming the U.S. President (pretty sure they want to try and forget that one...on both accounts).

Claim to Fame #3

It is a party town - Austin is the self-declared live music capital of America....and 6th Street (or Pecan Street) is where it all happens....it is ALL about bars, pubs and restaurants. It is hard to believe that having just stated this...I of all people would say that this town is not for me...but it really wasn't.

It seems to be kind of like the "Fort Lauderdale" of Texas. It is very much a college age crowd and sadly, I think I am now officially an old guy. $1 draft and $2 shots really are no longer how I choose the bars I go to (not sure when THAT happened!) However, I will say that I think my kids would have thought they died and went to heaven if they saw 6th Street

It is/was pretty quiet in the daytime....and I'm not even sure how many pubs and bars there are....but it is basically 7 or 8 solid blocks of nothing but bars...with most, if not all, having live music some time during the week or month.