We’ve heard quite a bit about how great Austin is. How it’s “weird”. And unique. And other stuff. It’s clearly a booming city.
I was especially excited to visit. Many of my favorite singers and bands live there. It’s the home of “Red Dirt” or “Texas Country” music. I thought we’d experience the weirdness of a hippie cowboy city with both a major university and a state capital and perhaps uncover a new favorite musician at a live show while eating lunch outside.
It turns out, Austin was a major disappointment. After exploring campus, there was no obvious place to go. We tried the old trick of heading to water inside the city-center – in this case the Colorado River that runs through downtown – but didn’t see anything. I know 6th Street is supposedly the famous bar crawl street, but with our little kids that’s not our scene. I guess, I was hoping Austin was more than just a giant bar.
We did wind up going through some antique shops – the most famous of which is Uncommon Goods. It popped up in all my googling of what to see in Austin, so we saw it. It was layed out by color, which was kind of cool. But the prices were at least triple what they should be. We also did Austin’s largest antique mall, the Austin Antique Mall, and enjoyed it much more. It was a more traditional place with vendor booths and reasonable prices.
The last thing we did was visit the gigantic park – Zilker Park. It was huge, hilly, and busy. We drove around, enjoying the dozens of sand volleyball courts, random sunny hills, and walking trails before finding our sweet spot – the playground! It was a huge playground with three big play areas and a giant sandbox. The local pool, Barton Springs Pool, was right there too. It’s probably the coolest city pool ever. No doubt. It is fed by a natural spring, so it’s always 72 degrees. It flows into Barton Creek, which flows into the Colorado River. The pool costs $3/person, but you can get the same water just outside the dam/wall for free. Both were busy as it was an 85-degree Sunday afternoon.
There are prettier college campuses, stranger things in other cities, and more tourist-friendly places than Austin. I was very disappointed in it…but hopefully we missed something major and/or experienced it wrong?
Oh, well. Such is the life of a traveler. Hopefully our next stop, Waco, isn’t so disappointing.
That wall on the left of the photo is where the “pool” ends and the “stream” begins.
“Stream” side of the spring. Free to play here. The pool’s waters overflow on the wall into this area. 
Finally, a solution we can all get behind!
The boy loves steering wheels.
World’s Tallest Squirrel Statue! 14ft of grandeur!
A typical dinner for us down here in Texas. Carne picado tacos with Lone Star Beer!
