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Howdy y'all. This is my first post in almost three months and was my first significant travel since a work trip to Idaho in early June. Hope everyone had a great summer and didn't miss my bird-brained musings too much.
On September 11, 2024 (my first time flying on that date since you-know-when), Alyse, Julia, and I took off from New Hampshire for a long weekend in the Lone Star State. While Texas was indeed among my 13 "missing states", our decision to visit in September was involuntary. My sister-in-law had a graduation ceremony (Master's of Social Work from Capella University - congrats Diana!) which we were compelled to attend. In the planning stages we came across a concert by Keane (one of Alyse and my all-time favorite bands) in Austin. It also happened to be Alyse's birthday. The trip came together nicely from there.
Excluding the night we landed, we basically had one day in Texas' capital city: Thursday, September 12. My travel philosophy has gradually softened from one of frantic explorations (I have 2 hours! I may never be back here!) to still using time as efficiently as possible but also accepting that I'll never actually see/do as much as I'd like. Ease my foot off the accelerator slightly. Relax. Just a bit.
With that mantra, we began our day at the old-timey "Welcome to Austin" mural that also happened to be adjacent to a tiny, characterful bakery into which we stepped. After a lengthy wait behind a single chatty customer ahead of us, Julia ordered some absurdly expensive macarons, and we were on our way.
Downtown Austin has one of the most modern skylines I'd ever seen, gleaming glass towers visible for miles around. Cranes were ubiquitous, soaring ever higher in this booming metropolis whose population of nearly a million has basically tripled in the last 40 years. When the state capitol was completed in 1888 - the 7th-largest building in the world at that time - Austin had fewer residents (~14,000) than Laconia, New Hampshire does today.
Before heading over to the capitol though, we explored Butler Metro Park with its sweeping river and skyline views, excellent people watching, and even an odd, caped Stevie Ray Vaughan statue. The weather was heating up quickly - the afternoon high of low 90s would be the coolest day of our trip.
After our park time, it was approaching the lunch hour. We crossed the Colorado River and found ourselves on East 6th Street, just outside of downtown. While there were plentiful establishments, it was plain to see that this is a nightlife district, complete with sticky sidewalks and semi-seedy storefronts. Despite this, we found a family-friendly restaurant called Iron Cactus serving lunch. The food was fresh and delicious, including some of the best salsa I've ever had in my life.
While we were in the neighborhood, we simply had to pay a visit to the Museum of the Weird, an eccentric collection of oddities and curiosities perfect for a 13-year-old who finds stuffy historic sites irksome.
Offbeat discoveries included bigfoot footprints, shrunken heads, wax figures from old-timey horror films, and much, much more!
It was then time to stop at the aforementioned state capitol, whose 303-foot height ranks 7th among state capitols (though higher than our National Capitol). In typical Texas fashion, it is indeed the largest state capitol building of all 50.
Walking inside is truly impressive; Alyse and I ascended higher within the dome (there are four accessible levels), while Julia waited down below.
It was now midafternoon, and the heat was wearing all of us down (reminder: this was to be the coolest day of the bunch). We stopped at Target for supplies and retired to our hotel for a break before returning downtown in the evening to see Keane's exquisite performance.
Sidebar: anticipating everyone's number one question: "would I know any songs by Keane?". The British foursome really only had one hit in the US, way back in 2004, called Somewhere Only We Know. While it's definitely a good song, it's unfathomable to me that the band isn't more well known. No matter- flying under the popular radar ensures their brand of piano rock is more accessible and affordable to true fans.
If you ever get a chance, I would highly recommend checking out some of their other material. A few excellent choices that come to mind are Crystal Ball, Perfect Symmetry, and Day Will Come, among many, many others.
Austin had been a quirky and enjoyable place to while away a day, but we were headed south again. San Antonio beckoned. Just when I thought Texas was a pretty swell place, we got on I-35 south. The crude profusion of sprawl and billboards - probably 50+ miles of the 75-mile ride - made it undoubtedly the ugliest stretch of interstate I'd ever seen. Not that interstates are generally scenic places (exception: I-89 in Vermont), but this was just a crass destruction of the landscape, the extent of which I'd never experienced.
Arriving in San Antonio was met with a sigh of relief to get off the freeway, but also a worrisome discovery that the EV charging station in the parking garage didn't seem to be working.*
*MUCH more on my first electric vehicle experience in a forthcoming Part II to this post!
We had a day and a half in Alamo City - more than in Austin and seemingly enough to hit the highlights. However, given the nature of the trip and various family scheduling commitments, the time was seldom our own. We did, of course, explore the Alamo a bit, with the mercury perilously close to the 100-degree mark. Southerners will laugh at my wimpy-ness, but constant, profuse sweating made outdoor explorations less than pleasant. How any human beings inhabited these areas before AC is bombastically bewildering. Battling this kind of heat with a mere fan is like slapping Mike Tyson with a noodle and expecting him to fall.
On the morning of our one full day, several of us walked over to a food stall in La Villita, a small artist community, to procure some breakfast tacos and coffee. The young woman who served us was of agreeable disposition, and the Mexican-style ice coffee was refreshing and delicious. It was perhaps 9:30 and already heating up, but cloudiness made the conditions bearable.
I was due back at the hotel in a couple hours to prepare for the graduation ceremony, but I took the most leisurely path imaginable, moseying along the nearly deserted Riverwalk, languorously pausing for dozens of photos.
For those who've visited San Antone, the Riverwalk always comes up as one of the prime attractions. I often minimize time at such attractions in the name of authenticity and my all-encompassing hatred of crowds. However, walking it mid-morning was utterly delightful. (We would return later for the more typical, far less peaceful, experience).
The semi-subterranean Riverwalk blends seamlessly into downtown, so much so that someone driving through at street level would barely know it's there. In a planning sense, it seemed to exist organically, not feeling forced or contrived, as if it had been in this form since the city was settled.
Walking slower than my usual breakneck pace (I've told Alyse before that it's nearly impossible for me to walk slowly), I took in bounteous flora, captivating architecture, public art, and water features along the meandering paths.
People-watching was also top-notch: I even stumbled across a grassy amphitheater and caught 20+ minutes of a Mexican dance performance. Touristy as the area is, the San Antonio Riverwalk is an absolute gem of a public space - especially at 10am on a Saturday. It was like watching your favorite band warm up before the big show, but in a surprisingly intimate venue.
Later that night we attended the actual "show", and the space was incredibly different, teeming with tourists, neon-lined riverboats, and noise, noise, NOISE! It wasn't without its charms, I suppose, but I'm a morning person to begin with, and I like to have time (and space) to myself when possible. Therefore, the uncrowded AM visit was far superior in my opinion.
My brief Texas sojourn was nearly up... or was it? After dropping Alyse and Julia back at the airport Sunday morning, I had a solo road trip planned. A few months earlier, I had found a super cheap one-way airfare from Kansas City back to Manchester. My route would take me north via Fort Worth, where I'd meet up with an old colleague/friend for lunch before continuing through three new states. But first, I had to figure out where to charge my EV. And in these parts of the country, that would prove far from easy.
To be continued...
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