More Austin

Austin is the capital of the state of Texas. Austin is a beautiful city with hills, valleys and lakes running through the city. Austin has a current population of over 700,000 and over 1,000,000 in the metropolitan area.
Austin is a popular vacation spot with 2 lakes within the city limits and 5 more lakes to the northwest of Austin. These lakes make up the Highland Lakes chain of lakes and are very popular for water activities such as boating, swimming, water skiing, etc. The mild winter climate attracts many visitors from the northern states in the winter.

Austin has really piqued our interest.  Yes, it's beautiful, green, trees everywhere.  As we drove through the Lake Travis area, I noticed (barely) a Target sign, but could see no building.  We had to drive down around a curve behind the sign area before we could see anything.  I like that.
I don't know what this building is, but isn't it beautiful?

You know, I'm a pretty soft-hearted, easy going, girlie girl. However, I would TOTALLY have gone in to figure this one out!!!

Of course, at any festival around the United States, there is always some tie-dyed offerings for sale.
Just on the outskirts of downtown Austin:
Oh, yes! We will definitely be back! Perhaps a winter packed full of Austin!

Where are we Wednesday

Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. 
We're actually not quite this close, but just a short drive.

Yes, I sort of dropped the ball as far as San Antonio is concerned.  Truth be told, I wasn't all that impressed with it, although I wasn't feeling well at the time.

We originally came to Austin to catch some music, this being the live music capital of the world.  We love the music that comes out of this part of the country; from blues to indie rock, country to jazz, rock en español and more.  So imagine our delight when we discovered that this very week is South by Southwest (SXSW) music & film festival in Austin on Sixth St!!!  Until we found out that a half a million people come to Austin for this event!  To get a wristband to all of the events is $450 in advance.  Walk in rate is $950 per person.  No kidding.  Then we thought, might be a bummer that we ended up here this week.
Then we found out that there is PLENTY of live music for free this week all over Austin!  We ventured downtown around 11:00 this morning, just when the roads were being blocked off.  Stages were being set up:
Walking around downtown, with lots of people even though it was early, you could feel the expectations of the crowds.   I swear, by the time we got back to the truck, we smelled like a dive bar and we hadn't even gone inside. 

I love murals painted on walls in downtown areas.
We left the downtown area, knowing that we would not be able to stay long enough to catch music down here (Shasta's bladder), and headed down to Congress St., where the Continental Club is.  We hear about that club all the time on Serious XM, Outlaw Country! 
The little plaque next to the door says that this is an Austin Landmark. There are some pretty big names that come through here. Going inside, we were so surprised at how small this venue is, but I'm sure people are packed in here like sardines. I would take that on to see Junior Brown!

We're back on the road tomorrow, but I'll try to post some more about Austin!

Garden Tuesday - Spring!

Garden Tuesday is being brought to us by our bloggy buddy, Pam, over at Sidewalk Shoes. Link up, lets see what's going on in your garden!

My garden today is near Lake Travis, in central Texas. This is the first wildflower I've seen so far this year. Texas is kind of known for the wildflowers along the roadways in the spring. Not much rain this winter though, so we'll see how many wildflowers are popping up this month.
Shiny, tender new leaves...
And the #1 first sign of spring?
WEEDS!!! Oh yeah, forgot about that, didn't we?
I saw two swallowtail butterflies today too, but was certainly not prepared to catch a photo!