As mentioned earlier, Kim and I took off on Friday and headed down to Austin, Texas. After arriving at the airport we decided to wait 20 minutes for the next bus that would take us right into downtown. We arrived at our hotel (Hampton Inn) right at 3pm, and after heading up to the room, we were shocked at what we saw. The room was actually a two room suite with a couple flat screens, king sized bed, couches/chairs, a dining table, fridge, microwave, etc. It even had two bathrooms. And on top of it all, we were staying on a reward certificate so the whole thing was absolutely free.

Once we were settled in, we decided to start a walking tour of the city. We headed right to Congress Avenue and walked up it until we reached the Capitol grounds. We could see it from blocks away, and it takes up multiple blocks, so it was impossible to miss. We toured through the building and exited on the north side to continue walking up Congress to the University of Texas campus. I was pretty impressed with how clean and new everything on campus appeared. We also toured the Texas Memorial Stadium while there.

After that our legs were getting pretty tired, and we were very hungry, so we caught a ride on the ‘Dillo transportation system down to the famed 6th Street. We settled on having dinner at the Iron Cactus on their rooftop patio. The food was good and the margaritas got us in the bar crawling mood. So we opted to check out some of the many bars along 6th. Earlier in the day I commented that nearly every other building on the street was a bar, but at this time I realized it was more like every building on the street is a bar.

Once it got close to sunset, we walked down the the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the largest bat colony in North America emerge to feast on the numerous bugs along the banks of the Colorado River. At it’s peak the colony can reach 1.5 million bats! It is really amazing to see them come out from under the bridge in huge numbers. I tried my best with the photos, but unfortunately it seemed that most of the action was on the south side of the river.

After a quick stop back at the hotel to drop off the camera and grab our jackets, we headed to Stubb’s BBQ to catch an outdoor performance from Yonder Mountain String Band. I had heard of this venue year’s ago, I guess when O.A.R. first played it, and have always wanted to see it since. There is a small stage inside of the restaurant, but the fun part is the large outdoor stage behind it. That’s where this show took place, and we had a great time there. After the concert we again headed down to 6th Street to finish off the night. What an action packed day!

Austin on Dwellable