Last weekend, my lovely sister K and her absolutely adorable and growing-up-too-fast two year old son (my darling nephew, C4) came to visit us and give us an excuse to do some of the nifty Austin tourist things I've missed out on for the past eight years.
After arriving, we went to a local Brazilian place for some excellent gluten free cheesy bread and amazing lasagna (the secret ingredient is ham!) along with yucca fries and the friendliest waitstaff around. Then we hustled over to the Austin-American Statesman parking lot to pick out a spot on the shores of Town Lake (a river) next to the Congress Avenue Bridge to see our famous... bats!
The Ann W. Richards (Congress) Bridge is home to over 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that migrate between Texas and Mexico, and when they're here, they swarm out from under the bridge every night around dusk to help keep our mosquito population under control. (A hearty thank you to the bats!)
Because this is kind of a well known thing (and was featured in one of C4's favorite books: Goodnight Texas), we had plenty of company both under the bridge and watching from the sidewalk above. Some people were selling snacks and water, one guy was playing a miniature upright piano for about an hour straight for tips, and most people were just hanging out and enjoying the ~90 degree weather.
It was lovely to finally see something I had heard about often, and experience something illustrated on a local billboard from my commute:
This is one of the many things I love about living in Austin. In addition to being the Live Music Capital of the World (TM) (probably) we also have a lovely bunch of museums and parks to enjoy. But in case you're too busy for all that, every summer there is a competition among local artists to have their work featured on billboards around town. You can check out former entrants and winners on the Austin Art Boards facebook page.
Hmm, this post has gotten a little long and I still have many fun things to share. So for now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite art boards that rotated through my neighborhood recently:
After arriving, we went to a local Brazilian place for some excellent gluten free cheesy bread and amazing lasagna (the secret ingredient is ham!) along with yucca fries and the friendliest waitstaff around. Then we hustled over to the Austin-American Statesman parking lot to pick out a spot on the shores of Town Lake (a river) next to the Congress Avenue Bridge to see our famous... bats!
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| Better Picture than mine. Found on Flickr. |
Because this is kind of a well known thing (and was featured in one of C4's favorite books: Goodnight Texas), we had plenty of company both under the bridge and watching from the sidewalk above. Some people were selling snacks and water, one guy was playing a miniature upright piano for about an hour straight for tips, and most people were just hanging out and enjoying the ~90 degree weather.
It was lovely to finally see something I had heard about often, and experience something illustrated on a local billboard from my commute:
This is one of the many things I love about living in Austin. In addition to being the Live Music Capital of the World (TM) (probably) we also have a lovely bunch of museums and parks to enjoy. But in case you're too busy for all that, every summer there is a competition among local artists to have their work featured on billboards around town. You can check out former entrants and winners on the Austin Art Boards facebook page.
Hmm, this post has gotten a little long and I still have many fun things to share. So for now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite art boards that rotated through my neighborhood recently:
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