LBJ, the Capitol, and Hamilton Pool Reserve

We rolled into Starbucks around 10am and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast while thinking about our plans today. We decided to head over the the University of Texas at Austin campus to check out our first Presidential Library. We’ve never been to one and now that we have, there’s a high chance we will check out another. The Lyndon B Johnson Library was a cool way to spend a few hours. The admission was decent and there was a bonus exhibit on MoTown. Win-win for us!

There were a lot of cool artifacts and reels on how MoTown changed music for African Americans. Having a record label that was created and owned by another African America led to a lot more music being produced by African American artists. It was a cool addition to the museum all about LBJ - partially because he was the president who signed the Civil Rights Act in 1968.

Who knew that JBJ was a teacher before he became a politician? That was news to me. There is of course a lot of conspiracy theories about how he became president after Kennedy, but aside from whether that’s true or not, he started programs like Head Start Preschool, Medi-care, Medi-caid, and he made Thanksgiving a national holiday. That was an odd fact we learned today. I love learning! And I love that the family doesn’t mind historical stuff when we are on vacation.

This was a T-shirt praising LBJ’s accomplishments. I wasn’t alive for his presidency but I’ve heard mixed reviews. The Vietnam War (actually a Police Action) surely shrouded his presidency.

Best we checked out the State Capitol building because Austin IS the capital of this state. It was a beautiful building and there was of course some cool history to learn inside. Did you know that there was a Governor named James Ferguson who was impeached and then two years later his WIFE was elected. And four years later (they serve two year terms), so was RE-ELECTED! Texas has a FEMALE Governor from 1927-29 and 1933-35. Do you know when California had a female governor? NEVER. Yup, it’s hard to ever say that Texas is progressive, but on this, apparently they have us beat. And Miriam Ferguson wasn’t the only female governor. Texas elected another woman in 1991 named Ann Richards. It kinda makes we sad that California hasn’t done this yet...

The building had some lovely architecture and these two smarties standing in front. One super cool thing I caught more of was the door hinges. Check these out!

Pretty amazing if you ask me. After the library and Capitol, we drove around town a bit and came across a few churches on our way to our next destination. Churches in Texas are clearly trying to get viral attention on Facebook. You know, those funny billboards that you see online and think, “Dang, my church isn’t that funny.” Well, there are a lot of funny churches here. While we couldn’t snap photos fast enough, I do recall a few we’ve seen. 

“God accepts Kneemail”

“Go, Jesus! It’s Your Birthday!”

“Yes! We are open between Christmas and Easter!”

And so it’s pretty clear that Texas is winning the church humor contest. 👏

We found lunch at The Cheesecake Factory which is a family favorite for us. We stuffed ourselves knowing that we were eating a late lunch and thus no dinner. I’ll spare you all the food photos. They exist, but there’s no need to make you jealous of that juicy ribeye and shrimp linguine.

After stuffing ourselves, I convinced the family to drive outside of Austin and find this super cool water cave hole thingy. It’s on EVERY top ten things to do list in Austin. Check out the photos I saw online 👇

So, yeah. This was THE destination of the afternoon. So we drove the 40 miles to get there, and there were no reservations taken today, so it was first come first served. And... the “wait line” was closed. Ugh. We got to see some hills and mountains of sorts on the drive, and a few people napped. So all was not lost, but I’m super bummed I didn’t get to see the place in person. I guess we should leave things to do for next time, right?

We decided to check out the Lady Bird river walk which is lovely. Coming from Sac, Lady Bird has a different meaning to us now that we have a famous movie set in Sacramento by the same name - but Lady Bird was LBJ’s wife and this beautiful river walk is a popular way to stroll, bike,  run, scooter, or jog around the river that runs through downtown Austin. Beautiful views of the city skyline and a gorgeous day.

Oh yeah, and we saw a couple getting married!!! On a Monday afternoon no less. How sweet!

And we saw this cool amphibian tour. Some of our crew gets seasick so we watched from afar. 

We ended the night a movie recommended by the tour guide at the Capitol all about the female Texan Governor. The Highwaymen is on Netflix and is about the female Texas governor Miriam Ferguson, her corruption, and her hunt for Bonnie and Clyde after they do some damage in Texas. The movie was historically accurate and started Woody Harrelson and Kevin Costner. It was really good! Even the girls enjoyed it. Go check it out!

Austin Outdoor Fun

We woke up rather late and nearly missed the free breakfast at our HAMPTON Inn. Have you stayed at one before? We love them. Consistently clean and a wonderful free breakfast. We headed south and stopped at our Hampton Inn in Waco - why? For a jacket that was left behind. Would have been handy to have in Dallas with all that rain yesterday - but at least we retrieved it and don’t have to buy a new one.

And can you believe that we stopped in Italy today? Yup, there’s an Italy, Texas and we needed gas so it seemed like an appropriate place to stop. We’ve had a few connections to Italy on this trip that seem to be sending me messages -perhaps our next adventure will be in the boot country. Wait, we’re already there. Hm....

We rolled into Austin around 2pm and since tummies were growling, Todd searched through Yelp for something we haven’t had on this trip - TexMex! We’ve had sushi, BBQ, pizza, Chinese (Thanks PandaExpress for being open on Christmas Day!), and now we’ve had some Mexican. And it was good!

This place sold some cute shirts too, but we didn’t grab any. Chuy’s was a great stop since the portions were huge and we now have dinner (since we will be glued to the TV watching the Niners win their last regular season game!). Obligatory food pics...

Yes, the blackberry margarita was amazing. Tart and tasty. Just a quarter mile away from the joint was the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens. It’s a beautiful day here in Austin and the sun is shining so this walk was indeed enjoyed.

They are a hoot!

There was an indoor art exhibit as well and it was incredibly thought provoking. Lots of images that referenced slavery and the Nazis. Deep stuff. What’s your interpretation of that Snow White piece?

This next place would be a must do stop if it were summer time. We were shocked to find as many people swimming as we did. This is a community pool, but the surface is natural river so while it is dammed up, there are salamanders in there! Yes, there’s a whole habitat for them because apparently they are endangered. We didn’t test out our swimsuits but the walk was just as lovely.

It’s rather huge, and do you see the diving board? There were even life guards. The pictures I’ve found online look like this place is crowded on a hot day. We enjoyed the sunshine and the views. This is a beautiful park. Very similar to SF’s Golden Gate, this place seems to be hopping on a Sunday. And the views of downtown Austin were a nice bonus.

And off we went to another outdoor adventure. The FREE Austin Nature and Science Center. This place would be great for little kids since there’s a dinosaur excavation site - so cool! It also had birds being rehabilitated and an indoor animal sanctuary as well. This was a nice hour to stroll and enjoy the sun.

We have more planned for Austin, but football calls and we are relaxing on the deserted 18th floor restaurant of our downtown hotel. The sunset views were amazing.

And the card game with these lovies was even better ❤️

Dallas Rain

Oh Dallas. Why the rain? It rained on our Dallas adventure today but we still got a few things in despite the dreary weather. We went to the Dallas Museum of Art which is free! Street parking on a Saturday was a chill 95 cents instead of the parking garage for $15. You know this girl always likes a deal!

We saw a lot of stunning artwork and some pieces that I think my kids could produce. It’s very intriguing how certain artists become famous and make money off their art. Of course we saw pieces by Monet and Rembrandt but there were many lesser known artworks as well. Here are some of the pieces I found cool.

This was a Quaran from the year 1380. 

Cool postcard art - there were dozens of these. 

Exhibit on the color wheel. String art. 

This kind of looked like Dubai in my opinion. With some paint dripping down...

After this and a little lunch at the Museum (their salads were quite delicious), we walked around the Klyde Park area. This is a darling park in the middle of downtown and it’s probably more busy on a workday - Saturday was pretty quiet. There were football and ping pong tables along with playgrounds and grassy areas. Super cool for a downtown space!

We then went and checked out the JFK Assassination area and the memorial. It began raining so we were running without umbrellas and trying not to get wet - which is ironic that we didn’t have umbrellas considering all the conspiracy around “the umbrella man.” They have the group marked off exactly where Kennedy was shot in his motorcade.

We ended up heading to our hotel and watching Buzz Feed’s Unsolved episode on the JFK Assassination. Very intriguing for a few of us who didn’t know al do the details surrounding the murder. An informative and historical afternoon! The teacher in me was quite pleased.

And after a little catnap and relaxation, we found ourselves looking for dinner. And since we are in Texas...we found ourselves an authentic diner with biscuits and gravy. Yes, someone had biscuits and gravy for dinner, and a few scrambled eggs on the side. We knew this place must have had good food because when we pulled up it was nearly full of customers. That’s always a good sign, plus the Yelp reviews were generally positive. Katie had the ribeye and Em got some pancakes. I knew from everyone else’s order that there would be enough food for me to just eat off their plates. And I did.

As the signs explains, we should have eaten dessert first because there was no room after all that food. I didn’t get pictures of the pancakes or the bread basket, which was cornbread and country biscuits. This state loves food! Check out this cute Texas charm on the booths. I thought it was just darling.

This place was called Norma’s and it was sure tasty. Seems like their sense of humor is right up our alley as well.

And the sunset tonight was amazing. A beautiful reminder that the sun you saw tonight, is the same one we saw. Sometimes apart, but always together.