Jazz Fest Trip - Day 22

.After sleeping in a little today, we decided to do a little sightseeing in Austin.  The weather was clear and pleasant with low humidity, and temperature in the 70's.

Our first stop was Mt. Bonnell, a 750 foot "mountain", slightly north of town with excellent views of the Pedernales River valley, Lake Travis, and the hills beyond.  Austin is in the "hill country" section of Texas and is nothing like the desert, prairie and grass lands that make up much of the western part of the state.  There is a small city park park, Covert Park, at the top of the mountain, with a few picnic tables and nice views.

Our next stop was the Texas state capitol.  The building is an imposing structure, slightly higher than the U.S. Capitol, and the centerpiece of the Texas state complex of buildings dominating downtown Austin along with the University of Texas campus.  The extensive grounds around the buildings are beautifully landscaped with many large trees native to the area.

We first visited the adjoining visitors center, located in the historical State Land Office building.  They have lots of visitor information and several interesting displays including historical artifacts and flags.  There was also a display about the interaction with early immigrants (mostly Germans) with the Comanche Indians, nomadic Native Americans who had inhabited the area for centuries. There was also an interesting display about the author and humorist O. Henry who once lived in the area and worked in the building.

It was a short walk to the capitol building, a magnificent structure made mostly of red granite on the outside with lots of marble inside.  Before taking the tour and looking around, we decided to eat lunch at the Capitol Grill in the lower level of the building.  It is a full service cafeteria restaurant with lots of choices.  The place was filled with people who appeared to be legislators, legislative staff and administrative members, tourists, and other visitors. 

There was a lot of activity going on in the building as the Legislature is in session.  They are limited to meeting for a maximum of 140 days every two years, but can meet in special sessions of limited duration as directed by the Governor.  We took a 30 minute guided tour, then walked around awhile, visiting the galleries of their Senate and House of Representatives and other historic court chambers.  The whole place looked very well run and the capitol building, its furnishings, and surrounding grounds are outstanding.  It was a good way to get a picture of one of Austin's major attractions and a glimpse of how their state government is run.

Next, we decided to visit the home base and first grocery store of Whole Foods Market the "mother ship" on Lamar St. in Austin which is the flagship store of the Whole Food Market chain.  The corporate offices, catering service, and culinary center (classes and cooking demonstrations) are next door.  The store is huge and has about everything you would ever want to buy in a grocery store.  There are also at least a dozen restaurants, speciality counters and beverage bars in the store.  Everything from wine and beer tasting to hot meals are available to take home or eat there.  The choices and variety of things for sale was truly overwhelming.  The store is also connected to a two-story parking garage below the store. They even have special escalators where you can wheel out your grocery cart down to your car in the garage. We did not see very many bargains in the store; the prices were fairly high but the quality and variety of choices certainly make it an attractive place to shop for high-end groceries.

We went back to the RV to rest awhile, then headed back to town for dinner at a no-frills BBQ restaurant, The Iron Works.  The food was very good and capped off our culinary experience with Texas BBQ in the Austin area.

After dinner, we decided to walk through the Sixth Street entertainment district to sample the flavor of the Austin live music scene.  It was lively.  About every other store front was a bar with live music playing, mostly rock/alternative rock although we did hear some country and western and blues.  It was a younger crowd for sure and we didn't see a lot of tourists.  Everyone seemed well behaved and were having a good time.  We avoided the jello shots and $2.00 Bud Lite beers however and made it home in time to get ready for our departure in the morning.

The next two days will essentially be travel days, with Lubbock, TX our destination tomorrow and then Santa Fe, NM on Sunday.

Friday Pictures - Austin