Final Day in Austin

We have had a great time in Austin and look forward to returning! Today we toured the LBJ Ranch and childhood home. They are both located a short distance outside Austin.




The picture above is his boyhood home. The picture below was taken near his ranch. The wildflowers were in full bloom!



The ranch was the home of Lady Bird until she passed away at the age if 94 in 2007. The tour was very good and well worth the drive.



We ended the day with a swim at Harrison Pool. Is was a great place to swim and located in a beautiful location about 30 miles from town. If you make it to Austin it's well worth the drive and hike to check this place out.



Lastly, I wanted to give a quick shout out to Adam and Sam! I rarely recall any ones anniversary but my own but since they got married on Dads birthday last year it's an easy one to recall. Happy first anniversary!

Have a good one -

Jim
Posted on the run from my iPhone.

Austin Day II

We started the day this morning with a 6 mile run around Lady Bird Johnson Lake near downtown Austin. There is a great trail well over 10 miles so if you are ever here and want to go for a run you'll love it and you will have a lot of company (eye candy) to keep you motivated! I took this picture of the trail as I was finishing up my run. God I love my iPhone!



I love visiting Farmers Markets when we travel so it's no surprise that we found Austin's. It was fairly small but had a nice selection of plants, organic food and of course fresh local fruit and vegetables. I loved the look of the carrots!



After leaving the market we drove to Mt. Bonnell Park for a view of the city and lake front homes.




From there we headed back to the campus of the University of Texas and visited the campus tower



and the LBJ library and Museum. This was my first visit to a presidential library. It was very interesting - I really need to seek out more of them in our travels. The LBJ Library and Museum is pictured below to the right of the fountain.



It's really hot here - today was 97 degrees. We had read a lot about the great local swimming holes and decided that we had to seek one out. We found very close to downtown and had a great time cooling off and relaxing at Barton Springs Pool. It was definitely the thing to do in town, very busy and great people watching! I think we are going to try a new place to swim tomorrow.



We ended the day downtown watching the Austin Pride Parade. It was a lot of fun. We were surprised by the number of young people at the parade. Austin has only been holding a parade for the last nine years. Pretty impressive turn out for such a young event.



Austin is our kind of town! Tomorrow is already our last day. We are already planning a return trip. Austin marathon in Feb. of next year?!

Later -

Jim

Posted on the run from my iPhone.

Happy Birthday Dad!

It's my Dad's Birthday today and although I am on the road I wanted to take the time to wish him a happy, happy, birthday! What's the point of having a blog if you can't use it to send your dad a birthday greetings? When I was growing up, he completely accepted me and supported me during the good and bad times. He helped me understand that the most important thing in life was to find something you loved doing to work hard. It was terrific advice, and I lucked out. So thanks Dad, and happy birthday! (I'll call you later).

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he'd learned in seven years."--Mark Twain

I thought this was funny! Please join me in wishing my Dad a happy birthday!

Have a great one! We love you,

Jim and Kent

Austin Update

We have been in Austin for a few short hours and I can already say - come visit Austin! I've been to San Antonio, Houston and Dallas and for the most part enjoyed them all for different reasons but Austin is like an oasis in the state of Texas! It feels like a pocket of liberals from throughout the state that have found each other! Much different feel than the other Texas cities I've visited.



The Capitol campus is beautiful as is the Capitol building.



The campus of the University of Texas is pictured above with the Longhorns football stadium in the background.




In case you can't tell, I've got hold of this Texas Longhorn by his ear! Some of you will understand why - I'll leave it at that!



The bats flying out from under the Congress Ave. Bridge was amazing! Never seen anything like it. 1.5M bats suddenly emerge as the sun sets. It's hard to tell from this picture but they are flying out in the lower right corner and in the distance you can see a swarm of them in the sky just above the tree line. You have got to see it to believe it! Kent and I were lucky and had a great viewing point right where one of the streams of bats emerged.

That's all for our first afternoon. We had a great Mexican dinner and have a full day planned for tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

Later-

Jim
Posted on the run from my iPhone.

Austin Bound

It's Thursday evening and Kent and I are headed to Austin, Texas tomorrow for the weekend. Both of us have never been to Austin and it's been on our list for quite awhile. We found out that the Austin Pride Parade is this weekend and we decided to head to Texas! In addition to Seattle's Pride Parade we like to hit another city each year - last year it was Palm Springs! This year Austin!

In addition to the Pride festivities we plan to hit the state capitol, watch swarms of bats fly out from under the Ann W. Richards Bridge, visit Mount Bonnell Park, visit the University of Texas, and visit the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. Hopefully we have time for a short drive out and about.

I'll post pictures throughout the next several days so stay tuned!

Happy Pride!

Jim

Movie Marathon Weekend

With the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) in town and at least one movie in mainstream theatre that we wanted to see we have seen 4 movies in the last four days. If you have never been to a movie of the film festival and you live in the Seattle area, get out there and go! There are some terrific films (and a few stinkers) that you will not see elsewhere.


I already told you about Partik, Age 1.5 - see previous post - or better yet seek this film out and watch it.


SIFF descriptiopn below

What a difference punctuation can make. Because of a stray decimal, the child that a gay couple thinks will be their newly adopted 18-month-old son is actually a troubled, homophobic 15-year-old. Director Ella Lemhagen treats the dramatic subjects of adoption and bigotry with humor, intelligence, and a dash of romance.


On Friday we saw The Overbrook Brothers - Austin Texas is the origin of this film. We went to see it because it sounded funny and because we are headed to Austin this coming weekend and wanted to see if we could get a flavor of the town.

If you have been to Austin and have advice for places to see, we would love to hear from you! Sounds like a great city and this coming weekend is Austin Gay Pride! We have had Austin on our list of places to visit for a long time and Pride weekend sounded like a great reason to do it now!

SIFF description below

A comedy of errors about two arch-rival brothers at a ridiculously awkward family Christmas reunion where the siblings get a life-altering surprise that sends the 30-something ultra-competitive pair on a sometimes bizarre road trip. Writer-director John Bryant spins a hilarious tale of sibling rivalry, family secrets, and a quest for the truth as the brothers kick and scream their way to adulthood.

The film had it moments and I enjoyed it but I did not leave the theatre thinking about it or really wanting to highly recommend it. It had promise but lost me about half way through - worth a rental if it comes out on DVD.

Saturday we saw La Mission with Benjamin Bratt. Bratt, the director (his brother) and the producer were there and took questions following the movie.

SIFF description below

Peter Bratt’s powerful and moving film is an ardent love letter to the vibrancy and daily struggles that take place in the streets of San Francisco’s Mission District. Full of affection for its characters, La Mission is a redemptive story of one man’s struggle to unlearn a lifetime of destructive habits.

Best movie so far! The acting was excellent, storyline compelling and I genuinely connected with the characters in this movie. I hope this gets broad distribution and finds an audience. Seek this one out!

Last on Sunday we had to go see the new Disney/Pixar movie UP. It was a lot of fun and well worth seeing - it's going to make a lot of money! Great animation and great story.

Description from Flixter

From Disney Pixar comes UP, a comedy adventure about 78-year-old balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen, who finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that his biggest nightmare has stowed away on the trip: an overly-optimistic 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell.

Have a great week and go see a movie already!

Jim