Austin Texas...

Didn't think I'd really like it, but Jackie really wanted to go to Austin, Texas in as much as she really has a thing for state capitols, so it turned out to be the last stop on our Highway 83 Texas road trip, but of course Austin is not on the 83, just the place where we caught our flight home.
But I did like it alot, maybe even loved it a bit.  It was a great city with just the right mix of the old and new buildings, and just enough mystery about it to keep me busy for a few days.  It was pretty overcast and rainy for much of our stay, so apologies for the flat sky.

6th Street seems to be where it is all happening.  Didn't buy the t shirt, but did get some good pictures.

On the corner of 6th and Brazos, we stayed at the most extraordinary historic hotel you could imagine, the Driskill.  Built in 1886 by a cattle baron of the same name, looking for a nice place to stay in Austin, it is a miracle that it is still here given the bad luck that seems to have marked its early years that is well documented in Wikipedia, beginning with its closing down a year after opening and it didn't get any better for many years, but here it is.

I guess the people in Texas just didn't get it back then.  It was too incomprehensibly Taj Mahal for them to grasp at the time and even now.  But if you find yourself in Austin, check it out, you won't be sorry.

Needless to say, they still love George W. Bush down here.  In fact I had one guy tell me that if W could have had just one more term, he would have turned things around and the country would not the in the terrible mess that that "clown Obama" has created.  The next photo just touched my heart.  I often lament that we no longer have vibrant downtowns where you can buy a pair of shoes, so when I saw this shoe hospital, I was smitten.

In fact, our only real disappointment in Austin was eating at a restaurant called Bess that seems to be the vanity project of a certain Sandra Bullock and a place Jackie was dying to try.  It is in the basement of an old building she bought and had renovated and was fantastic to see and sit in.  Had a hybrid speakeasy/brothel feel about it that was quite atmospheric, transportative and worked really well.  But the spell was quickly broken by our waiter,  a hostile, pugnacious fellow with a chip on his shoulder and an unpleasant personality that was palpable.  Looking at yelp afterwards, regarding Bess, the reviews were mixed in general,  but it would appear from some of the reviews that others have had the misfortune of being "served" by this guy and felt the need to comment.  Overall, the food was kind of bland and unimaginative and just ok, with small portions (a blessing in disguise?)  and even Jackie was quite put off by the experience.   Plus, she didn't get to see Sandra Bullock.

                                                                     Pablo