Austin - Chuy's, Umlauf Sculpture Garden, Los Lonely Boys concert

This was an interesting day. We started the exploration at Chuy's (the site of the Bush girls problems). This is an old TexMex restaurant that is really busy. We had a 20 minute wait before getting in. The food was great, but the wait outside let us see some things we would not have otherwise.

This guy apparently lives in the gutter. He spent all his time popping up, singing, then ducking down under some kind of guard in the gutter.

The disparity in size between these two dogs just made us laugh.

After lunch we went over to the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens, a short drive down Barton Spring Road. Like some other Austin parks, this one had a focus on water. It started with this hillside cascade at the entrance to the site. The admission is $3.50 for adults here.

The water descends through pools and streams to a lily pond at the bottom of the site. This is quite a relaxing place, with lots of shade and places to sit and think. The sculpture is pervasive and yet not intrusive. It seems that a very thoughtful designer was part of the planning. Note here the lovers in the middle of the lilies.

The site has a fairly religious main focus. Here is a John the Baptist in bronze. Other sculptures range from a medallion to a crucifix to a Pieta.

The materials vary, with some cast stone also, as in this graceful mother and child piece.

The other focus seems to be whimsy. It started with this piece near the entrance.

It continued with a part of the garden that contained only animals. This was my favorite.

Then it continued with this diving boy, which paired whimsy with water at the edge of the lily pond.

I have always loved lilies.

And this lovely creature, too, with her new haircut.

We sat on the patio for a while just enjoying the breezes and views.

We ended the day at the Los Lonely Boys concert. This was one of the free concerts going on all summer in Zilker Park. It was a bit of an adventure. We took the bus down to the park. The traffic was so backed up that it took about an hour to go 3 minutes worth of bus ride. It gave us a chance to hear (without trying) that the large, pale lady in the next seats did not consider herself pale (rather "fair"). She also let us know that as she got older she got hornier, and that she had several people with whom she had "fun". And that she "trained" for the Austin Keep it Weird 5K race. Apparently it was hot here for that race (imagine).

So, the Los Lonely Boys are a fairly local, but well traveled, rock group. The crowd was pretty amazingly big. It was really a family thing. People brought coolers, chairs, blankets, beer, children, dogs (pretty much everything they had in the house). A certain amount of illicit substance was being smoked. The music was really good, but we sat so far away the music was a little indistinct. Good though, enough to get people boogying. I had a barbecued beef sandwich from Salt Lick. It was really good. We should visit.