Austin - A Zilker Park Day

Today has been a Zilker Park day. We headed over before lunch to a bit of grilling, which to H and D always mean charcoal grilling.

But first, a bunch of piggage from the former users had to be cleaned up (ick).

Then, under the excellent hand of D, the burgers were perfectly done.

After which the hand of H adorned each lovely burger with cheese.

They went down pretty much instantaneously, to be followed by roasted corn.

Then over to the pool (spring-fed, always 68F) to cool off and enjoy the shade of a huge live oak tree.

And some loafing in the water. It was really nice.

Austin - FlipHappy Crepes and Mansfield Dam Park

Around noon time we went down Barton Springs Road to FlipHappy Crepes. This is a business that Bobby Flay introduced to people on his Food Network show. Some local women started this up in a small way in an Airstream trailer, and that's the way they continue.

Their sign is not very obvious and they are a little out of the way, but worth the try!

There are quite a few choices, extended by the specials of the day. All of them are terrific! The dessert crepes are wonderful. We split two between the four of us. These are as good as (or better than) in France!

The service is not terribly quick, but the clientele sit peacefully (except for noise from the building site across the street - more $500K condos) and wait for their orders. They know how good the food will be.

This guys was snorking out his lunch hour while we waited.

There is some good people watching available. It seems to be predominantly moms and kids here, with an occasional dad.

No food porn available on this site. Everything disappears way too quickly for that!

This afternoon we drove out to Lake Travis (north and west of the city - maybe a 1/2 hour drive). Was this going or coming? Who can tell?

This is another Travis County Park - $8 per car. The limestone blocks are big. This little inlet is sheltered from boats and the wind. The park facilities are quite nice, with grills, picnic tables, restrooms, etc. There are shade trees, but one could wish for more shade over the blocks on the inlet. That would be a beautiful spot, but too hot today without shade.

The water was warm, but the wind blows a little hard for floaties to stay close to shore! The sun is pretty strong, so be careful.


















Tonight, a free play ("Beauty and the Beast") at the Zilker Park theater. This ended up a better people watching experience than a musical theater event. The production numbers were good, but individual performances were spotty. In addition, latecomers forced their way into every crack, disrupting the viewing for those who had come early and found good spots. Here is a view of the stage (before it got ruined by newcomers). There are three or so tiers of naturally sloped land to allow a lot of people to watch the musical.

There are lots of pretty babies and young children. This baby's Mom shows the deepset eyes that seem to be common around here.

Lots of dogs are here as well.


















 This girl found the perfect spot in one of the old live oaks on the site. She was there until we left.

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.