Adventures in Austin

After leaving Euless, I drove to Austin.  I walked around the grounds of the capital building and then ventured inside.  It is quite a beautiful building!  I was even able to join a tour that started right when I walked in!  I’m glad I did because otherwise I would not have learned that the Texas legislature includes all the grandchildren of the members who are twelve years old or younger on a poster with all their pictures that is posted near the doors and they call those grandchildren their mascots.  I was also quite entertained by the door hinges on all the doors in the building.  They are huge and brass and say “Texas Capital” on each side. . .just in case you forgot where you were.  After the tour, I wandered around some more.  I was headed up a flight of stairs when a rather overweight boy collapsed on the stairs in front of me and cried out, “This place has too many stairs!  Now I know why there are no fat politicians!” 

Door hinges in the capital building in Austin

A corner of the LBJ library

After leaving the capital building I went to the Lyndon B. Johnson library.  There were many interesting exhibits.  I especially enjoyed the section about his family.  They took a corner of the library, wallpapered it to look like someone’s house, then put up a bunch of family pictures in assorted frames to make it look like you were just going through their family pictures in their house.  There was also an animatronic LBJ standing by a section of fence and ready to tell anyone that walked by assorted funny stories.  While this would be strange enough if it had its own section, it didn’t really.  He was standing right next to a wall of paintings of all the presidents.  It was very peculiar to have something so comical next to something more serious! 

LBJ just waiting to tell
you a joke

After leaving the library, I went and got a hotel room.  I was excited to go find some good live music and had decided that I was going to get fancy for the event.  After getting ready I was horrified to realize that my version of fanciness  at this point in my life involves taking a shower and putting on jeans that go all the way to my shoes.  I took my fancy self with my clean hair and my jeans and drove downtown.  I drove around until I heard live music coming from multiple bars.  It really was a remarkable amount of music for a Monday night!  The first bar I went to had a band that was okay and a bunch of international students from the University of Texas that kept wanting to talk to me over the music.  When the band took a break I took it as my cue to move on.  I found what I was looking for on my second try.  The band was really good. . .the guitar player was pretty amazing!  I can get behind a city where you can randomly find amazing music by accident on a Monday night!!

The inside of the dome in the capital building in Austin, Texas