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This year we rented a three bedroom, two bath cottage just off of South Lamar in Austin near Maria's Taco Express and walking distance from the Broken Spoke and ABGB. It's a little further out than places we've stayed before which were much closer to the South Congress area -- but it's only a short distance further: south of Oltorf but north of Ben White. Other times we've had a smaller two bedroom one bath cottage. Our landlords this year, Carol and Kerry, have several properties in Austin and are found as "Under a Texan Sun". We had stayed with them last year in a great (albeit smaller cottage) within a block of the El Mercado and it's Backstage where we're often. We have already booked for our winter stay in 2020. Their properties are well maintained and conveniently located on quiet side streets with all "mod cons". I can't recommend them enough! We go to Texas to escape the snow and cold of Ontario winters; they have a cottage in Ontario to escape the sun and heat of Texas summers!
We drove there in our new Honda CRV with our three cats Piscine, Little Moe and Radar. Piscine has travelled with us many times over the years while for Little Moe and Radar this is their first adventure. They're still a little feral although we've had them for several years. We bought this larger vehicle (our older car is a Hyundai Elantra) so there would be more room for them to roam. Piscine does roam in the car about quite a bit -- standing on your head, screaming and crying for attention. The two boys hunkered down for the trip and didn't move much beyond where they were plunked in the morning. They found the ride no fun but it was a bit of a bonding experience.
The larger vacation rental made having visitors easier. They could have some private space and their own bath, the cats could have their room as well. Our good friend Cindy came for visit as did Kate's brother Gord and his partner Leslie. We enjoyed their visits and especially liked showing them why we like Austin so much. Cindy has been many times with us (even back in 1990), Gord has been once before, for Leslie it was a first visit.
If you've read about past adventures there's much that is repeated and documented in this blog: the El Mercado and the Backstage, Guero's Taco Bar (and under the Live Oaks), the Saxon Pub, C-boys Heart and Soul, the Continental Club and Gallery, the Austin Beer Garden and Brewery (ABGB), the Texas Chili Parlor Bar, the Little Longhorn Saloon, shows at Waterloo Records, the Cactus Cafe at UTX, trips to the Hill Country Wine region and the Salt Lick BBQ, day trips to San Antonio and Gruene, Esther's Follies, the Blanton Gallery, the Bullock Museum, theBouldin Cafe, biking around Town Lake, etc. There were some interesting discoveries (discoveries for us) to share. And adventures we missed -- Gary P Nunn still plays at the Valentine's day Hug'in at the hill country village of Luckenbach (where they say: "Everybody is somebody at Luckenbach")but we see he's announced his retirement so that's an opportunity which will end soon. Perhaps in 2020 we'll take another drive out to the Hill Country to see how Luckenbach has changed.
There were a couple of odd discoveries we found on our way out of town to visit the Salt Lick BBQ near Dripping Springs (fair sized town) and Driftwood (tiny crossroads). There's an interesting large Hindu Temple and Ashram called Radha Madhav Dham just of FM 1826 on the southern edge of town. It's very colorful with lovely grounds and life like deities. We visited a couple of times but it was never busy when we there. There must be a thriving Hindu community in the Austin area given the size of this place.
Another nearby discovery is the Wizards Academy just a bit closer to the Salt Lick BBQ. It's a sprawling complex set in the hill country. On the grounds is the small outdoor Chapel Dulcinea -- a tiny wedding chapel overlooking the hill country (and if you look closely below you'll see a statue of the Man of La Mancha). We were there one Saturday when a small wedding was held. There are facilities for wedding receptions. We found this place because there's also a Burbon Whiskey tasting room that was suggested to us. It's a crowd sourced but the whiskey itself comes from a northern state. They fiddle with blending whiskey. It's a hard place to find as it's not well signed and in a residential neighborhood. But you can see the Wizard's Tower from quite a distance so if you're looking for it, it can be found (Google Maps helps there). Another thing we like about the Academy is all the statuary around the grounds. Some things, like the tower, are closed to the general public -- you need to be somehow involved with the Academy. In any case, it's an interesting spot to visit.
On my birthday in February, when Cindy was visiting, we went to see Elizabeth Cook at the Cactus Cafe on the University of Texas at Austin campus. She's one of my favorite country performers who I have been following for several years ("Welder" and "Gospel Plough" are my favorite albums). We had seen her a year ago when we were on the Outlaw Country Cruise out of New Orleans in 2018. At the Cactus she performed a solo acoustic show. Some of her tunes, especially My Heroin Addict Sister which brings a tear to my eyes, work very well that way. She's clever and has quite funny stories -- she plays up her Nashville via Florida Hillbilly background and her struggles with alcohol, pills and bad relationships. The Cactus Cafe is a very good music listening room which we recommend. These attentive listening rooms can be hard to find.
On the other hand, on the Saturday night Cindy was visiting, we decided to go see Dale Watson at the Broken Spoke a short distance south of us on Lamar. The Broken Spoke is an old-timey dance hall and Dale Watson is a bit of a big deal in these parts (we've seen him several times before and thought Cindy would appreciate seeing him as well). There's dance lessons from 8:00pm until 9:00pm when Dale was supposed to be on stage. We arrived early during the dance lessons to find a bit of a queue to get in and once in (you get to shake James White's hand on the way in) we discovered the floor packed with people learning the two step and others crowded on the floor watching by the bar (where there's signs saying the dance floor is only for dancers). Around the dance hall there wasn't a table to be found and barely room to maneuver -- it was packed, standing room only and people were arriving all the time. This wasn't much fun and where we were we wouldn't get to see anything of the stage so at about 9:30pm (when no Dale Watson had appeared and the dance lessons were still ongoing) we packed it in and left. On the way out we discovered a long line out into the parking lot but they were still letting them into the dance hall! I've read reviews of those who were there saying it was a classic honky tonk performance and no doubt it was -- I just don't feel like being packed in like sardines. Well, for $20 we got to shake James White's hand as we entered. We've been here many times over the years (we've Gary P Nunn here several times) but I think we'll avoid the Saturday night crowds. It was a great place until it got spoiled by people like us.
We did get to see Dale Watson another time at C-boy's Heart & Soul on South Congress for Sunday afternoon Chicken Shit bingo. And we saw Mike Stinson at C-boy's for another Chicken Shit Sunday afternoon. There are blog pages and photo albums on both of those. Those were fun and not crazy packed solid.
There's many other things to do besides music and enchiladas. We visited the Umlauf Sculpture Garden (once for an evening event and another time with Cindy), the Blanton Museum of Art (there are several works there I really like) and the nearby Bullock Texas State History Museum. We went to a movie premier in the Bullock IMAX theatre to see "Alita: Battle Angel" in 3D. We were at a taping of the PBS show "Overheard with Evan Smith" at the KLRU studio at UTX where he interviewed the director of Alita, Robert Rodriguez. He's an Austin native and much of the film was created in Austin. We went to another taping where he interviewed Alejandro Escovedo; he's a Texas musician we've seen several times. We always like to peek into the tiny Mexic-Art Museum on Congress at 5th (very near the Pecan Street bar district). There were some beautiful paintings by John Patrick Cobb in a Chapel setting that reminded me of Gustav Klimt (fine details with the gold leaf). And the bigger Mexican American Cultural Center in the Rainey Street district has a gallery we visited with Gord and Leslie.
Outside of town we did make it a couple of times to San Antonio. We had lunch one day at the Pearl Brewery District and tried biking south along the River Walk to the city center. It's not bike friendly at the end of the river. South of the city center the bike trail on the River Walk is really great. We biked with Gord one day and had lunch with Leslie and Gord at the Blue Star Brewery district -- we often get a bite at a the Stella restaurant when we're biking that part of the river. We took Gord and Leslie to the Historic Mexican Market in San Antonio. Well worth a visit.
We've been to Gruene Texas many times (and were again this year for shows at the Gruene Hall and dinner at the Grist Mill) but have never explored much of the town beyond. On Valentine's Day Kate and I explored New Braunfels (Gruene is a small part of it) and enjoyed a dinner show at the Seekatz Opera House with Kinky Friedman performing ("There's a place where you can go, where Marilyn still dances with Dimaggio", see Marilyn & Joe). We went on the Outlaw Country Cruise last year especially to see Kinky. This year was still in pretty good form. Kate bumped into Kinky (Never get between a man and his tequila... "Not your father's tequila, more like your grandfather's gardiner's tequila"), I bumped into an older lady I thought I recognized: "Isn't that Ruth Buzzi? Yup, it is."
I could go on but this is probably too much already. For us a visit to Austin wouldn't be complete without seeing some of the gang from the Flatlanders -- the famous band that never was (More a Legend than a Band). We saw Butch Hancock at the Acoustic Austin Cafe (it's near to a house concert kind of thing). Jimmie Dale Gilmore was supposed to appear one night at the El Mercado Backstage but couldn't perform because of a flu/cold that was going around. Fortunately we caught him near the end of the stay at a Mystery Monday show (again at the El Mercado Backstage). Joe Ely was performing in the area but we weren't able to catch him.
Anyways, the intention here is to give you some guidance as you wander through the photo album. Also for us to remember another fun holiday in our favorite home away from home.
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