July 21
After an exciting and colorful night on 6th Street we were all looking forward to what the Texas capital could offer us in the daylight. We began with the biggest building we could find: the State Capitol Building. While Austin’s State Capitol is the largest state capitol building by square footage, it is not actually the tallest – we will let you figure out the second half of that trivia. We actually learned lots of fun facts on our mini tour of the Capitol:
- · The phrase “Six Flags over Texas” is about all the various countries and nations that have contributed to the history and development of the state. (France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and finally the good ole United States)
- · The Texas legislature is an “extreme part-time job” and only meets every other year for about 130 days total – and probably gets more done than the NY State legislature!!
- · The young children and grandchildren of the newest members of the legislature always act as the mascots for that year’s legislative session – their baby pictures appear in their state senator and representative composites.
- · At the top of the inside of the Capitol’s rotunda is a star with the letters T-E-X-A-S between each point. Though it doesn’t look like it from the ground, the star is eight feet from point to point and each letter is three feet tall.
After touring the Capitol for the bit, we realized that we were getting hungry for lunch. C taught us a never-fail trick she learned from her dad about how to find the best local places to eat – just ask a police officer or a security guard. Turns out, it really worked!! We asked the guard at the door where we could get some good BB-Q and he directed us toward Stubb’s on Red River Street, a small but well-known local favorite. We all agreed the food was delicious and B even got a shirt so she could do some out-of-state advertising. We were so full after Stubb’s that we had to walk around a bit before jumping in the car and driving off to Buffalo Exchange, a fabulous store that sells “new and recycled” clothing.
We all had lots of fun browsing through racks and racks of clothes, shoes and accessories and trying on everything in the store – a la Kowboyz’ boots (see post: “Santa Fe A-O’K!”). The best part about Buffalo Exchange was that when checking out you are given the option of “bag or chip.” If you choose “bag” the items you purchase go into a typical plastic shopping bag for easy portage. If you select “chip” you receive instead a small round token worth 5¢. You can then put this into one of three boxes for various charities at the exit where your five cents will be donated.
After a successful stop for C & B, we continued north toward K’s family’s house for dinner. We stared out early hoping to miss the rush hour traffic and also knowing we had one more stop to make before we got there – Amy’s Ice Cream. Amy’s is an Austin ice cream shop chain that, for non-locals, can be most commonly related to Coldstone Creamery but, as any good Amy’s employee will tell you that Amy’s was there first! The ice cream and sorbet we got was delicious and made for an excellent continuation of our tradition of dessert before dinner (see San Fran).
We finally arrived at our dinner destination and received a warm welcome from K’s Uncle Andrew, Aunt Susan and cousin Jordan. On the menu that night were Susan’s homemade chicken enchiladas and tasty chocolate chip butter cookies. After our feast, we met Toby and Ruby, the family’s chocolate lab and border collie, and took them for a walk through the surrounding fields. We saw the neighbor’s cows and horses and a little bit of Austin’s wildlife. Jordan warned C of the dangerous jumping spiders that could attack at anytime and C recoiled in fear as Jordan pointed out one right in front of her – of course, after recovering from the giggles, it was revealed that this deadly insect was just a lowly cricket. B did not turn out quite so lucky in her spider encounter. While investigating the recently added storm shelters, she turned to her left and noticed a large, eight-legged “friend.” The black spider looked slightly familiar with the red marking on her back and when B pointed it out, Uncle Andrew told her she should probably get out of there right now since that was the biggest black widow spider he had ever seen.
Once everyone had been sufficiently spooked, Jordan gave us a peek at his summer project – a blue Ford Mustang named Dolly that just happened to be K’s mom’s first car! We were all just a little bit jealous and were trying to figure out how we could pack everything into the Mustang so we could drive that home instead. Lucky for Jordan, the car wasn’t ready for the road at the moment and there would be no thieving on our part… yet. (Watch out, Jordan.)
States visited: Texas
Yellow Car count:
C – 246
B – 231
K – 300
Highs and Lows:
Group high – Keeping Austin Weird
Group low – Hot & humid
C high – Buffalo Exchange
C low – not seeing Leslie
B high – real Texas BBQ
B low – real black widow spider
K high – dinner with Uncle Andrew, Aunt Susan, and Jordan
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