The eyes of texas.

I'm spending a week in Austin, Texas visiting friends from back in the Stanford day who like myself have migrated around and ended up in the South. Their route was Chicago-New Zealand (with side trips to London and Sydney) and then finally the heart of Texas. Had a decent Southwest flight out of Jackson except that Houston Hobby (kinda sounds like an aerodrome for flying those remote controlled planes until you realize Hobby is someone's surname) shut down due to bad weather just as we arrived a few minutes late for our 12:50 pm gate time. We circled at least an hour and then low on fuel diverted to Corpus Christi for refueling, which took a while because several other diverted planes beat us there and we had to wait for a gate etc. Arrived back in Houston eventually at 4 pm. Then almost immediately reboarded the same plane to Austin. Made it in time for a 4th backyard burger BBQ with Isaac, Janine and their daughter Madison plus Janine's fellow UT Austin English colleagues Liz and Doug (whom I know through the Shakespeare grapevine and from past SAA conferences) and their daughters Madeline and Claire. Pleasant food, drink, and convivial conversation. Then we headed out to the street in The Barchae's Clarksville neighborhood and looked south down the hill to watch the Town Lake fireworks display.

My first full day here, the 5th, I spent the morning with Janine and Madison touring the UT campus, dropping by an exhibition at the Harry Ransom Humanities Center that Janine helped coordinate, and taking a quick spin through the new Blanton Museum of Art. After a lite lunch, we watched France defeat Portugal for the final World Cup final spot. That evening we walked down the hill to 6th street and a block up to the famous original location of Z' Tejas for dinner. I had nice wild mushroom enchiladas. Later we took a walk around historic Clarksville and looked at the 6 Austin landmark houses on Blanco, the historical fire station, and one of Austin's remaining Moonlight towers in the area.

Here are my pictures of the Castle Hill Moonlight tower in the afternoon and at night.





Thursday, we took in Central Market, Cavender's Boot City, Waterloo Records at 6th and Lamar, and a traditional Texas icehouse.

Thursday afternoon Janine and Madison said their farewells to Issac and headed out for a month in Holland with Janine's family. Here's a family portrait prior to the trip to the airport.



Later this weekend, we'll hit the famous downtown music scene, wander the local green belt, and watch the World Cup Final— all of which I'll blog upon my return to Starkville.