Day 12

Before booking this trip, everyone said that Austin was the highlight of Texas. Well I'm sad to say that it didn't really meet our expectations today. Perhaps we were just unlucky, but nothing really thrilled us much in the City of the Violet Crown.

Ted was feeling a bit dusty this morning after last night, so after having a so-so breakfast, I went back to the barber shop from yesterday. Unbeknownst to myself, I needed to book online first, but I only needed to wait just over half an hour before getting a buzz cut (perfect for this Texas weather).

Our next stop was to the South Congress area which is known for hip boutiques, trendy lodging options and Austin-original eateries. It had an art deco feel to it, but in reality it didn't impress us that much. Our next stop was Barton Springs, a recreational outdoor swimming pool that is filled entirely with water from nearby natural springs. Well sadly for us, we seemed to arrive on the one day of the week when it was closed. :-(

I then tried our next destination, Lady Bird Lake, which offers a pedestrian bridge with views of the city. Unfortunately, the two destinations our GPS sent us to didn't resemble any sort of pedestrian bridge - one was a power plant, and the other was some back road. Disheartened, we headed back to the area of our accommodation to have lunch.

Even that proved to be a chore! We found a decent looking falafel restaurant and tried to park nearby (all the parking in Austin is expensive and metered). The meter machine did not want to take our money so we parked in a suburban street nearby. Despite double checking there were no "No Parking" signs, I still couldn't relax during lunch, wondering if our rental car was going to be towed away!

After coming back to our room for a nap, Ted considered going for a swim in the hotel pool until he saw the state of it! We then walked back down to the bear bar for a beer, as well as another nearby venue called Cheer Up Charlies before Ted decided he would like to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We found one a few suburbs away at a local shopping centre, and we remembered why we liked it so much. The area also had a beautiful view of the Austin skyline.

After dinner we came back and packed up for our early departure tomorrow. It was a shame that Austin didn't live up to our expectations, but we still had some pleasant experiences.Read more