Returning to the Motherland!!

Michael has a meeting in Austin on Wednesday and Thursday so we decided that we would return to the Texas (fondly known as the Motherland) for a couple of extra days. If nothing else, it would get us out of the house for a bit!!

The traveling was a bit eerie as the airport was completely uncrowded and of course we were all wearing our wonderful masks. Compared to our trip to China two years ago, the smiles were the same although you can’t really tell…..

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We had booked a hotel in downtown Austin and were able to drive there easily and get checked into our room. The first thought after hotel was food…..and Mexican in particular!! We found an Abuelos (one of our favorites in Abilene) so headed over for lunch. Within 1 hour of touchdown, we were sitting in the restaurant enjoying chips, salsa and Margarita’s……a personal best…..

As we were driving back to the hotel, we realized that the Texas State Capitol building was only a few blocks away from the hotel so we decided to go and pay our respects. As with everything in Austin, it is closed to the public right now but we did enjoy walking around the area and taking photos of the beautiful capitol grounds…..

The Capitol building was built in 1888 and is comprised of Red Granite quarried from Burnet county in Texas. The interior walls are Texas Limestone while the roof is made of Copper.

I have always thought that it was a beautiful building and made me proud to be a citizen of the great Lone Star State….

Speaking of stars, the fence around the compound was replete with thousands of stars…..

The grounds are beautiful with large trees of every variety. We would have loved to get to this sculpture but had to enjoy it from a “more than social” distance…..

After leaving the Capitol we tried to visit the Lady Bird Lake Boardwalk but unfortunately it was gated and closed. So the next best thing was to drive around the University of Texas. Although, since we are alumni of Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!!), this is almost a sacrilege…..

We did enjoy seeing the campus, especially liking this sculpture…..

We also photographed the infamous University of Texas Tower…..

…..where, in 1966, Charles Whitman took rifles and other weapons to the observation deck and proceeded to fire indiscriminately on people on the surrounding streets. Before he was killed, he shot and killed 14 people and wounded 31 others.

Sadly in today’s world, this is not unexpected but in 1966 it was unheard of. Even though I was only 9 years old at the time, I knew the story of the UT Tower!!

To end this post on a happier note…….

I saw this sign for a Korean Chicken Wing shop and thought that the logo design was so ingenious. Someone had on their creative thinking cap when they came up with this…..

I loved this railing……

….and to continue in my collection of interesting hotel carpet designs, I really like this brightly colored paisley outside of our room……

I especially like this “quilting” design…..

More to come from the great state of Texas!!!