A few weeks ago, my workmates and I traveled to Austin for SXSW Interactive and had a wonderful time. Here’s a mini photo journal of that trip:

Busses and Birds: We’d rented a house in Austin’s South Congress neighborhood, which put us about a mile away from the action at the Convention Center and the downtown area. So, we rode the bus in and out of downtown a lot. We also noticed giant black birds EVERYwhere, chirping and carrying on. They were very comfortable being within feet of humans.

Just Dance: Every night for me was pretty much filled with one part dancing, one part meeting some new folks, one part wandering the streets of Austin and one part drinking.

Speaking of wandering the streets: The shot above was taken on one of those wanderings. I’m not sure what building this is in downtown Austin, but it’s a pretty neat one and I love the rainbow gradient (or ombré, in some circles) here.

Return to Nature: The day-to-day shuffle of heading to sessions, then heading out in the evening to mingle and drink and dance only to collapse into bed at a late hour created a great need for an afternoon of rejuvenation and relaxation in nature. This photo was taken at the Austin Botanical Gardens. A great place to recharge and face SXSW anew.

All in all, it was a great trip and really great to return to Austin. It was just as lovely as I remembered it being, and this time I got to acquaint myself with places I didn’t see last time. For that, I am grateful. Can’t wait for SXSW next year!

It’s been awhile. But let’s recap Austin, shall we?

I really enjoyed Austin and I think Isabel did too. The weather was beautiful most of the time and Austin has a few great dog friendly woodsy areas for hiking and sniffing. In fact, we discovered a whole dog island!

Austin also has a great arts scene and wonderful handmade goods. And butterfly benches:

And lots of delicious foods:

This is from the Mighty Cone stand on Congress Street. I got a deep-fried avocado with sesame seeds and a spicy sauce of some sort with lettuce wrapped in a tortilla. And fries. Quite tastyspicycrunchydelicious.

Isabel found things to do, like bark at suspicious lilypads:

And we did lots of hiking and enjoying the various views around the city. Austin being somewhat hilly afforded us either great views of downtown or Lake Austin or a sunset or two:

Which I had trouble catching on film.

Overall, we had a wonderful time here. I’d love to come back again sometime.

1) Interstates come with frontage roads. Where in most other states there are cloverleafs and other on/off ramps, in Texas the frontage roads run right along the interstate and then you just pop on and off whenever you feel like it. I think in a lot of places you could use the frontage road to get where you are going without ever getting on the interstate (though, it would be slower, since the frontage roads also come with stoplights).

2) There are a lot more Spanish channels and radio stations. In Indiana, I think there is one Spanish radio station and one TV channel. In Texas, there’s at least three stations and two channels (on just the antenna). I think this is awesome — more opportunities to practice listening to and understanding Spanish!

3) Texans love trucks! Trucks, trucks, everywhere! The bigger, the better. I saw someone get pulled over by a cop in a giant SUV!

4) Cold weather does not compute. We had a few “cold” days in Houston (lows in the 20s) and the news channels schooled us in how to handle it (i.e. cover your plants and outdoor water pipes, bundle up, take extra time to get to work, etc.) Similarly, my sister once had to explain to a Houstonian workmate what black ice is.