Lady Bird Lake, Austin

There is a hike and bike trail around Lady Bird Lake in Austin and we did a nice hike there dodging raindrops.  It is a nice place for the locals to go who don't have time to get out of town for a hike.

It is, however, in the big city and though it is a pretty lake there was quite a bit of trash in it.  A shame.  We enjoyed the walk, however, and saw lots of wildlife and got some nice pics of the city!

cute baby turtle! 

Stevie Ray Vaughan

 After our walk we visited Uncle Billy's for a nice brew!

McKinney Falls State Park, Austin

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny, 68 degree day and we spent a few hours of it on the Homestead Trail at McKinney Falls State Park.  It had been just over a week since our last hike and it felt so good!  The park is out of the city but still in Austin so a nice place for folks here to go for a good walk and swim in the summer as it is open to swimming and there are some natural swimming pools there:

Onion Creek runs across natural limestone shelves and flows into this "swimming pool" at Lower McKinney Falls

In the 1840's, the McKinney's built a house on this property out of the nearby limestone:

the house burned in the 1940's

Thomas McKinney took advantage of Onion Creek and build a grist mill to grind flour:

remains of the grist mill

another view of the swimming pool and beach area

turtles basking in the sun

We will go back to McKinney Falls
to do the Upper Falls before we
leave for sure!

LBJ Museum, Austin

We had a nice welcome to Austin when we went downtown to the visitors center and got to enjoy a live band while we were gathering information about the area!

Twilight Trio

Yesterday, we checked out the LBJ Library and Museum.  He was the first president I remember as Kennedy was killed when I was just 5.  He, like some other presidents took over the job during a crisis.  In his case it was, of course, Vietnam and the Cold War and the fight for Equal Rights....  It was very interesting to get a closer view of what happened in the White House at that time.

7/8 scale Oval Office including the desk LBJ used

1967, the hot line to the Soviet Union

 There were phones everywhere that we could pick up to hear conversations that took place in the White House during his term.  Very interesting! Everything from Lady Bird calling to critique LBJ on a speech he just gave to LBJ discussing the world situation with Eisenhower.

 From the 4th floor of the museum, we could look up at the next 4 floors that were off limits to museum visitors.  The LBJ Archives, which house original papers from all his political years from Congressman to President, taped phone and meeting conversations, Lady Bird's audio diary, some personal family films and pics, etc.

Chihuly in Oklahoma Museum of Art

We are now in Austin, Tx, where we will be spending the next two months trying to stay warm!  There will be visits to family for the holidays, however, but we will still get to know Austin fairly well I'm sure!  Let's see what we come up with.

After the Western Heritage Museum on Wednesday, we drove to the Museum of Art in OK City.  I love Chihuly and this museum has a permanent exhibit of his.  They let me take pictures!  Please enjoy:

this piece is 3 stories high!