Sometimes it's not the journey, it's all about the destination . . .

     As a nomadic retiree for the past seven years, it's always been the journey for me, not the destination. I love exploring those back roads and admiring rural scenery -- and it's fun to look for a good place to camp for the night.
     But this month, I'm switching things around. It's not the journey, it's the destination! Here's a clue, it's a weird city in Texas.

     Yes, I'm in lovely downtown Austin for the month of June; living in the West Line Historic District. Half-a-block away from me is a beautiful 1893 home known as the Wroe-Bustin House. It's on the National Register of Historic Places; one of many homes in this neighborhood on the Register. Adding to the old-town ambiance, several trains along Third Street going less than 10 mph gently toot their horns.

     And once again, I'm home and pet-sitting. But this time I'm smack downtown in a condo with wrap-around windows and a view to die for. This is my view at 5 AM.

Setting sun view at 8:30 PM.

     On the other side of the great room with 8-foot high wrap-around windows, I can see the sun setting. The windows have beveled joints, offering a panoramic view of lovely Austin.

Quicksilver has an indoor perch in this great room. He's as wary as he looks. I haven't won his full confidence yet, but occasionally he lets me see his playful side.

Angie is totally opposite; 100 percent trusting and inquisitive of everybody.

Her theme song is "I long to be close to you". She naps near me quite a lot.

     Every other day, I swim laps three blocks away. How lucky can a lap swimmer get!? On my walk to the TownLake YMCA's indoor pool, I pass the infamous 500-plus-year-old Treaty Oak Tree.  Heroic measures were taken in 1989 to save this tree when someone intentionally poisoned it.

     In fact, the oak tree near where I'm home-sitting might be one of the original grove of 14 "Treaty Oak" trees where Comanche and Tonkawa tribes met 400 years ago.

     There is a steep driveway from the street and then 31 steps up to the condo's front door (another 6 steps over to the carport), then another 15 steps up to the second floor, and another 22 steps up to the third floor.  Physical fitness is a requirement to live in this gorgeous home! A low-profile vehicle is also a requirement. I can't park La Lair here; it's parked two miles away and I ride my bike here.

      Biking in Austin is better than driving anyway. Austin's bumper-to-bumper traffic downtown requires much patience. Mopeds, scooters, bikes, skateboards and uni-wheels are popular alternatives to vehicles. See this scooter whizzing past me in photo below? Click here for story about the increasing "scooter wars" phenomenon taking place in Austin, Denver, Miami, Washington DC and Santa Monica. Click here for story on a rental e-scooter's debut in Paris. Apparently the e-scooter is making big waves worldwide.

Not sure what this uni-wheel is . . . and folks are still skateboarding.

I've seen quite a few of these gasoline scooters ridden by young women.

I've seen several fat-tire electric scooters, too. And rental bikes are everywhere . . . .

Dog walkers everywhere too. Austin has several dog-friendly restaurants.

Music at small venues everywhere downtown, particularly the East Austin neighborhood. This is the Elephant Room (photo below), a grotto-type enclave which is too dark for my taste.

     

     Live music every night at many places. See all the folks walking downtown in photo below? This was Wednesday about 7 PM.

     Walk Score (private company that scores a city's walkability) lists Austin at 88 points out of a possible 100. Bike paths, the YMCA, the parks along the Colorado River, and even a very large grocery store are all within a couple hundred yards of my home-sit location. The original flagship Whole Foods Market is one block away! This isn't just any old grocery store, it's a destination grocery store.

     Austin by the way recently made AARP's Top Ten Livable Cities (with populations over one-half million). But Austin isn't without its share of urban problems, click here for why I heard the EMS sirens frequently a couple days ago. 

     Soon, I'll leave this wonderful livable city and La Lair and I will be traveling east. I've got more "destinations" on my agenda this summer.

Happy New Year from Austin

     I celebrated the Christmas and New Year holidays in Austin, Texas. The Colorado River fronts Austin's picturesque city skyline.

Here's a better view from the same bridge.

     Real estate prices are high, and its employment base reads like a "Who's who" list of the USA's most well-known public companies. Photo below shows Silicon Labs building.

     Other companies with operations in Austin include 3M, Apple, Amazon, Advance Micro Devices, Applied Materials, Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, Dropbox, eBay, PayPal, Electronic Arts, Flextronics, Facebook, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Hoover's, Intel Corporation, National Instruments, Nvidia, Oracle, Polycom, and Qualcomm. Whew! No wonder downtown Austin's buildings are reaching UP.

 Juxtaposing the increasing urban growth is the slow current of the Colorado River.

     I've been home and dogsitting for a family here in Austin. Olita is my canine companion and she's a sweetie. Her primary job is to guard the backyard birdfeeder from squirrels and birds; she doesn't discriminate. She looks like a tough bar bouncer, eh?

     I'm living two miles south of downtown Austin so I bike almost every other day over the various bridges to an outstanding YMCA. Getting there via urban bike trails is delightful. And the bike lanes along the main city roads are safe, too. Motorists here respect bicyclists.

There are several bridges over the Colorado.

Coming down off the high pedestrian bridge is a spiral ramp (photo below) which is fun. Going up is easy pedaling.

This pedestrian and bicyclists bridge (photo below) is under the MOPAC Expressway.

Pedestrians have the right of way so bicyclists must ride slowly.

There's a water fountain along the trail too.

And looking over the bridge, many paddlers.

     Along the river trail there's a place to rent paddle boards, various kayak styles, canoes, and sculling boats (rowing) to enjoy the placid Colorado River. There's no shortage of watercraft on the river any day of the week.

     See the historic sign to the left? That round structure is a clay pit tower from the early 1900s (click here for info). And a bit further down the trail is the historic outdoor Deep Eddy Pool (non-chlorinated well water averages high 60s during the winter).

And for all the dog lovers, a dog park with no containment fence just an ornamental fence, which seems odd.

     I wasn't surprised (click here to read Wikipedia's Austin article) that Austin was named by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 place to live in the U.S. for 2017. And the downtown area was named one of the "Best Cities and Neighborhoods for Millennials".

Improvisational drummers on the pedestrian bridge . . . 

. . . contributing to downtown Austin's good vibes.

Can't leave Austin without a visit at Texas' capitol building.

It has a rather simple rotunda as capitol rotundas go.

     The lobby of the rotunda includes portraits of Texas' governors through the years. Only two were women (both were Democrats), but Ann Richards won her election fair and square without the benefit of being an ex-governor's wife. Although I'm a Yankee, I've lived in rural Texas for the past 26 years and it still surprises me that a female Democrat managed to win a gubernatorial election in a very politically conservative male-oriented venue. She must have been a dynamic imposing woman.

   But the best part of Austin for me . . . . 

     No, not the river trails, it was the hot tub at the YMCA. After each swim (about one mile, an indoor pool on the cool side) I'd hurry over to the nearby hot tub. There was usually a handful of talkative folks there; weather, politics, news, all topics were fair game. My favorite acquaintant was Dotti, a 64-year-old woman who completed a triathlon three months ago. I've soaked in many hot tubs and Jacuzzis in the USA throughout my travels, and Austin's gregarious intelligent diversified hot tubbers win first prize in my book for delightful folks!