Special People, Special Place

Special People in a Special Place

This weekend I had the pleasure of flying down to the Lone Star State to attend Lia’s best friend’s wedding… Congrats to Meghan and Nick!  Lia and I have both come to terms with the fact that Meghan is actually Lia’s soul mate, so she was down in Tejas all week doing Matron-of-Honor stuff (that title makes her sound old, doesn’t it?)  The wedding took place on a ranch about an hour of so outside of Austin, and it was pretty spectacular.  We had incredible weather, the venue was awesome and everyone was in a jolly ole mood. 

Here is a picture with Lia's parents from the wedding..  I’ll let Lia post more about the wedding if she wants, since that is more her specialty.

What I really want to focus on is the fact that I have finally found a city that can legitimately rival Nashville for awesomeness.  For the last few years I have been flying all over the country and critiquing each city I stay in.  I typically find some nice attributes of each city, but then there are a number of glaring issues that just ruin everything.  Austin may very well have some issues that I am unaware of, but the number of positive attributes is just insane. 

#1 The Parks

Austin has multiple pristine lakes, some absolutely beautiful parks and some really cool greenways.. all right in the middle of the city.  They make incredible use of their water features by surrounding Town Lake on one side with Downtown and numerous picturesque parks on the other shore.  This creates beautiful views when you are Downtown looking across the water, and also beautiful cityscapes while you are in the parks. 

There are also tons of parks, and all of them are well manicured and very accessible… they were also quite full considering it was during business hours on a Monday and it was 40 degrees out.  Austin has that Nashville “does anyone here actually work?” vibe going for it as well.  Nashville could learn a lesson or two when looking at the far side of the Cumberland.

#2 Soooo Dog Friendly

The wedding photographer mentioned that Austin is the most friendly dog city in the country, and I completely believe it.  There is an island that is dedicated to dogs.  No, I’m not kidding.  It has some fields, a bunch of running trails, some woods trails, and tons of ponds and creeks for the dogs to play in.  There were also lots of dogs running around in the normal parks, and they even have a running path along Town Lake that is leash-free and has plenty of spots for the dogs to jump in the water.  I have never seen so many happy dogs in my life.  Nashville should be ashamed at how much our dog parks suck comparatively. 

#3 Downtown

The Downtown is really nice.. it has 6^th street for the drunks, the state capitol for the liars, tons of live music for the blind , and it is all very walkable for those without a driver’s license.  It is one of the coolest state capitols I have ever been to, and it was PACKED with people.  I didn't believe how many people were reading the monument placards, having picnics on the green or sitting and reading by a fountain.  University of Texas is also right near downtown, which contributes to a younger hipper vibe.  I didn't really pay much attention to the mass transit because it was easy enough to park for free everywhere we wanted to go and most of the downtown area is walkable.

#4 Geography

Austin is also blessed with great topography.  The rolling hills and "Mt" Bonnell create some incredible vistas and provide some really neat locations where people have built some beautiful houses.  There is also plenty of water that the folks in the city use on a regular basis, including recreational Lake Travis nearby.  Austin is also pretty far south, so as long as you are friends with the sun, the weather is pretty decent most of the year.  I would say that being located in Texas was a huge plus too, but unfortunately Texas is full of Texans.

#5 Of Course, the Food

 

As most of you know, I like to eat.  Lia and I were only in Austin for two days, but that was plenty of time to convince us that they excelled at making people very happy and very large.   We enjoyed some ridiculous donuts at Gordoughs (very reminiscent of Voodoo in Portland) and later had some amazing Mexican food at Habanero's in the South Congress area.  There is a huge food truck culture, and everything we tasted was reasonably priced and very good.  I'm excited to go back and try more restaurants out.

That's all I've got for now, but I'll leave you with this: If you love Nashville, you will definitely enjoy a trip to Austin.