We had a great week in Austin visiting family and friends. It was our first time in the Texas capital and we were impressed by the music culture (on full display during the South by Southwest music festival) but also by how green and beautiful the area around the city is. We had some great BBQ and Tex-Mex food, caught a bunch of fun bands and sampled some local beers. One funny thing we experienced was how incredibly variable the weather was. We were pretty shocked when the temperature dropped from 90+ degrees (32° C) on our first couple of days down to a pretty chilly 50 (10° C). Some highlights from a fun week include a beer tasting trip to the rolling hills west of Austin (see more details here), the Dutch band zZz (once they got over seemingly endless technical problems), and just spending time with everyone in this hip town.
In front of Gayle and Ken’s house before leaving for South By and some sightseeing
View over Austin suburbs
The vehicles are quite large here in Austin
Free graffitti area (see more pictures in “Fun Facts”)
Characteristic Frost Bank building
6th street South By
Listening to some bands with friends
These guys were rockin’ in front of the otherwise available stage
Really cool band
Dutch band zZz
Bailey the dog, Frisbee master
Stanley’s Farmhouse Pizza, next to Jester King Brewery
Inside Stanley’s
Tasting beer and eyeing the menu
Group photo
A game of bean bag toss
The final moments of the championship round
Looking down East 6th (there were so many bands playing here – probably 10 in any given 2 block area)
Shoe shine, check
The last band we caught
Laughing and drinking a Lone Star
Band
Alex and Rodger getting ready
Looking cool