
About Austin, Texas
Austin is the only city in Texas we would ever want to live in! When we moved here in the late '90s, we quickly came to understand that Austin has it all -- the people, the culture, the events, the food, and the lifestyle that makes Austin like no place else.
I think the good folks at the Austin Convention and Visitors' Bureau put it best:
Austin is just simply not like the rest of Texas. From the quirky cast of characters that populate Congress Avenue to burnt orange-clad University of Texas students, bats to Longhorns, four-star restaurants to down-home barbecue joints, corporate CEOs to struggling musicians, Texas' capital city stands apart from the rest.
It's hip and trendy, yet in a vintage sort of way. It's high-tech and laid-back. It's politically charged and culturally rich. It's eclectic by nature and creative by design. Most of all, it's a place where people like to have a good time.
Check out Austin, Texas on the Wikipedia site and you'll see even more reasons why we love the city:
Residents of Austin are known as "Austinites," and include a mix of university professors, students, politicians, lobbyists, musicians, state employees, high-tech workers, blue-collar workers, and white-collar workers. The main campus of the University of Texas is located in Austin. The city is home to enough large sites of major technology corporations to have earned it the nickname "Silicon Hills." Austin's official slogan promotes the city as "The Live Music Capital of the World", a reference to its status as home to many musicians and music venues. In recent years, many Austinites have also adopted the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird"; this refers partly to the eclectic and progressive lifestyle of many Austin residents, but is also the slogan for a campaign to preserve smaller local businesses and resist excessive commercialization.
In no particular order, here are our favorite places to go and things to do in Austin:
- Walking along the Lady Bird Lake Hike & Bike Trail
- Taking our dogs to one of Austin's many leash-free dog parks
- Watching absolutely ANY movie at the Alamo Draft House Theater
- Hanging out at all the funky and eclectic coffee shops all over town
- Local rags such as the Austin Chronicle, which deliver news, cultural event listings and restaurant and film reviews with lots of local attitude.
- The South by Southwest music and movie festival. Particularly, the film fest.
- The culinary diversity. You can shop at Chinatown's huge MT Supermarket grocery store, browse the aisles of Mandola's Italian Market, chow down at Sarovar Indian Restaurant, taste a true El Salvadoran pupusa at El Zunzal Restaurant in east Austin, or sample the delights of Korea Garden restaurant. Austin is a foodie's paradise, and my waistline proves it!
- The Austin Public Library. I know this might sound lame, but I really, really love our library! I've been reading like crazy lately, yet I've realized that most of the time I don't want to actually buy and keep a book. The local library is never without a book I'm looking for, and I've heard that isn't always the case with libraries in a lot of other towns and cities. So I feel pretty lucky to have the Austin library at my disposal.
- The Domain in north Austin. My wife loves places like Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Nordstrom's. Me? I'm excited a big new Whole Foods is being built there.
- The downtown Austin night life. Yes, we're teetering on the verge of being too old for it, but we're still occasionally up for it.
- Cooking classes and tastings at Whole Foods' Culinary Academy, Central Market, Grape Vine Market, and many other wonderful places.
- The local activists who fight like hell to keep our water supply cleaner, our air cleaner, and our town filled with just a few less corporate chains such as Wal Mart. Keep Austin Weird, baby!