Visit to Austin

This past week my family went to Austin, TX. My wife was invited to be a part of her company's recruiting efforts at the SWE conference, and The Pup and I joined her. We went a day earlier than she was required to be there so we could have some time to enjoy the trip together.

So, early Tuesday morning (well before any reasonable person is up and about) we got up and headed across town to PDX. We flew Delta to Austin with a layover in Salt Lake. Thankfully, our 13 month old little boy handled the flights well. We had a nice person sitting in the window seat next to us on the initial 737 flight to Salt Lake. She mostly slept, but was quite kind to us during our brief interaction with her. She did have ear plugs, but they weren't necessary, because The Pup didn't cry much, if at all. Our flight to Austin was on a smaller plane, and I forget the designation Boeing assigned that model. We were again in a row of three seats with another passenger in the window seat next to us. The Pup was not quite as well behaved on this flight, but several of the other passengers said he did quite well, and we didn't hear any complaints or muttering.

On arrival in Austin we proceeded to the rental car facility. I had reserved a mid sized car at one of the budget car rental outfits there. I had hoped to receive the Toyota Camry that was used as the exemplar of the class, but we received a 2017 Kia Soul instead. It was nice for what it was, but there was very little cargo space. I have much more room in my 2010 Sonata than this vehicle had. We had to place some of our luggage in the rear seat with the carseat.

From there we proceeded to the Hotel we had booked for our initial night in Austin, the Crowne Plaza Austin, with a small stopover to eat lunch at Whataburger. This was my first trip to Texas, and I was determined to try it while I was there. I had booked the room through Priceline as a generic 3 1/2 star hotel. The room was quite nice, if a bit dated. The staff was very helpful and remembered our son's name and interacted with him when they saw him in the lobby.

On Wednesday we decided to go to Longhorn Cavern State Park. Or rather, my wife decided that she wanted to go, and so I obliged. Texas has many toll roads, and I had declined the activation of a toll pass with the rental vehicle, so we ended up taking a scenic route that avoided toll roads. It was a bit perplexing for me to travel through the rolling hills with no mountains anywhere in sight. I grew up in the Salt Lake area, and got my bearings from the mountains surrounding the valley. Even here in Forest Grove (Portland area) I use Mount Hood as a reference point to help me find my way. It was disconcerting not to immediately know which way I was traveling just based on what was around.

We paid for the tour at the cave. There's no other way to get inside to see the cave. Here are few pics from inside. Not everything came out as I had hoped it would

At the entrance, waiting for the tour group to reassemble

Calcite crystals

More crystals

Yet more crystals

One of the residents of the cave

Looking up into the "attic" of the cave

Stalactites

A flowstone formation

Calcite crystals in another portion of the cave

Larger crystals

Crystals under red and green lights

The cave was quite interesting, and the young woman that we had as a guide obviously knew the cave and its history quite well. She related events from the period when American Indians used the cave, American Civil War era history through to Prohibition era events, and what the men of the CCC (who had cleaned the cave out of debris) thought of various portions of the cave. It was an enjoyable time.

We went back to Austin a different way than we had come. And stopped for lunch at a place that did burgers and chicken wings. I had a barbecue cheddar burger that was quite good.

Arriving in Austin we checked in to the Hyatt Place Hotel near the convention center. This is the first time I've stayed at a place that had only valet parking. I'm not a fan. I prefer to have ready access to my vehicle, and to be able to come and go as I please without checking with anyone else first.

Thursday turned out to be a recovery day for The Pup. He slept most of the day when he wasn't being fed by his Mommy. She was busy at the convention center, and could get away for brief periods to care for him. I did make an attempt to go out for lunch when he woke up from one nap, but the place I had chosen closed at 3 pm, and that's when he had woken up.

Friday was more eventful. The Pup and I walked the several blocks to the State Capitol just before noon. We had to be back by 1, so we didn't go inside to take the tour. Instead we walked the grounds, and enjoyed the pleasant day.

It is a nice building.

Later on, when my wife had completed her obligations at the convention, we went to see the famous Austin bats. But as it was well before sunset, we walked along the river first. (We passed through the Chive's headquarters outdoor area to access it.) As we did so, we saw some interesting things.

An egret

Turtles

And a very large carp

Sunset from under the Congress Avenue Bridge

Sadly, the bats didn't emerge until about half an hour after sunset, and I didn't have a camera able to handle the lighting conditions when they came out.

After this, we walked to the Capital again, and this time we went inside. I had left the camera at the hotel room when we picked up our jackets, so I have no images from inside the building. But I was generally impressed. I don't enjoy heights, so I didn't spend much time around the fourth floor rotunda rail.

Saturday was our last day, but we still managed a bit of fun before checking out of the hotel. We went to The Escape Game, Austin and went through their Gold Rush escape room. This was the third escape room I've done, and by far the highest quality (though also most expensive.) I was very impressed. This is the first time I've escaped (came very close both previous times, but didn't quite make it.) The variety of puzzles was very good, and most things worked fairly well. I would have preferred a letter combination lock instead of a direction lock with letter stickers on it in one location, and one of the mechanisms didn't quite work as intended. But otherwise it was a very good room.

After this, I finally had an opportunity to find a barbecue lunch. I didn't feel the need to go to one of the more famous places, so we found a smaller location without a line. I do miss good barbecue. There is none close by.

Our flights back were uneventful. They were sparse, and so we got a row of seats to ourselves on both legs of the trip back. The Pup was quite cute on the first flight, but by the second he was tired, and needed a nap but wouldn't take one. It required a lot more effort to keep him from being a big disruption to the surrounding passengers on this flight.

All in all, I am very pleased with our trip. We got to have a good time. I'm glad we went.