Monday, June 29, 2009

Austin in an Afternoon 06-27-09

Austin Convention Center


Austin in an Afternoon 06-27-09, originally uploaded by kanokwalee.
Shadow of a flower arrangement on a table at the Austin Convention Center
on 06-27-09 after HOW Conference's over.


The Capitol Dome

Texas State Capitol Building

Texas Senate Chamber

A view from the Senate Chamber looking south at downtown Austin.

Love these chairs in the Senate Chamber.
Bob Bullock History of Texas Museum


The Long Center

Stevie Ray Vaugn sculpture on Town Lake Hike & Bike trail.

Dog park on the Town Lake Hike & Bike trail.

The Congress Ave. Austin bats viewing area in front of the Austin American Statesman.


I went to HOW Design Conference in Austin last week. It was a packed full 4 days. The conference itself was three and a half day. The last half day on Saturday I took a new friend I met at the conference sight seeing. We went to quite a few places in Austin considering we only had one afternoon to do it.


The conference ended at 12:15pm on Saturday.


We started the condensed tour with lunch at Iron Works BBQ.


After lunch we went drove down to SoCo then drove up Congress to the Capitol.


We walked around the capital, to the extension, up to the 4th floor, down the stairs, stopped at the Senate Chamber before leaving for the Bob Bullock History of Texas Museum.

The Transformers at the IMAX was sold out but we wouldn't have to see that any way. As it was, we took a pretty fast tour at the museum considering how extensive the exibits are. The museum have some new updated sections from the last time I was there. Or, maybe I just didn't see everything the last time.


After the Bob Bullock, we went to dinner at Madam Mam's Thai restaurant on the drag (Guadalupe at 26th Street). The food was awesome as always. We drove through and around UT campus afterward.


We made our way down lamar to Town Lake. We parked at the Long Center 15 minutes parking by the box office. Luckily, there's no event at the time. We went up to the Long's balcony overlooking downtown. Crossed the street to see Stevie Ray Vaugn sculpture. We walked down the Hike and Bike trail a little bit and see a lot of dogs (with their humans on the shore) taking a swim.


We finally made our ways to the Austin American-Statesman Congress Ave. bridge bats viewing area. They fenced the area and make a formal spot for viewing. They also fenced in the parking lot specifically for bats viewing visitors. There were a lot of people there. It was very hot still but worth braving the heat. There were jugglers in front of the viewing area entertaining people while waiting for the sun to go down and the bats to come out. I'm glad to see that there was a cart selling drink. A few minutes after the bats came out, people started to get up and walked around right in front of people that still sitting on the ground enjoying the bats. One of them stood up right in front of me taking pictures. I wished they didn't do that.


The traffic getting out of the parking lot was pretty bad. There were still a lot of people on the bridge looking at the bats (and a bit more still down at the viewing area). We were so tired (at least I was) that we didn't want to wait until the traffic cleared up to leave.


I think we visited quite a few places and did pretty well for an afternoon.

More photos.

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2 comments:

Decorate the Diva said...

Wow! Your HOW conference was packed full. The pics are great too. Hope you had fun! Glad you are home safe. Thank you for putting all my Treasury's in your blog. I love coming back to visit and see what your doing. Your avatar pic in your shop is adorable. Love, Renee

Kanokwalee said...

Hi Renee,

Thanks Renee and thank you for keeping in touch. I've been feeling so out of touch lately. Thanks for putting my items on your treasury! Hope you're having a great weekend.

Love,

Kanokwalee