No, We Can't Be Winding Down!

It may just be my imagination, but even when it's not hot in central Texas, it LOOKS hot. Perhaps it's the angle of the sun, or the fact that there was often not a cloud in the sky. Whatever it is, on Thursday we began to get a small sense of what summer in Austin is like. There was a touch of humidity in the air as the temps rose to the mid-80s.

After a late start at Austin Java, we crossed the River into downtown Austin and visited two small, but interesting art museums: the Austin Museum of Art, and the Mexic-Arte Museum, both located on Congress Street. While not large in size, both of these museums pack a lot in.





After this bit of culture, we were off to meet Tex for an early dinner at Guero's, prior to First Thursday, a celebration of the South Congress Street district. As if Austin needs an excuse, there was even more live music spread out along the street for the evening. They included a band full of 15-year-olds playing everything from Canned Heat to the Doors and other old-timer music (pretty well, too, at least until their mothers came to pick them up); to a band of local country types called Lonesome Heroes. The stores stay open late on First Thursday, while tables of vendors selling jewelry and crafts. I bought a little tie-dyed onesie for our soon-to-be-born great-nephew.

One of the truly Texan shops along South Congress:



Tex is drinking coffee, people:



When our feet gave out, the party moved to "The Mean-Eyed Cat" for a drink or two. The bar is dedicated to all things Johnny Cash, and featured yet another musician playing in the backyard: Matthew Ballard.



The number of possibilities for a musician in Austin are seemingly endless. Restaurants, bars, saloons, nightclubs, all feature live music of some type or other. Lucky for us, the music we enjoy most was featured most often where we visited. We've seen so many musicians and heard so many songs we haven't had a minute to process any of it. Luckily, the internets (and the notes I've taken here this week) will allow us to go back and revisit some of it. Where possible, we picked up CDs, and I expect we'll be downloading more when we get home.

Today will be relatively quiet (at least this afternoon) and we'll be starting to get organized for the trip home tomorrow. We haven't bought an enormous amount of souvenirs, but it never fails that it's harder to get everything back in the suitcase when it's time to go home.

For our final taste of local music, we're seeing "The Gourds" tonight in Gruene, Texas, just 30 minutes or so south of here.