Austin is Great!
Scott and I treated ourselves to a half-weekend in Austin. The trip derailed slightly due to bad Google Maps directions that got us turned around for two hours, so whereas we'd planned on getting there around 7 or 8pm and going out to a music bar and so forth, we instead arrived at around 10pm and basically had enough energy to go out for dinner and find the hotel. It made us miss DC deeply. In Bryan, things shut down at 10pm. Even on Friday nights. In Austin, 6th St. was a bit like Dupont Circle, everything was open, lots of people were out, you could tell the night was just getting started. We went to a sushi place called Silhouette with great sushi and bubble tea. The atmosphere, music and art there were great. Y'know, I never really thought of myself as a hipster (NYT articles aside) before, but ye gads we've missed all that sort of thing.
We've come to the conclusion that the problem with Bryan is there really isn't any atmosphere to the places here. I think this is because the population is largely divided into three main groups: undergraduates who just want cheap food and beer; families who just want to go to a place with food their five year old will eat; and blue collar workers who want the same things as these other two groups. Professionals can go to the teeny handful (by which I mean, all of three) places that are left, or to Austin. Places just aren't designed as places to chat or unwind: it's all about get your [x] and go, essentially. On top of that, there just aren't that many venues for music, and, (I quote this directly from Scott) "I think there's supposed to be an indie theater somewhere around here, but I haven't seen it yet."
Today we happened to spend largely at the Pecan Street Fair just off of 6th St., which is the district where all the bars and clubs with live music are at. We enjoyed looking at all the booths selling art, clothes, and trinkets. There were bands playing different kinds of music and lemonade and ice cream booths. It was just really fun. The city is very pretty and quirky and reminds me of Baltimore in a way--lots of murals, buildings painted very vibrantly, and the like. I also like that the city's motto is "Keep Austin Weird."
Basically from all this we've come to the conclusion that when we move again, it has to be to a nice city. *Has* to be. *Needs* to be.
Anyhow. We got back a bit ago and the kittens were happy to have us home, though they were fine. They fought over who got to sit in my lap at the computer though, which is why I adore them. :)
We've come to the conclusion that the problem with Bryan is there really isn't any atmosphere to the places here. I think this is because the population is largely divided into three main groups: undergraduates who just want cheap food and beer; families who just want to go to a place with food their five year old will eat; and blue collar workers who want the same things as these other two groups. Professionals can go to the teeny handful (by which I mean, all of three) places that are left, or to Austin. Places just aren't designed as places to chat or unwind: it's all about get your [x] and go, essentially. On top of that, there just aren't that many venues for music, and, (I quote this directly from Scott) "I think there's supposed to be an indie theater somewhere around here, but I haven't seen it yet."
Today we happened to spend largely at the Pecan Street Fair just off of 6th St., which is the district where all the bars and clubs with live music are at. We enjoyed looking at all the booths selling art, clothes, and trinkets. There were bands playing different kinds of music and lemonade and ice cream booths. It was just really fun. The city is very pretty and quirky and reminds me of Baltimore in a way--lots of murals, buildings painted very vibrantly, and the like. I also like that the city's motto is "Keep Austin Weird."
Basically from all this we've come to the conclusion that when we move again, it has to be to a nice city. *Has* to be. *Needs* to be.
Anyhow. We got back a bit ago and the kittens were happy to have us home, though they were fine. They fought over who got to sit in my lap at the computer though, which is why I adore them. :)