More Austin!

A long walk on pavement was in order the day after Austin received two inches of rain. Shoal Creek Trail took us through a pretty greenbelt in the middle of the city, and we made the walk into a nine mile loop by adding a stroll through the University of Texas campus and the historic Hyde Park neighborhood.

Though we could hear the nearby city streets, our surroundings were pleasing to the eye...
except for the excessive trash in the creek.
We've noticed a LOT of trash in the waterways in Austin (and San Antonio).
I really hope it's due to winter runoff and there are trash pick up events in the spring.

At one point we had to walk city streets to reach the next section of trail and enjoyed unique homes backing up to the creek.

Dropping back to the creek we entered a gorgeous limestone "canyon".

Shoal Creek.

The University of Texas at Austin is a pretty modern looking campus.

A surprise on our walk was finding the Elisabet Ney Museum in the Hyde Park neighborhood. We were fortunate the museum's curator happened to be standing outside the museum, which was closed on this day, and he offered to show us the exhibits. What a serendipitous meeting!

Inside we learned all about this fascinating woman and her amazing life. Elisabet Ney (born 1833, died 1907) was far ahead of her time; being outspoken on traditional women's roles of the era, wearing pants, keeping her own name in marriage, meanwhile sculpting famous persons all over the world. Her sculptures of Sam Houston and Stephen Austin are on display at the state capitol.

Formosa, the Austin studio of sculptor Elisabet Ney.

Hans climbs the narrow, circular staircase to the tower, a writing retreat for Elisabet's husband,
scientist and philosopher Edmund Montgomery.
Sit at Edmund's typewriter and leave your thoughts for others to ponder...

Continuing on our walk we saw this mosaic wall in Hyde Park.

A beautiful entrance to a private Hyde Park garden.

Another Austin themed mural as we traversed a business district back to our truck.

We played another disc golf course in Austin: Circle C Metro Park at Slaughter Creek. Located in South West Austin, this was a fantastic course! Well laid out along Slaughter Creek, the course meanders through juniper forest and lovely oak shaded grassy areas.

One of the more unique holes, here you throw your disc up a tree lined,
limestone strewn path to the basket at the top of the hill.

Pretty Slaughter Creek near the 18th hole.

South by South West has started. It's a 10 day city-wide extravaganza celebrating all things cutting edge in the interactive, film, and music disciplines. Beyond the official event, the city comes alive with hundreds of free peripheral events taking advantage of the crowds of people attending SXSW.

For us, that means free music in the middle of the day! Since Hans keeps tabs on the surf music scene he knew that one of our favorite bands to see live would be in town (Daikaiju), as part of a day of surf music called Surf by Surf East.

What a great day we had! The venue featured dozens of local handmade artists selling their wares, seven great surf bands in seven hours, tasty cold beverages and a delicious Italian food truck on the premises. Daikaiju's music is best enjoyed on CD, their live show is seen for the spectacle!

Daikaiju hamming it up for the crowd.

During the show both drummers moved their drum kits out into the audience
and then one proceeded to light the others cymbals on fire while he played!

This was an over-the-top, crazy interactive show!

The drummer had the crowd hold up part of his kit as well as himself on a chair while he played a song!

So begins SXSW...