What to Do in
Austin
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Here are my
favorite places to eat, rock, and hang out in Austin.
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Food
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Threadgill's
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Southern-fried goodness and a
piece of Austin music history.
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Chuy's
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Tied for my favorite restaurant--
Great Tex-Mex and an Elvis shrine.
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Kerby
Lane
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Open all night with great
fresh-made diner fare.
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Magnolia
Cafe
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Magnolia Mud will someday save the
world.
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Hyde
Park Grill
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The best upscale food value; ritzy
food but casual atmosphere and prices.
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Hut's
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Pick your two-fer
night and go!
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Crown
& Anchor
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A Coca-cola and a
jalapeno veggie burger with swiss (comes with a basket of
fries) fits in a five-dollar bill here.
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Starseeds
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The breakfast
burrito is the best food value in Austin. Obey the posted
rules! Admire the wall Art!
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Las Manitas Avenue Cafe
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Music
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Emo's
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Quality
Punk Rock at Discount Prices
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Back
Room
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Many arcade games if the metal
gets too heavy.
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Stay
Cool!
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Barton
Springs
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A public pool built around a
natural spring -- all the fun of a municipal pool but with none of the
pee-pee. Oh yeah, and it's 68F (20C) year-round.
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Deep
Eddy
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The cross product of Barton
Springs and a drive-in movie theater.
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Urban
Landscape
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Mount
Bonell
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A great torture test for your
thighs is to bike up Mount Bonell; you will be rewarded by a sweeping
360 view of Austin and the Hill Country.
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Mansfield
Dam
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The dam which creates Lake Travis.
An impressive engineering structure and much beautiful scenery. Many
hawks surf the currents coming off the dam face and roost on the nearby
radio tower.
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Congress
Street Bats
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The premiere Austin attraction is
a colony of more than 1,000,000 bats that live in the Congress Street
Bridge. Each sunset during the summer they emerge all at once and
course in a mile-long spiral down Town Lake. Impressive.
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Zilker
Botanical Gardens
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Pretty Flowers
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Umlauf
Sculpture Garden
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Umlauf was a UT professor and
reputed sculptor. The sculpture garden lets you stroll peacefully among
many of his works.
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Simple
Pleasures
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Around
Town
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Austin has an
abundance of great signs,
murals, and other cheap thrills. Some of my favorites include:
The statue to
Stevie Ray Vaughn on the Town Lake bike trail
The moonlight
towers around Austin, at 22nd and Nueces for
instance.
The turtle pond at UT near the main building.
The giant fork (with ever-changing morsel) at Hyde Park Bar &
Grill.
The Frank Kozik interior of Emo's or the exterior of Sound Exchange.
!!!!!! Toy Joy !!!!!!
The South Austin Genie
The Terminix
Bug on I-35
The auto parts store on Lamar that promises, "If It's In stock,
We've Got It!"
The Gap mural on the Drag
Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds...
... and the whole South Congress thrift & antique strip
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Commerce
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Wheatsville
Co-op
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Neighborhood grocery store
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Breed's
Hardware
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29th east of Lamar. You pay
more but get fantastic service and always leave happy.
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Unlimited
Auto
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45th and Duval, great auto
service
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Ozone
Bike Shop
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On Guadelupe at 31st. The best
bike shop ever.
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Goodwill
Computer Store
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A trip back through computing time
and a source of great bargains... I can spend all day here.
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Amusements
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PuttPutt
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Peter
Pan Miniature Golf
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Bowling
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Showplace Lanes
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GoKarts
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There are two
kinds of go-kart racing that I have encountered -- head to head
(bumping technically forbidden but sanguinely sanctioned) and
grand-prix (one at a time). In Austin we seem to only have GP karts,
which is fun but I still crave contact...
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