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After a long day at University of Texas and Austin downtown, I know the Sunday is going to be a nice day out as most Americans stay home, or go to Church on Sunday morning. It was a great sunny day, and I decided to visit the State Capital to take advantage of the morning sun, which is not too bright. Besides, there isn’t a whole lot of interesting business would open on Sunday.

I parked my rental car at the front of the State Capital building because there is no traffic, and parking is free because it was Sunday. The front of the State Capital compound is more interesting, and the courtyard has various statues for remembrance of important event or people.

The font courtyard to the capital building is really nice, especially with the weather on the day I visit!

I’m not much of a history person, so I didn’t read any of the sign or plaque on the statue, but just take snapshot of a few that’s unique to me.

With blue sky behind the building, somehow I can fit the whole building into the picture frame!

With the super zoom on my new camera, I’m able to zoom all the way to the top of the building to see the white statue.

A slow morning also inspired me to be more artistic and play around with the special effect in my new camera.

The status capital building is huge! I walked around it to find interesting angle to take picture.

I didn’t know the building is open since it was Sunday. When I saw other people entered the building, I follow them in and it turned out it was open to public, and free of charge!

At the center of the building, there is a cool view of the dome from the lobby.

The detail of the dome ceiling was impressive, but even with my super zoom camera, I can’t get very far into the ceiling.

Most of the offices area were closed to public, but there are a few rooms that are still accessible. One of them is some sort of Senate hall.

The senate room looks like a very serious court room kind of place.

The floor is not accessible, so I can only look from outside.

Every floor has access to the view of the dome.

From the corridor, you get better view of the dome ceiling.

The higher you go, you can see the floor of the lobby better, which has some sort of Texas lone star symbol of some sort.

The other big room that’s opened to public is some sort of meeting room, probably for the congress or something.

This room is much more different than the other room, mainly from the arrangement of the chairs.

Each chair has Texas stamp on it, I can’t help but notice the chairs are neatly arranged.

There is nothing else interesting inside the State Capital building, so it was time to leave. As I walk around more, I saw a monument that’s hiding at the corner of the compound.

When I was leaving and getting back to my rental car, I notice the fence of the capital building has gold stars on top of them.

Time to play around with artistic photo technique again!

By the time I leave the capital building, it was close to lunch time. I did some research the night before about potential lunch places, and Taco Xpress is known to have cheap and good taco in town. So, I keyed in the restaurant address in the GPS, and found my way to the restaurant.

The restaurant has unique characteristic.

When I travel alone, I enjoy going to “self-service” kind of restaurant because those places are more casual, and every body mind their own business.

The price for the lunch was great, and the portion is not that big either. I ordered a pork burrito, which look very homemade and fresh.

The waiter also recommended fish taco, which looks good but taste a bit fishy.

It was a Sunday, so I they have outdoor concert to entertain crowd that come in after church service, the place was pack!

After lunch, I only have one more tourist place to go, that is South Congress (Soco) Avenue shopping street. It took me quite a while to find parking around the area because there are only street side parking. While walking from my car to the shopping area, a food truck caught my attention.

I’m a big sucker for fried chicken, and it’s unusual to find none chain restaurants when come to fried chicken. Besides, who can pass up a catchy name call “Electric Cock”?

The menu is quite limited, and the price is not cheap, but hey, it’s small business, it’s understandable.

My Taco Xpress lunch didn’t fill me up, so I had room for two pieces of fried chicken, so I ordered them and waited them to be cook. I have to say, the coating is nice and crispy, but the inside is just plain chicken flavor without much seasoning.

Austin has some weird culture like Portland Oregon, and you can find those in SoCo Avenue. I went into some of these stores, they’re basically upscale antique stores with interesting find here and there.

Some stores have their charm and characters, and they’re boldly displayed at the store front.

If you think men wearing dress in drag, wait until you see Zebra in drag! The store that sell wig and dress basically made its statement.

The afternoon was getting hot, after all it was September and we are talking about being in Texas. So I went back to the hotel, enjoy the air condition and took a nap. When it was time to have dinner, I knew exactly where to go, time to try out Texas BBQ!

The place look quiet at the store front, it’s because most of the patrons were at the back enjoying the summer night and the backyard concert.

The restaurant ran out of their Sunday special, the baby back ribs. I read review that their country fried steak is excellent, so I ordered a country fried steak and a few BBQ spareribs as I want to try Texas BBQ and compare it to Kansas City style, which is the BBQ capital of the world.

I have to say, the country fried steak is out of the world! The breading is super crispy and light, and seasoned just right! The steak was tender and moist. I had to eat it quick before the coating get soft and soggy from the juice of the steak.

The BBQ ribs was disappointing, it was fatty and not tender enough. They didn’t smoke them long enough to let the fat render out, and moisten the meat. The smoke flavor is not that strong either. I had to pour some BBQ sauce on them to cut down the fattiness and moisten the meat. Good thing I didn’t order a rib dinner!

The sun went down very quickly, and I was busy eating dinner and missed the Bat watching schedule as I didn’t get great video the night before. Since I was already in downtown Austin, I figure I could go back to the Texas State Capital and see if I can get good night moonlight architecture shots.

The state capital building looks very different during the night, for starter, it’s white during the night, and tan during the day.

The top of the building, where the statue and the dome is, has red light lid up so you can see it from far away.

It’s hard to photograph the building from the front of the building because of all the trees at the courtyard, so I went to the back of the building, where it is facing University of Texas and got a pretty nice shot.

The building is very well lid, I didn’t have problem to pull out nice photo effect using the built in feature in the camera.

I called it a night after visit the state capital, and went back to the hotel to rest because I need to drive back to Houston the next day to catch my flight. My flight was late evening, and after timed it, I realize I can have early lunch in Austin and safe the trouble of finding restaurant in Houston, or eat boring food at the airport. So a quick google and I found another restaurant featured in the show Diner Drive in and Dive:

When I arrive at the restaurant, the just open for business and I was the first patron. From what I read, the place to get very pack during lunch time, and they often run out of their signature meal.

Their most popular menu item is the Duck pastrami, and the portion is just right otherwise I would have a long sleepy 4 hours drive back to Houston.

The duck flavor in the duck is quite mild, but the sauce, and the crispy toasted bread really made the dish!

Overall, the Austin trip was a nice get away where I can take my time to do sight seeing, eat when I want, where I want and what I want. I finally get the chance to see the Austin city, and I have to say, it’s a pretty nice city. The pace is not too busy, yet the people are generally friendly and me being a minority, I didn’t even feel that I’m being stare at whether I’m at a restaurant, or on the street. I wish I have more time and more well prepare so I could check out the real estate of the area, so that if I want to call it my new home, at least I know what to expect, and how to make plan for it. Oh well, there is always a next time to visit Austin again!

It has been a while since I travel without tight schedule and jam pack with activities like meeting family, scuba diving etc.

Since I don’t have big budget to do more extensive travel outside of the country, I decided to have an extended weekend get away in part of USA. Which part is it? Well, it would be Austin! I heard good thing about this city. I generally don’t like Texas, mainly because its bad reputation of rude and cowboys attitude in various big cities of Texas. Austin however is different in the sense that people say it’s like Portland mixed with San Francisco.

Since I was traveling by myself, I decided to take my time, eat at where I want. But finding good restaurant in a foreign city could be challenging unless you want to sit down in front of a computer to read website review of major restaurants available in the city. So who do I turned to? Well, I like the show “Diners Drive in and Dine“. Almost all the food features in the show look so freaking good, and there is no intimidation of sit down on a white tablet clothe restaurant, being interrupt by waitress every few minute. So I decided to dine at as many restaurants featured in the show as I could while I’m in town.

Long story short, there were last minute changes and I ended flew into Dallas and need to drive 4 hours to Austin. It was lunch time when I landed in Dallas, so first stop was Avila’s Mexican Food Restaurants.

Avila’s is know for their Mole and Enchilada. My appetite was super great that day consider I’m finally take long vacation from my dieting routine too. I ordered a bowl of tortilla chips and queso soup for snack while waiting for my entree.

I’m glad I got the queso soup because the home made salsa was spicy hot, but I can’t stop eating it. The queso soup help put the flame out because of the cheese. The server was friendly and talked to me in Spanish while I was seating outside. I have no idea what he was saying but some how I got he means that: it’s so hot out I can’t believe you’re sitting outside! The weather in Kansas City was crazy so I have been wanting some warmer sun!

It didn’t take long for the entree to arrive even though have had good crowd during their lunch hour. I ordered the Chicken Mole Enchilada with white corn tortila:

The home made mole chicken is nothing like what I made. I was curious about authentic mole as I never had it. It turned out it’s not as smokey and bitter as the one I attempt to make. I guess I screwed up mine! This one is very pleasantly spiced, the sauce is velvety, yet not too rich.

It was running late and after all the big meal, I knew I had to get into the car to get into Austin so that I could avoid any after hour traffic. Well, turned out the hotel I book is outside of Austin city so there isn’t much traffic, except traffic caused by construction areas.

By evening, I finally arrive at my hotel at Habitat Suites. The Habitat Suites basically was apartment complex that converted into hotel, and I have to say, I’m impressed! The room basically is like a one bed room apartment, with big living room.

The kitchen is well equipped with fridge, stove, sink etc.

Having a comfortable room when travel is very important. Consider I was paying about $65 a night, hotel like this is kind of a steal.

I was too tired from a long day of drive, so I took a nap and the next thing I knew when I woke up, it was like 8:30 pm!!!! It was too late to go out and scout for dinner. So I just snack and watch TV to relax, then get ready for the next day.

I didn’t have a set idea of where to go, but did some research the night I arrive in Austin. The University of Texas Austin actually is one of the places that many people visit. So decided to check it out. I must have choose the wrong day to visit the University of Texas campus as they was big football game going on that day, all the college kids and alumni just tailgate at the campus. I never seen that magnitude of  tailgating where people bring out generator, at least 47″ flat screen TV, smokers and grill, beer, sign, all kind of stuff. Back in my mind, I was thinking “Are we in recession???”.

Anyway, with the crazy crowd going on in the campus, it’s super difficult to find parking, I ended bite the bullet and pay for the most expensive parking of my life: $27 for whole day parking!!!!! Since I was driving a rental car so I want to make sure the car is in the proper parking area where it won’t get tow, or stolen. A few feet away from the park lot was the entrance to the popular University of Texas Tower building.

I have to say, I wasn’t sure if I’m at the right campus because all these fountain and statue, just doesn’t look like they belong to a university campus, they’re more appropriate for a country club or hotel!

The weather in Austin that day was perfect, it’s not too hot or humid consider it was a late morning.

The non tailgating side of the of the campus was quiet, and you can tell there are other tourists too since I’m not the only person with camera in my hand.

The clock tower of the campus is a prominent landmark because you can see it from far away. Besides, there were many history behind it from campus shooting to student jump off building suicide etc.

I walked around the campus a bit, remembering my college day. Ahh…. the freedom of no mortgage, not much worry, just going to class and learn. The breeze and the sun really made it a relax day to just be around the campus, except the frequent gorgeous young students that walk around the campus that remind me how old I have become……

After brisk walk around the campus, I was debate about where else to go, especially I paid for the $27 freaking parking ticket. The capital building is quite a walking distance, but since I have time to kill, I decided to walk through the crowd of tailgating people, and take some photos of the Texas Capital Building.

It was the wrong time of the day to take picture of the capital building as the sun was in my face. Since I didn’t have my DSLR, there is nothing I can do about it and try to make the best out of my new point and shoot camera, which has pretty wide angle.

In front of the capital building has some sort of colosseum kind of under ground structure. I guess it must be some sort of federal office as visitor are not allowed to go there.

Since the sun was too bright, I decided to not spend too much time at the capital building to take pointless photos. Good thing the Blanton Museum of Art was right around the corner of the University of Texas campus. I’m not a museum goer kind of person, but everybody say the museum is a must go place when visit Austin. I figure since I have time, and the entrance ticket is not expensive, I might as well pay a visit. The museum also allows me to take a break from the very warm sun, while I check out some art from the Indian, to the European painting. I enjoy those kind of art more than abstract weird paint splash canvas kind of art.

After the museum, I still have some time before sunset, which I plan to spend the time at downtown to watch bats. In between that, I went back to the state capital now that the sun is not too bad, and I can get a little bit of blue sky into the frame.

With the less intense sun, there are more interesting shadow and shade cast into the colosseum  looking structure, so I snap a photo of it, which turned out quite interesting.

On the way back to the car, I walked through a couple blocks of loud tailgating crowd, and saw the Bullock Texas State History Museum. I’m not much of a history person, so I didn’t bother to check out what’s inside. But I thought the building is quite neat, nothing say Texas like a BIG lone star!

When it was about 6 pm, I decided to leave University of Texas campus area and go to Austin downtown so I can take my time to find parking for bat watching. It was a Saturday, so it turned out that downtown wasn’t busy, or it could be because more people are tailgating or stay home to watch football. It didn’t take me long to find a parking space, but it sucks that I still had to pay for parking meter even though it’s Saturday.

It turned out that the bats won’t come out until very late into the sunset, which I had about 2 hours to kill. Bored, I decided to walk around the South Congress Avenue area, and take picture of Austin downtown popular landmark and architecture.

The downtown scene is much different from Kansas City, it looks more corporate and business district kind of surrounding.

There are quite a few high rise building around the area, but I think it make sense since they never had tornado problem like Kansas City.

Besides restaurants and office buildings, there are condo here and there.

The sun finally set, and crowd started to show up for the bat watching. It just don’t make sense to take photo so I have recorded video and will post online in next post.

Through out the day, I have been snacking on cookies, and take out that I took when I was at a Dim Sum restaurant. By the time the bat watching finished, it was late at about 8:30pm. My parking meter almost run out, but good thing is the restaurant I want to go is a few block away. Well, it’s a good and bad thing. good thing is I don’t have to get far, bad thing is it doesn’t make sense to drive the car to the restaurant area then look for another parking space.

I had about 50 minutes before the parking meter expire, so I decided to walk a few blocks to the restaurant, order my food and get back to the car and eat my dinner at the hotel. The restaurant I went was Casino El Camino. Their Buffalo burger was featured on the Diners Drive in and Dine show, so I knew that’s what I want. I brisk walked to the restaurant, walked into a dark bar, and the reality hit: I have to wait for 45 minutes to get the burger!!!!!

I wanted the burger so bad, I decided to take a chance, ordered the burger and hang around the area. The crowd outside of the bar really reminded me of New Orleans, gave me that unsafe feel that you never know if there would be drunks try to pull out some stunt.

After I got my burger, I literally run for blocks to get back to the car, thank goodness I didn’t get ticket for expired parking meter. I drove back to the hotel, kick off my shoes, slip into my comfortable t-shit and short, and had my late night dinner, featuring chili fries:

The Buffalo burger has 1/3 lb patties, with hot sauce and blue cheese. The bun is homemade, which give it that unique sweet bun taste.

The blue cheese really made the burger, but the bun was a bit thick. But overall, I enjoyed it, consider it has been months I didn’t have burger! The beef patties is just okay, you can’t taste much beef flavor when all the sauce and blue cheese, or my tongue was numb by the slightly over salted chili cheese fries, hmm…..