Austin Texas

The Capital building in Austin, Texas.

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The Texas Capital is beautiful.

Seen from a distance it is a remarkable shade of dusty pink,

officially known as Sunset Red granite.

Texans claim the building is 16 feet taller than the U.S. Capital.

The statue of the lovely lady on top of the dome is the Goddess of Liberty.

She is holding in her raised hand a (what else?) star.

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This is Lady Bird Lake in downtown Austin, and it's not a lake but a river.

(They also have a couple of highways here called Loops that don't loop anything.)

The unofficial city motto is Keep Austin Weird.

I don't see a problem with that.

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There are walking and bike trails along the river, and you can rent kayaks and canoes.

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I assume you can also rent inflatable swan paddle boats if you don't feel like bringing your own.

This is the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin.

It's famous for having the largest urban bat colony in the United States.

One and a half million bats spend the summer under this bridge, consuming 10-15 tons of insects nightly. When they take flight at sunset they tell me it draws a lot of spectators.

I missed the display by three weeks, dang it!

The bats left for Mexico the first of November,

as they dislike cold weather as much as John and I do.

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I didn't see this guy until I was right above him and I gotta admit he really startled me. I assumed he was homeless but then noticed the sign on the back of his jacket.

It says he is one of the 99%.

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Geeze, I hope it's not the same 99% I'm in.

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Right across the street was the Occupy Austin group.

This is the Clock Tower at Texas University.

When the Longhorns win, like they did last night, the tower is lit in orange.

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This is the same tower where, in 1966, a sniper shot at random people for 90 minutes

before police gained control of the observation deck. The shooting was broadcast live, and local citizens showed up with guns. After this shooting police departments all over America began forming SWAT teams. The shooter left a note asking that he have a autopsy after his death and a brain tumor was found.

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Austin is built on the line where the "Hill Country" begins. This was taken just

Northwest of the downtown area close to Austin's oldest tourist attraction - Mount Bonnell.

At 775 feet high it's a big draw here.

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Still in the same neighborhood, and close to the high income homes in Austin.

Some of the well known locals include Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey and Michael Dell - the founder of Dell computers.

It's also close to the home of Richard Garriott, the Internet game developer who bought the first ticket sold to travel in space. In 2001 he lost everything in the dot.com bust and sold his ticket to another man.

In 2007 he had recovered enough to pay $30 million for another ticket and became the sixth space "tourist".

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Austin hasn't had the recession problems of most of America. The local economy is heavy in technology and has done well. There are so many techno wizards here that the area has the nickname "Silicone Hills. Our tour guide swore that there is a non-stop flight from here to the Silicone Valley known as the "Nerd Bird", but the local techies prefer the term Geek.

The Austin Visitor's Center is in the former Grove Pharmacy.

Cool, huh?

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This is on 6th Street, the heart of the "Live Music Capital of the World".

The street is lined on both sides with clubs for what seems like a mile.

Note that the Christmas lights are guitars.

Austin claims to have over 200 clubs with live music, and I believe 'em.

Some of the places are huge and some small.

They play all kinds of music from country to hip-hop.

Carlos Santana owns a club here,"Maria Maria".

Sixth Street with the Bat Bar on the left.

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Still Sixth Street, with Austin's tallest building in the background on the left.

It's a condo, and the ones on the top go for $5 million.

I'm guessing the owners don't go to Hoek's Death Metal Pizza.

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My favorite sign, finger included at no charge.