The final stop on my Texas road trip was the capital city, Austin!
Since this was my second time visiting Austin, there wasn’t nearly as much pressure to scramble around trying to see as much as possible. We ended up taking a short hike around Lady Bird Lake, and then wandered around some of the downtown area.
We had some delightful misadventures downtown, and to no one’s surprise, I successfully embarrassed myself.
But don’t worry, Austin prides itself on being weird, so I guess I fit right in!
Lady Bird Lake
Lady Bird lake makes Austin unique, in that it’s a huge reservoir right in the city’s center. I’d never seen a lake so close to a city’s downtown area before!
While there’s no swimming allowed, you can go kayaking or paddleboarding, and there’s a surprising variety of fish species that you can catch!
The surrounding forests and over-the-water bridges make Lady Bird lake a perfect place to hike, and we spent a little while walking along the shaded trails.
Lucy in Disguise
I would never have found this place on my own, but my friend knew just the place to find a fix of Austin weirdness. It’s a costume shop called ‘Lucy in Disguise (with diamonds)’!
Good lordy, if only I could show you all the wall to wall cacophony of costumes and questionable smells that reside in this store! Sadly, they had a very strict no-photo rule.
So I’ll just have to be descriptive.
Lucy’s had every kind of costume you could possibly need, from Party City halloween costumes, to what could have been an outfit on Cirque de Soleil.
The real showstopper, however, was the shelf that ran along the wall just below the ceiling. This shelf held mascot heads of all kinds and in varying stages of life. As someone who’s never really enjoyed being around masked characters, I was held in a constant state of wary intrigue for the duration of our visit.
I realize as I’m reading back over this that maybe I’m not being very fair. The prices for costumes are reasonable, the staff is friendly, and the whole place is well organized. I really do think it was just the mascot heads that put me off.
Boot Store
What do you call a shoe cobbler that cobbles cowboy boots?
A cowboybbler? No? Yes? I don’t know.
Anyways, further down the street, there was a shop that made and sold authentic Texan cowboy boots. And I wanted to try them on.
So we walked in, and I ran down the aisles, looking for a pair that I liked so that I could stomp around like a dumb*** for a minute and then leave.
What I learned is that cowboy boots have this toe-thing where once you put them on, it’s really tough to take them off.
So I’d found a really pretty pair of boots with pink and yellow flowers on them, but I hadn’t put my ankles in all the way because I was afraid of getting my sasquatch feet stuck inside. I’d texted my friend to come take a picture of me so that we could leave, when I hear a voice with a deep southern drawl ask:
“How are ya’ today?”
My heart stopped pumping blood and I was very scared.
I look up to see a very tall, very handsome cowboy-man-employee looking at me friendly-ly.
“Prettygoodthanks!” Is what I probably replied.
He then struck up a friendly conversation, asking what kind of boots I was looking for and why I came into buy them.
I don’t know if he could tell how nervous I was, but my stupid brain was trying to figure out how to tell this guy that I had no intention of buying these $300 boots, and that I just wanted to gallop around the store in them like a jack***.
So I meekly admitted: “I….just….wanted..to….try…them.on?”
I may be dumb but I am not a liar!!
Despite how unbelievably uncomfortable I’d made the situation, the cowboy-man-employee was nothing but kind, and he even helped me put on the boots and take them off!
After that, my friend showed up, and I ran out of the store (sans boots).
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So that was my wonderful visit to Austin, Texas, and and the last stop on our Texas road trip!
If you want to see my previous journal entries from this trip in San Antonio and Dallas, just click on those cities because I finally figured out how to do internal links!
And if you’re super sad that this trip is over, then don’t be!!!
I’m actually leaving for my study abroad in just a few short days, so be on the look out for a packing guide and some fun new posts!
See ya then!
~WTB