The Colorado River used to run through the center of Austin. A city map suggests a river runs through the center of town, but (according to the locals) it doesn't. Hmmm. The quandary is resolved by calling what used to be the Colorado River a series of seven manmade lakes. In the Austin area, the Colorado River is well dammed. Though the locals may not agree, we thought the city layout was well-planned. There are major highways running north/south and east/west across the city. Even though we sometimes drove during rush-hour, traffic never seemed too bad.

The Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum. Note the Texas flag flying at half mast.

Our first day touring sites in Austin started on the campus of the University of Texas. The most visited of the ten presidential libraries (and the first we've visited), the Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum, is a massive, near windowless cube of stone located on campus near the football field. The library houses 45 million pages of documents, but we didn't seek nary a one. The exhibits were surprisingly good. There were large photos and displays to set the context of LBJ's childhood and world events as he became a Representative than Senator, a section devoted to the assassination of John Kennedy, displays setting the context of LBJ's presidency, and a section on his presidency. There was also a First Lady gallery (yawn) of Lady Bird. The museum includes an animatronic figure of LBJ spinning his down home humor, his presidential limousine, a replica of the Oval Office, gifts to the Johnsons from Americans and heads of state, a moon rock, and a cool large photo engraved magnesium mural. Though he was a hardball playing "bastard" (as Kennedy referred to him), for good and bad, he helped drive some of the most far-reaching legislation. Johnson and the Congress took advantage of JFK assassination sympathy to pass laws to end discrimination, fight poverty, extend educational opportunities, safeguard clean air and water, and preserve and protect the natural beauty of the land.

Curt and Eric standing by the photo engraved magnesium mural.

Flags on campus were flying at half-mast in honor of the twelve Texas A&M students who died during the previous week while building a sixty foot high stack of wood for a bonfire in preparation for their rivalry game with UT.

From LBJ, we made the short drive to the UT campus bell tower, site of the 1966 sniper shootings. We learned we needed reservations to go up the tower as all tours are one hour and guided. The next tour would not leave for nearly an hour so we decided against spending two hours on the tower at this time. Curt would return later to ascend it.

After a delicious lunch just off campus at Veggie Heaven (their menu includes color photographs of all the meal selections), we visited the nearby Capital building.

When the Texas State Capitol was built in 1888, it was the seventh largest building in the world. At 311 feet it is the tallest of all state capitals. Made of Texas Sunset Red granite it has a large, beautiful rotunda with a dome sitting 218 feet above it. Atop the dome stands a statue of the Goddess of Liberty. We wandered the halls and chambers of the Capitol, preferring freelancing to a guided tour (as a result we missed the underground portion of the tour). An interesting aspect of Texas history is prominently displayed on the rotunda's floor. On it are six national seals representing the six countries that at some time claimed national sovereignty over Texas land. The six, in chronological order, are Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America. Most prominently displayed of these seals? The Republic of Texas.

The dome from within the Capital.	The floor of the rotunda and the six seals of the Texas nations with Curt standing on the seal of The Republic of Texas.

The Capitol grounds are well-kept and attractive. There are shiny brass cannons, early 20th century street lights, and grassy hills perfect for rolling down (if you can take the spinning). Eric rolled a dozen times, Missy once (and regretted it), and Curt just filmed the hijinks.

Eric rolling down a grassy hill on the Capital grounds.

We next drove to Zilker Park and visited The Austin Nature and Science Center. The Center is an animal reserve that houses injured, orphaned, or illegally held wildlife that can't safely be returned to the wild. We saw a fox, raccoon, skunk, vultures, hawks, eagles, and owls among other animals. (It was feeding time for the vultures so we watched a little as one tore a rat apart to get at the juicy entrails. We witnessed the gore of eating as a true carnivore.) Zilker Park includes Barton Springs, a spring fed 1000 foot long swimming pool. As the air was a very pleasant 70+ degrees, a dip in the 60+ degree water would have been a little chilling. We passed on that and instead did some walking (Missy and Curt) and rollerblading (Eric) on some of Zilker's crowded running/walking/biking/jogging/skating trails.

As dusk approached, we sought out one last tourist attraction, the Congress Avenue Bridge bats. During the spring, summer, and early fall some 1.5 million Mexican Free-tailed bats reside in crevices beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge. When they swarm out they can darken the sky for 45 minutes. When they eat, they consume 10-15 tons of insects in a night (mostly mosquitoes and crop damaging moths). Unfortunately for us, by late November, only a small colony remained. As we parked near the bridge, we noticed large flocks of birds (about the size of robins). We guessed the birds were taking advantage of the absence of the bats to collect some of that 10-15 tons of insects.

We gathered with about 100 other people on the grass beneath the bridge. We could hear the squeaking of the bats but could not see them through the darkness. We could also smell their guano. How much dung do 1.5 million bats generate? We waited nearly thirty minutes past their expected departure time but the bats stayed put. (They don't seek out food every night). The crowd broke up and we exited by walking under the bridge--challenging our noses and risking our hair and shoulders.

The following day (Monday, 11/22/99), Missy and Eric visited the Austin Zoo while Curt worked. It is a typical old zoo with small cages for the animals. That made it depressing, but seeing the animals was enjoyable--though there wasn't a wide variety of species (farm animals, monkeys, big cats, deer). The monkeys were very playful and active. We caught them around feeding time and watched them for an hour. They were being fed bananas. One monkey did not want to get his hands messy, so the zoo keeper had to hold the banana for him and keep the other monkeys from eating it. Another monkey played with a cup; wearing it on his head or carrying it with his tail as he climbed. The baboon we would not want to mess with. He had chewed a hole in the tire that hung in his cage.

The tigers were sharing time in their cage with an 8 month old female cougar that was brought in at 10:00 that morning. The cougar had been confiscated for the 3rd time from the same family. She was found malnourished, walking on a busy road dragging an 8 foot chain. The family keeping her would only feed her 2 chicken necks in the morning and evening - not near enough in quantity nor nutritional content for a growing cougar. Not a good mix, a hungry cougar roaming the streets! Hopefully this time she will stay with the zoo rather than going back to the family. She had just been neutered and they were trying to get the tigers and cougar used to each other. The tigers were wound up and excited about their new mate. We talked with a zoo caregiver for a while. She was a very loving woman and clearly cared for these animals.

We talked with her about the lions. One of the male lions had only recently been brought to the zoo, again from a local family. This lion did not receive an appropriate diet and as a result his bones were weak--he crushed his foot just by rolling over. A pin was inserted and he was neutered so that he would not fight with the other male already in the cage. During his healing he was placed in a small cage for several weeks, and may remain there several more weeks. Emasculated, he has lost his mane along with his desire to fight.

On Tuesday, Missy and Eric experienced the Austin Children's Museum. The Children's Museum is sponsored (owned?) by the Austin-based Dell corporation. It's nice and not unlike Playspace in Raleigh. Eric enjoyed the puzzles and brain teasers--he had success with them. He also enjoyed the baby/birthing section, a four foot high light brite, a pretend VW bug you could drive, a kid-sized kitchen, a cove that acted as a bats' cave with a bar on which you could hang, and the craft area. He made several small treasures that we brought back to share with Curt.

The last full day Missy and Eric were in town, Curt and Eric gave her the present of some time alone (it would be her last such time for weeks) as they returned to the U of T campus to visit the Texas Memorial Museum. This lightly attended lightly maintained museum was of mild interest. The stuffed and mounted Texas wildlife exhibits were dusty and unappealing, but the dinosaur fossils (they all seemed to have been found in Texas), gem collection, and American Indian culture dioramas and artifacts were attention grabbers. We especially liked the Apache deck of playing cards and the prehistoric armadillo shell the size of a small car.

The final Austin tour day occurred after Missy and Eric had returned

A view from the top of the University of Texas in Austin belltower.

to North Carolina. Curt and co-worker Ramesh Somisetty made it to the top of the University of Texas Tower. We were fortunate to be able to do so. The Tower had been closed to visitors for twenty-five years and had just opened in September. Reservations were needed and they were booked two months ahead. We got in because we arrived at the Tower just before a tour group left. We dashed to the ticket booth (a block away) and bought a couple of tickets set aside for people who didn't show up. We dashed back to the Tower and got in line just as the people in it passed through the metal detectors.

To reach the platform atop the tower, we rode an elevator 27 floors then ascended two flights of stairs. The view of the campus and Austin is marvelous! It was interesting that the tour guides gave the statistics of the building (when it was built, how tall it is, blah-blah), but didn't say anything about Charles Whittman, the sniper who shot 45 people from atop the tower in 1966. We overheard many of the visitors to the tower talking amongst themselves about the shootings and a couple (including us) asked the guides specifically about them. The guides weren't very well-informed (they were UT students without a personal history of the shootings and they hadn't done research on the event). The platform from which Whittman fired is well-protected; small wonder he lasted an hour and a half (until a policeman went up the tower, got past his barricade, and gunned him down). Today the platform is enclosed in metal bars. The reason for the bars is related to the reason the tower was closed for twenty-five years, which is only indirectly (if at all) related to the Whittman shootings. A few years after the shootings, within a relatively short time period, nine UT students committed suicide by jumping from the tower. That's what led to the tower being closed despite the outcry of alumni.

No, your eyes don't deceive you. That is the famous "Cadmium Red Over Black" painting. (So titled to reduce the risk of its being hung an unintended way.)

After a delicious and satisfying Indian (India Indian not woo-woo Indian) buffet lunch, Ramesh and Curt turned their attention to a campus art museum. The day before we visited an art museum in Fort Worth; Ramesh's first visit to an art museum and he enjoyed it immensely. The Harry R. Ransom Center contains the world's first photograph (kept in a darkened room, it is nearly unrecognizable as a photo even though a computer enhanced image helps direct one's eyes), a Gutenberg Bible, and the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art's permanent collection. The art collection had some joke pieces (big blobs of color on canvases or twisted pieces of metal that show no time or energy investment, talent or creativity), some beautiful pieces (including works by Remmington), and cast replicas of Greek and Roman statues from the Louvre. Museums that show both modern (non-)art and art of a universal quality (from ancient to contemporary) do a wonderful service for the visitor. It reveals the blobby, twisted stuff as the junk it is. Just because an object is exhibited in an art museum does not make it art any more than making noise with a musical instrument makes it music. Ramesh, coming from a different culture and largely ignorant of western art, found the "interpretive needing" art crappy if not insulting while he enjoyed the pieces of western art that don't need an explanation.

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