Though that may have changed since last I was there.
Austin’s ten thousand reasons in itself to visit Texas. The Hill Country is absolutely gorgeous in the spring when all the flowers bloom, and it’s got this kind of weird beauty in the middle of the summer.
You can’t see much of Austin from the air. You can see downtown, more or less, but the rest of the city’s more or less hidden under all the trees.
Traffic’s bad, but not much worse than anywhere else. I just deleted a rant about Austin streets, esp. during rush hour, but I’ll only give you that one on request. It’s pretty funny, though, and any Austinite or former Austinite can back me up.
The city’s kind of divided between the tech industry and the old hippy/student population. There’s yuppies in Westlake (riiiich yuppies, mostly), there’s freaks and artists in South Austin, there’s speckles of student and art communities and sweet old neighborhoods all amongst the barrio in East and Southeast Austin, there’s downtown (Sixth Street! Live music everywhere!), the university district (Parties every night, if you like that sort of thing), and then “Silicon Hills” in the northwest, where I live.
The community itself is hard to describe. You’ve got to come see it.
I guess if I were forced to live elsewhere in Texas, I might live in the university area of Houston or the really old 'n pretty part of Dallas. Hopefully, I will never have to make that choice.
I will admit that for a lot of Texans, anything north or west of Austin is No Man’s Land. There are a lot of backwards folk up there. I should know; I’m related to some of 'em.
That’s also where you find the admittedly grating Cut-It-Like-Butter “Texas Drawl” so many people expect. Hell, I’m not gonna lie; I find it freakin’ annoying and these are my relatives. We stopped for directions to a cousin’s wedding once in Lubbock, and I’ll never forget this phrase:
“Eef yew git paist McDawnauld’s, yew’ve gown tew fawer.”
I only do the Texas drawl when I’m tipsy (since I’ve lived in Dallas all my life, I guess I’ve mixed in other accents, so mine is not too bad, as Texas drawls go. And, what the heck, I find the drawl sort of sexy). And, CRorex - yes, there’s some racism here, I’ve commented on that fact in other threads, and no, I don’t know when the situation will improve. Dallas’ most affluent neighborhood welcomed the first black homeowners with a front-page “Guess who’s coming to the neighborhood? And they’re staying for dinner.” article in the local newspaper. I don’t think it was intented to be racist, but it sure sounded that way…I can provide cites if you want.
Heat, heat – I am dying. It’s about 95 degrees at almost 8 pm. How inhumane is that??
Dallas dopers, watch out for those drunk drivers this weekend. My hubby (fireman/paramedic) is going to be scraping some of y’all off the highways and streets this weekend, sad to say.
