What Makes You Proud To Live in Austin and Would Show Off to Visitors? (Canyon Lake: credit, neighborhoods)

[impulsivetravelerguy]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

I'd like to know where he went to see modern(Domain, perhaps??? ) and clean. He surely didn't drive up Airport from the airport or Manor Rd into town or N Lamar for nearly its full length or...

I drove them around pretty much everywhere. Compared to cities like Chicago, Austin is very clean. There's also a lot more trees and it doesn't have as much of a crowded big city look to it. Sure there are bad areas, but every city has them overall. In the whole scheme of things, Austin is a pretty good city overall.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Imagine how nice it would look if the CoA would make sure the medians and roadsides get mowed more than once a decade(yep, could be city, TXDot, private; but only the private roads are usually kept anywhere near attractive).

I'd like to know where he went to see modern(Domain, perhaps??? ) and clean. He surely didn't drive up Airport from the airport or Manor Rd into town or N Lamar for nearly its full length or...

Around the Domain or near Barton Springs or Hyde Park, Austin can be nice or "charming". Downtown is starting to look razzle/dazzle. The Hill Country is pretty, in a Texas kind of way.

However, the vast portion of Austin is still butt ugly. Drive up N. Lamar or Burnett and it's the fugliest place you've ever seen. Also, the unkempt medians are really nasty looking and trash strewn. Then when they finally mow the median, there is just ground up litter.

That being said, Austin is on the rise. Vast portions look much better than they did. Unfortunately that came at a cost. Some of those fugly places were great dive bars and holes in the wall that added to the vibe of the place.

The people, the festivals, the vibe, and the great TexMex and BBQ. That's what Austin is about.

[coachtaylor]

I love Austin and love having people visit. What I'd do with them depends on the people.

For families with little kids, I show off my neighborhood, Mueller. Thinkery, playground, Lick ice cream, Sunday farmers market, walk around the lake, ideally we'd do a movie or concert in the park. Sometimes live kids music at Cherrywood Coffeehouse on Sundays.

For bachelor/bachelorette-type weekends, Barton Springs, boat on Lake Travis, Jacoby's/Tillery for dinner, Whisler for drinks, Rainey St. or 6th St.

For people from Dallas, I like to drive them around to see some of the hills. Eat at County Line.

For friends visiting from NYC, they're just really impressed by our laundry closet and dishwasher. :-)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by impulsivetravelerguy

And even though many people say, "Austin is not Texas" there's a lot of Texas influence here.

Only clueless people with stereotype blinders on desperately trying to stereotype a state of 28,000,000 and counting covering 268,597 sq. miles say "Austin is not Texas". Austin is ABSOLUTELY Texas, as is Houston, as is San Antonio, as is Fort Worth, as is Dallas, as is El Paso, as is the Valley, as are all the little towns and ranches (which are very different from what people who like to stereotype think they, as are their people), as are the forest and plains and coastal areas and mountains and on and on.

The comments above about Austin being Jack of all trades, master of none and a combination of different kinds of people representing all the different parts of the state all working together to make a great place to live is something that makes it the epitome of Texas. Or did, anyway. Unfortunately, that's hard to show in one visit.

Things to show a visitor.

Zilker Park/Barton Springs Pool/Zilker Botanical Gardens.

Restaurants - I prefer not to go to the "in" places and go to those that have stood the test of time or that are little places that a visitor wouldn't be likely to find in a Visitor's Guide - Azul Tequila, Taqueria Guadalajara Arandas on Burnet Road, Stiles Switch BBQ (now that one does appear in Visitor's Guides, I believe) or a trip to Taylor to Taylor Cafe or Mueller's (again, that one appears in Visitor's Guides), maybe The Hollow in Georgetown or Mouton's Southern Bistro in Leander, Dale's Essenhaus in Walburg, to name a few. Not all in Austin but part of the Austin family, in other words.

Check out what festivals are in the area when your guests are here and pick one. Heck, throw a rock and pick one.

Go to the lake. (Which lake? Pick one - or two. Hike around Lake Georgetown.)

Take them to one or more of the numerous parks in the area.

What do they, and you, like to do? That really should be the first question, then show them how Austin does that.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by cBach

Around the Domain or near Barton Springs or Hyde Park, Austin can be nice or "charming". Downtown is starting to look razzle/dazzle. The Hill Country is pretty, in a Texas kind of way.

However, the vast portion of Austin is still butt ugly. Drive up N. Lamar or Burnett and it's the fugliest place you've ever seen. Also, the unkempt medians are really nasty looking and trash strewn. Then when they finally mow the median, there is just ground up litter.

That being said, Austin is on the rise. Vast portions look much better than they did. Unfortunately that came at a cost. Some of those fugly places were great dive bars and holes in the wall that added to the vibe of the place.

The people, the festivals, the vibe, and the great TexMex and BBQ. That's what Austin is about.

Funniest thing, I've had more than one client moving here from out of state noticing the lack of mowing in certain times of the year and being very impressed that we care enough about our wildflowers to let the grass grow until they have finished seeding, thus saving the cost of having to seed them every year and not being uptight about everything having to be mowed to within an inch of its life.

[centralaustinite]

Honestly, it is the mowed within an inch of its life, master-planned community look that I dislike!

[impulsivetravelerguy]

Originally Posted by cBach

Around the Domain or near Barton Springs or Hyde Park, Austin can be nice or "charming". Downtown is starting to look razzle/dazzle. The Hill Country is pretty, in a Texas kind of way.

However, the vast portion of Austin is still butt ugly. Drive up N. Lamar or Burnett and it's the fugliest place you've ever seen. Also, the unkempt medians are really nasty looking and trash strewn. Then when they finally mow the median, there is just ground up litter.

That being said, Austin is on the rise. Vast portions look much better than they did. Unfortunately that came at a cost. Some of those fugly places were great dive bars and holes in the wall that added to the vibe of the place.

The people, the festivals, the vibe, and the great TexMex and BBQ. That's what Austin is about.

I didn't start blogging until I had been here close to a year, but I really wish I could have captured some of the upcoming stuff. I've been here 3.5 years and there have been so many changes. I do agree there's less than desirable places in Austin, but every city has them. I do like how things are cleaning up, but yeah the cost of living is starting to increase pretty fast.

Originally Posted by coachtaylor

I love Austin and love having people visit. What I'd do with them depends on the people.

For families with little kids, I show off my neighborhood, Mueller. Thinkery, playground, Lick ice cream, Sunday farmers market, walk around the lake, ideally we'd do a movie or concert in the park. Sometimes live kids music at Cherrywood Coffeehouse on Sundays.

There's definitely a ton of that and I notice there's a lot of good free stuff to visit.

For bachelor/bachelorette-type weekends, Barton Springs, boat on Lake Travis, Jacoby's/Tillery for dinner, Whisler for drinks, Rainey St. or 6th St.

I'll have to check a few of these things out. I've been known to party hard and am in my late 20's, so checking out these places would be awesome to blog about. I've been down 6th St. and Rainey St. but not a lot, so I'll definitely have to start exploring a bit more.

For people from Dallas, I like to drive them around to see some of the hills. Eat at County Line.

Hill Country is great! I love taking 2222 to its end and then driving around the dam. There's some really good scenery there. I need to go through there soon and catch it with my dash cam.

For friends visiting from NYC, they're just really impressed by our laundry closet and dishwasher. :-)

Haha. I'm sure they're wondering if there's 3-4 people living in it.

[hornraider]

If they are from the west coast, I would take them for some BBQ and real 'Texas' type stuff. They like seem to like that. The hill county doesn't do much for them IME. The 1st time my dad came out to visit, I took him to Fredricksburg. He asks me when we are going to see the hill country? 😩
I told him, "You're in the middle of it dad!"

[impulsivetravelerguy]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

The comments above about Austin being Jack of all trades, master of none and a combination of different kinds of people representing all the different parts of the state all working together to make a great place to live is something that makes it the epitome of Texas. Or did, anyway. Unfortunately, that's hard to show in one visit.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I know it would be hard to show it all in one visit to a visitor. Hopefully, I can take everything that people would show to visitors and then portray it in my blog so it can be a virtual visit.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Funniest thing, I've had more than one client moving here from out of state noticing the lack of mowing in certain times of the year and being very impressed that we care enough about our wildflowers to let the grass grow until they have finished seeding, thus saving the cost of having to seed them every year and not being uptight about everything having to be mowed to within an inch of its life.

i like the not mowing too. especially the tall native grasses that are about a foot tall.