Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Remembering the Alamo
Dear Mike,
Our day-trip to San Antonio made us want Greensboro to have a river running through its center. First of all, did you know that the Alamo is right in the middle of downtown? I didn't, and I found it quite strange to see a 150 year old structure right across the street from a Ripley's Believe It or Not, and a giant orange abstract sculpture. We checked it out and learned about it's history, though inside the actual sanctuary we were merely sardines pushed in a shuffling counter-clockwise direction. It felt very much like when you go to see a famous building in Europe, and everyone is moving in the same direction but hardly paying attention to anything. The history of the Alamo is compelling, though, and we will always remember.
After that, we hiked about a mile and a half to the Tower of the Americas. This tower, built in 1968 for the Worlds Fair, is Texas's "space needle". We rode up the glass elevator to the incredibly windy observation deck. There, we got a view of the entire city and were able to rest for a while. The bottom of the tower also features a "4D" movie called The Skies over Texas. If you are not familiar with 4D, it is a 3D movie and the fourth dimension is when your seats move with it. So you get the feeling of a bull poking you in the back or the spray of a rattlesnake hissing. All good fun.
By then, it was dinner time, so we headed to Casa Rio for Tex Mex on the river. The place was packed and while we were waiting, we met a family from Amarillo. At one point the dad began telling us how at a waterpark earlier in the trip he had seen "those muslims with the towels on their heads." He said he was fuming mad when he saw them and that he didn't understand why people would "want to murder other people." Then, within a minute he was telling us that we should have a pistol with us on the trip and "if anyone did anything funny..." he followed that statement by raising his hand like a gun and pointed it at me, making a shooting sound. We didn't really know what to say to all this, so we just nodded, slightly slackjawed.
The meal was great, and pretty cheap, too. I had an Alamo golden ale, a local brew, since I had not forgotten about what we saw earlier in the day. We finished the night heading back to Shrimpy while dodging "displaced individuals" that wanted to "ask us a question". Got back to Austin safe and sound.
Next post we'll wrap up Austin, which will include an epic swimming hole, a sweet movie theater and a creepy animatronic LBJ.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Our day-trip to San Antonio made us want Greensboro to have a river running through its center. First of all, did you know that the Alamo is right in the middle of downtown? I didn't, and I found it quite strange to see a 150 year old structure right across the street from a Ripley's Believe It or Not, and a giant orange abstract sculpture. We checked it out and learned about it's history, though inside the actual sanctuary we were merely sardines pushed in a shuffling counter-clockwise direction. It felt very much like when you go to see a famous building in Europe, and everyone is moving in the same direction but hardly paying attention to anything. The history of the Alamo is compelling, though, and we will always remember.
After that, we hiked about a mile and a half to the Tower of the Americas. This tower, built in 1968 for the Worlds Fair, is Texas's "space needle". We rode up the glass elevator to the incredibly windy observation deck. There, we got a view of the entire city and were able to rest for a while. The bottom of the tower also features a "4D" movie called The Skies over Texas. If you are not familiar with 4D, it is a 3D movie and the fourth dimension is when your seats move with it. So you get the feeling of a bull poking you in the back or the spray of a rattlesnake hissing. All good fun.
By then, it was dinner time, so we headed to Casa Rio for Tex Mex on the river. The place was packed and while we were waiting, we met a family from Amarillo. At one point the dad began telling us how at a waterpark earlier in the trip he had seen "those muslims with the towels on their heads." He said he was fuming mad when he saw them and that he didn't understand why people would "want to murder other people." Then, within a minute he was telling us that we should have a pistol with us on the trip and "if anyone did anything funny..." he followed that statement by raising his hand like a gun and pointed it at me, making a shooting sound. We didn't really know what to say to all this, so we just nodded, slightly slackjawed.
The meal was great, and pretty cheap, too. I had an Alamo golden ale, a local brew, since I had not forgotten about what we saw earlier in the day. We finished the night heading back to Shrimpy while dodging "displaced individuals" that wanted to "ask us a question". Got back to Austin safe and sound.
Next post we'll wrap up Austin, which will include an epic swimming hole, a sweet movie theater and a creepy animatronic LBJ.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Austin City Limits (part I)
Dear Mike,
If Texas were a sea of cowboys and pickup trucks, gators, bulls and ranches, then Austin would be a tiny island of liberal hipsterdom. We stayed 5 nights and about 4 full days there with Peter, a friend from Japan.
We started out the first day with a bang. We took the bus down South Congress to a little neighborhood where a man has erected a shrine in his backyard called "The Cathedral of Junk". Imagine if Elsewhere had a welder and then got kicked out into the suburbs. The guy was nice and let us climb to the top of the tower. Here are some shots of the place.
Afterwards, we worked our way back down Congress Blvd, and checked out all the antique shops along the way. There was pretty much everything from taxidermy rams heads, to jewelry, to old watch parts, to giant vintage lightbulbs. "Uncommon Objects" is pretty much the antique Mecca on congress and they set up all their wares in little vignettes of color all around the shop.
Then we headed downtown, had a few margaritas, and checked out "The Museum of the Weird", which is really just a cheap souvenir shop with a curtain in the back. They have silly things like a fish with fur on it, the Fiji Mermaid, two headed chickens and the like. I opted for an additional tarot reading by a kid dressed right out of the movie Swingers. He said a lot of things, but none of it really seemed cohesive. If you go there, I wouldn't recommend getting it done.
After that we rushed back to the bridge running throughout downtown to watch the grand exodus of bats at twilight. Austin is home to one of the largest urban populations of bats in the United States. It was not disappointing. I'll post a video of that right after this post. The one thing that struck me about them was the strong smell. The little girl next to us thought that they smelled like a copy machine.
As we returned back to Peter's neighborhood, we checked out a sweet toy shop called "Toy Joy". You would like it. They sell everything from 20 sided dice to hello kitty, to Double Bananagrams. We thought that you would like the latter.
We finished off the night by heading to Conan's Pizza which is, in fact, referencing Conan the Barbarian. Their specialty is deep-dish pizza served with a side of Conan comics. If you ever go there, choose extra garlic as one of the toppings you won't regret it.
That's all for now. We'll let you know know more about Austin after we blog on San Antonio.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
If Texas were a sea of cowboys and pickup trucks, gators, bulls and ranches, then Austin would be a tiny island of liberal hipsterdom. We stayed 5 nights and about 4 full days there with Peter, a friend from Japan.
We started out the first day with a bang. We took the bus down South Congress to a little neighborhood where a man has erected a shrine in his backyard called "The Cathedral of Junk". Imagine if Elsewhere had a welder and then got kicked out into the suburbs. The guy was nice and let us climb to the top of the tower. Here are some shots of the place.
Afterwards, we worked our way back down Congress Blvd, and checked out all the antique shops along the way. There was pretty much everything from taxidermy rams heads, to jewelry, to old watch parts, to giant vintage lightbulbs. "Uncommon Objects" is pretty much the antique Mecca on congress and they set up all their wares in little vignettes of color all around the shop.
Then we headed downtown, had a few margaritas, and checked out "The Museum of the Weird", which is really just a cheap souvenir shop with a curtain in the back. They have silly things like a fish with fur on it, the Fiji Mermaid, two headed chickens and the like. I opted for an additional tarot reading by a kid dressed right out of the movie Swingers. He said a lot of things, but none of it really seemed cohesive. If you go there, I wouldn't recommend getting it done.
After that we rushed back to the bridge running throughout downtown to watch the grand exodus of bats at twilight. Austin is home to one of the largest urban populations of bats in the United States. It was not disappointing. I'll post a video of that right after this post. The one thing that struck me about them was the strong smell. The little girl next to us thought that they smelled like a copy machine.
As we returned back to Peter's neighborhood, we checked out a sweet toy shop called "Toy Joy". You would like it. They sell everything from 20 sided dice to hello kitty, to Double Bananagrams. We thought that you would like the latter.
We finished off the night by heading to Conan's Pizza which is, in fact, referencing Conan the Barbarian. Their specialty is deep-dish pizza served with a side of Conan comics. If you ever go there, choose extra garlic as one of the toppings you won't regret it.
That's all for now. We'll let you know know more about Austin after we blog on San Antonio.
~Mario
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, June 25, 2011
The Big Easy
New Orleans kind of started off a little rocky. Mario turned the wrong way onto a one way street, I developed an irrational fear of alligators, and we almost had heat strokes in our tent over night.
After our dramatic evening of camping we decided to head into the French Quarter to find a hotel and see the sights. We found a great deal at the St. Charles Inn Best Western a block off of Canal Street, unloaded Shrimpy, and headed out to explore.
We stopped at The Market Cafe for a shrimp po'boy, gumbo, and Cajun music. The gumbo was great, but neither of us loved the po'boy. (Imagine Libby Hill popcorn shrimp on a subway roll.) We browsed through a few stores including a voodoo shop and a calligraphy specialty store. Mario, of course, loved the calligraphy shop, Papier Plume, and loaded up on extra flexible Copperplate and Spencerian nibs and ink. All of this shopping made us very thirsty so we stopped at Pat O'Brien's. Back in the day, blind tigers would only sell a bottle of whiskey if an establishment would buy 20 bottles of rum in addition. What to do with all the extra rum? Add a special flavor mix and serve in a glass shaped like a hurricane lamp. After sampling the famous "Hurricane" drink from a sweet senior citizen I decided I better stick to a strawberry daiquiri. The "Hurricane" has four shots of rum and I didn't think being drunk at 3 in the afternoon would be appropriate (I know, I'm lame). Mario discovered his new favorite drink, the mint julep. After drinking our (while strolling through more shops...I like being able to take a to go beverage) we headed back to the hotel to relax.
After a nap, an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond", and "King of Queens", our evening began with a dozen oysters at Felix's Oyster Bar. This place was pretty great. We didn't have to wait for a table, our server mixed up her special sauce for us, and the oysters were delicious. They shuck them at the bar right in front of you. Right before leaving an honest to God pirate walked in and started eating oysters on the half shell. Peg leg? Check. Bald head? Check. Eyepatch? Check.
Next we took a ride on the St. Charles streetcar, which is the oldest continuously operating streetcar in the world. It took us from the heart of the French Quarter to the Garden District. It was a fun and inexpensive way to see the city. We even had the pleasure of sitting by a stripper in her "by-day" clothes on her way to the club. Playboy t-shirt? Check. Shorts with tube socks and white sneakers? Check. Large boyfriend bouncer wearing a polo with the strip club's name? Check.
We ended the night at Cafe Maspero with $11 steak and $1 daiquiris. We thought we were getting a great deal until we noticed roaches on our way out the door. We chose to believe that the roaches just stopped in for a short visit. They definitely weren't in the kitchen in our food.
Overall, we really enjoyed New Orleans. I'm not sure that either of us have the desire to go to Mardi Gras (because we're old and lame), but I could see us visiting again, maybe in the spring or fall when it's not quite so hot.
Love, Kristen & Mario
p.s. I saw a train on our last morning in New Orleans. It was pretty sweet.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:New Orleans, LA
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