Not-so Kinky Boots

Sixth Street Austin

...and a good time was had by all.

My young lady friend and I had a great time last weekend and I learned another lesson.  I learned that while it is great to visit some places, there is no place like home.  Pure and simple.

Austin is a great city.  The two of us roamed the South Congress area and 6th Street.  There were a lot of great vintage shops to peruse, music to listen to and places to eat.  The Young Lady also noticed that there are a lot more people wearing cowboy boots in Austin than they do in Houston.  I casually confirmed that notion on the theory that Houston is a much more cosmopolitan city than Austin.

So yes, Austin is a great place to visit but I do believe that I would rather live in Houston for one very important reason - breadth of activities.  You see,  I could definitely see enjoying "the weirdness" of Austin but I do believe that I would run out of things to do before long or end up in a rut of doing the same thing over and over.  Here in the Bayou City, there is such a laundry list of constantly changing thing to do.  Austin has South by Southwest, but Houston has so many more things.  Anyway, I'll stay here.

Next up was going with the Young Lady to see Kinky Boots at the Theater Under the Stars (TUTS).  Once again, the venue was gorgeous.  The Young Lady and I were a bit tired after two days of walking and making the three hour drive earlier in the day but the thought of relaxing at a broadway musical sounded great.

My review of Kinky Boots..."Meh" (shrugging shoulders).  You could recite what was going to happen three minutes into the show and while Cindi Lauper's score was good, it was much like her pop career and you could not remember any song ten minutes after you left the building.  Nothing stuck.  You enjoyed it while listening to it, but...

Anyway, a great (and much needed) weekend with the Young Lady.  I do miss her and can't wait to see her again.

Sunshine on my shoulder and Austin on my mind

Okay... it is February 12th and it is going to be 65 degrees today.  I know that this hackneyed explorer has said this type of thing before, but I still cannot quite grasp it.  It is going to be 65 degrees in the middle of February!  It is 17 degrees today where I grew up...

Lord how I love this place!

Anyhoo, I am also getting very excited because next weekend I will be making my first trek into the city of Austin.  My very special friend is flying in to Houston as a belated birthday present and we will discover the state capitol (supposedly there is music there...).  I have been scoping out the places to visit on Sixth Street and also on South Congress street.  I have no idea what we will find, but I know that we will have a ball.  The two of us have been in a blues mood lately so that will be the focus.

What we have a tendency to do is to map out and plan to visit a few places which gives us a battle plan.  Then, once we get there we have the total freedom to throw everything to the wind and wander.  I believe that the mapping give us something to fall back on if our wandering needs help.  It really is a great way to explore.

Now... I want to go walk around outside.  This weather is gorgeous!

A familiar itch...

Wanted.  One traveling companion to visit San Antonio for a day (or weekend)... or it could be Austin... or the wine country... maybe even Dallas... Nah, never mind... not Dallas.

The point is, I have that ever-so-familiar itch to hit the road and do a little exploring.  Which brings us to another wonderful point about living in Houston.  There are some wonderful places to travel to that are not that far out of reach.  San Antonio and Austin are about three hours away.  Add an hour from Austin to be in the "Hill Country" (although that is really a misnomer - the land is "wavy" not "hilly").  There are so many places to gravitate to that it can be wonderful.  For that matter New Orleans is only six hours.

So I have the itch.  Not sure if it will be this weekend or the next, but the road calls out to me.  It would really be nice to have someone tag along.

But hey, you have to buy your own drinks...