I'm spending next week in Tejas, I lived in Houston twenty years ago and now I get to go back to the Lone Star State for a visit.
Any suggestions on what to do or see while my wife is attending the "National Oak Wilt Symposium" in Austin?

TIA

Yes bring your rifle and book an exotic game hunt on a local ranch. The YO ranch is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Austin. I understand you do not need a state issued hunting license for exotic game on private land. It's worth looking into. R.

Go to Cabelas in Buda and spend the day ogling all the rifles in the Fine Gun Room.

Go downtown, find a pub, cold a cold Shiner Bock and listen to some good country music.
Austin has a fairly happening entertainment scene and right now is probably a good time to go because the college has let out for the summer and the hoard of drunk UT students has probably diminished from what it was a few weeks ago. You can also tour the Statehouse and generally wander around. Austin kind of a neat place; I've never been bored there the few times I've been.

Of course, the National Oak Wilt Symposium doesn't sound like a terrible idea. So long as they have comfortable chairs, I think a man could get some quality sleep accomplished there!

Lots of things to do. Which and what order depends on your personal preferences.

The Bob Bullock State History Museum (MLK & Congress, 4 blocks north of the Capitol) has excellent exhibits and is currently showing a 3-D film on the Okavango Delta in their I-Max theater.

The Texas Capitol Building itself is a magnificent building, and now that the Legislative session has adjourned it is a good time to visit.

If you're into museums, the one on the UT campus is very worthwhile, as is the LBJ Library.

Outdoors? For swimming, Barton Springs. You can canoe on Town Lake. There's always golf, but not being a golfer, I can't make a recommendation. The Round Rock Express is a Double A team that has a very nice stadium about 20 minutes north. Visit Sportsmans Warehouse on the way.

If you have a rental car, the Hill Country has lots of attractions. Pedernales Falls State Park is about 45 minutes west and the falls are ripping right now due to all the rain. The area is full of wineries (some good, some not so good). Hill Country towns like Johnson City, Blanco, Marble Falls, and Fredericksburg all offer some points of interest and shopping. If out that way, the LBJ ranch tour might be of interest. There's a surprisingly good private collection of big game mounts in Llano housed in a store front on the square, but call before you go to see when it is open.

Food: There's a gawdawful variety, but much of it is increasingly "fru-fru" -- and expensive -- with all the yuppie influence. I can't advise you where to buy the best raw weeds served on fine china, but if you like BBQ the County Line (two locations) is still among the best, despite moving toward chain status. There are a lot of good honest TexMex restaurants scattered all over, but look out for the ones with Mexican-sounding names that style themselves "southwestern" or "New Mexican" and serve weeds instead of enchaladas. For burgers or chicken fried steak try any Waterloo Ice House location (an excellent variety of beers, also). Speaking of beer, there are at least two excellent local brews: Live Oak is only available in kegs, but you can find it at places like Waterloo. Rio Blaco Pale Ale is brewed in Blanco and is available in bottles at most outlets as well as many restaurants. The Pappas restaurants (one TexMex and the other seafood) are on North I 35. For the life of me, I can't think of a place I can recommend for an honest-to-god beefsteak that won't shred your hip pocket. If you don't mind dropping well over a hundred bucks for a couple, Ruth's Criss is certainly good, but not as good as what I can do with no effort over an oak fire in my back yard (for about $90 less).

I could care less about bars with live "music" (the volume of which makes the muzzle blast from your .375 H&H seem mild), so no advice there, but Sixth Street east of Congress is full of them. If you're into that and don't mind wading through throngs of High Schoolers trying out their fake IDs, Sixth Street is the place to be. The ONE truly worthwhile venue on Sixth Street is Esther's Follies. They'll entertain you with a hilarious two-hour comedy routine that's a bit like Saturday Night Live, but actually much more clever and better executed. If you get the chance, don't miss Esther's!

Hope this helps.

Congress St. Bridge to watch the Bats leave in
the PM.

There is always Lake Travis, not far away. If you go up RR620 north, toward Round Rock, they have some good mex food. It also has some very good golf, but it always makes my trigger finger itch too much bacause the left wingers do not allow the deer to be killed, so they are ALL OVER the course. The marina actually has some good food as well.

I also like invader66's suggestion.

Thanks Guys, probably not going to get to hunt the YO for monetary reasons, but I'll be free to do quite a bit of wandering while she's suffering in session.

Hamilton Pools for sure, in Dripping Springs.

hippie hollow for uh um sunbaithing .

bobs museum is cool.

sit on the corner and watch the wierdest people in the world walk by.

I spent time in fla keys. san fran. aus. new z. and the strangest people I ever met were in austin TEXAS.

Ah Austin; our little slice of California, plunked down smack dab in the middle of the best state in the union. (Please forgive me, I had to do it.) I still remember being in the back seat of my parents' car, going up "the drag" (on the edge of UT) in '68 and tears rolling down my mother's eyes 'cause of all the whacked out kids roaming the street. (Some of them are still there.) In reference to Crusher's comment, Austin definitely has some aliens living there. If you can't get outa town and slay somethin', do experience the locals, just not too up close and personal.

Austin Texas- Sixty square miles surrounded by reality!

Rick,

READ YOUR E-MAIL immediately!

mike

Day 1 - Dorothy we're not in Kansas anymore
Gumbo's for great Cajun style cooking and pecan pie that was orgasmic. This place sure has it's quota of Granola folks (nuts and flakes). Caught some live music in a dive bar where everyone was just having a great time.

Tomorrow it's off to Cabelas (keeping this hunting related) and maybe a bit of an excursion out of town while my wife is hard at work.

Thanks for the input guys, keep the ideas coming.

Be sure and give us a Cabelas report. If you see a nice double rifle, pick it up and play with it in my honor.

Cabela's is entertaining for looking, but you wouldn't want to actually buy anything there, that is unless you just enjoy paying more for a given item than it can be obtained for elsewhere. Cabelas apparently substantially overestimated the sales power of its megastore aura. They have laid off a huge number of their original staff, and when I was there just before Christmas, they had only a single checkout lane open and a single customer was in front of me when I went to check out (an emergency purchase, otherwise I would have ordered from one of any number of less expensive sources). Remember, this was just before CHRISTMAS!

Acadamy Sports and Outdoors is the price leader around Austin, but their selection is more pedestrian. Sportsmans Warehouse in Round Rock is smaller than Cabela's but has a similar selection and prices are typically better.

Speaking of Sportsmans Warehouse, their northside location in San Antonio has a full body mounted kudu that is piebald -- looks almost like a paint horse, just not as much contrast to the colors.

Rick,
Drop by Mcbrides Guns on N. Lamar every morning if you can. I guess he's the oldest gun shop in town and does quite a bit of trading. Every now and then he has some interesting stuff. The better guns are usually in his office which you can see from the main floor. Just ask if you can go in and look. If you get there early , they have coffee.

Also you may want to visit Sportsmans Finest (not warehouse) at Bee Caves. Real nice store and good people..You can have a bite to eat at Springhill while your there...
Regards,
Terry

Day 2 - First full day in Tejas.
Made it to Cabela's at opening time. They're kind of like Gander in that you only buy what you actually need or what's on sale. Nice store that seemed in good repair. Several people waiting for it to open and bunches of workers inside restocking and getting ready for the day's business.
As usual the gun librarians are hiding in their office just like every other store I've been to. They have three or four double rifles, one .500 and one (Heym?) marked as a 450/400 with .470 below it on the tag. Pretty plain rifle for the $20,000 price tag, maybe there were an extra set of barrels in back. I try not to touch double rifles since I'm saving up to put my .458 Lott to work and I wouldn't want infected with the DR virus. Huge selection of heavily engraved and chrome plated pistols. Was wondering who would engrave and gold inlay a Star PD when I found a Class A engraved Devel ASP? Talk about "gilding the lilly".

Got out with a five round Boyt Ammo Holster (to go with the 10 rounder I used in RSA), those 5" inseam Safari Shorts that scandalize my teenage sons and a neat gear bag for under $50.
Did some touring around town and got roped into an evening cruise on the lake on a sternwheeler and BBQ at some country club with the scientists. I now know way more about wilting oaks that I'll ever need, but at least the Shiner Bock was cold.

Rick,

I caught Bear going out the door to the airport on Tuesday morning. He said he was sorry that he'd miss you but that he'd call. Hope that worked out.

Hope you're having a good time!

Day 3 - Where do all the deer and antelope play?
Good call on McBrides, that's a class store. But I touched a darn Merkle double rifle in .30-06 and may be infected. They have a good stock of 5.11 clothing and I was wishing the shirts weren't so expensive when the owner came out and told the cashier that all regular priced clothing would be 20% off the next two weeks for Father's Day. I bought the green one.

Drove out 290 to Kerr county. Kind of odd to seeing impala, wildebeest and eland looking at you thru the game proof fence and driving on the right side of the road When did the Hill Country grow up, I don't remember Interstate highways everywhere?

Walking down 6th street this evening was ...entertaining, bet it's interesting on the weekend.

My wife gets out of the seminar tomorrow and our exploits probably won't be fitting for a hunting forum, thanks again for the input.


BTW - Mike, I haven't heard from Bear but I'll be in range all week.

i think this came too late, but the link below has a lot of good information on austin texas.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_wg/episode/0,3151,..._28436_48706,00.html

my theory is that if it's good enough for Giada, then it's damn better than just about any other alternative.