Getting to know Austin

The forty thousand mile check-up is a big deal for our Mercedes Benz, but we didn't know that when we took it in this morning. We picked up a loaner car and Simon helped us with directions to a number of places that we wanted to go to.

First up was the post office. Isn't Bluebonnet Station a pleasant name for a post office? We both need to have our passports renewed and we had picked-up the renewal forms and had our photos taken at CVS last evening. The Bluebonnet Station took our old passports, the renewal forms, new pictures and our check and mailed it off to the State Department in Philadelphia. We elected to use their expedited service so maybe in four weeks we will have our new passports.

We learned on our Monday Austin tour that Whole Foods Market began in Austin. After the post office we drove into the downtown area where we wanted to visit one of two REI stores in Austin. Across the street was a Whole Food Market and...

next to REI were these corporate offices for Whole Foods.

We had a successful visit and I'm sure that...

Diane and Jeff thought so too, since those three bags belong to us.

Diane recommended the Austin Shoe Hospital on Congress Street, the main street in downtown Austin, with the State Capitol building at one end, and we walked the 1/2 mile from REI. This establishment has been here since the early 1900s.

Inside there was a shoeshine stand and we got to see it in action.

This is Corey who agreed to add two new holes to my belt - to shorten it. He looks serious here, but he was funny and very engaging and didn't charge us anything for the service. Thank you, Corey!

As we were walking back to REI we got this picture of the State Capitol.

The numbered streets in Austin, 5th, 6th, etc., are wide and one-way. There's room for angled parking  and, as you can see, the cars are backed into the angled spaces. First time I've seen that.

In 1890 Austin began building "light towers" to light up the streets for a 1/4 mile. There were 31 originally and 17 remain today.

Practically every street corner has as parking space or two for...

"Go Cars". You see them driving all over the city, as well as bicycles that can be shared.

Here's the Governor's mansion. It's not just for show, the Governor actually lives there.

There are tons of food trucks in the city and half of them seem to be Airstreams.

On our walk back to REI, where we left the car parked, we stopped in at the local Whole Earth Provisioning Co., a kind of local REI. We had already gotten everything that we needed, except a new belt for Frederick, so we just looked and left.

Just behind the Whole Earth Provisioning store is Graffiti Park at Castle Hill.

Two different people recommended that we stop by and see it.

An artist getting ready to add his contribution.

Back at the REI parking lot we stopped in at the Book People book store. Great place to find some travel guide books.

It was now getting late in the afternoon and we had heard from the car dealer that they would need to finish work on our car tomorrow morning. We then drove out to a Sam's Club store and the local HEB (supermarket). We didn't get back to the Airstream until 9 p.m.