TEXAS, AUSTIN: CONGRESS AVENUE, THE BULLOCK TEXAS STATE HISTORY MUSEUM, THE MAGNOLIA CAFE, AND A BAT TOUR

 March 24, 2021

I mentioned that Austin is a walkable city, which we know firsthand because we did a LOT of walking. 

One of the main thoroughfares of the city is Congress Avenue, which runs from the state capitol building to the Congress Ave. Bridge, passing by lots of interesting architecture.

The Colorado River bisects Congress Ave. No, not that Colorado River, but another river by the same name that has both its source and mouth in Texas. Turns out it is 862 miles long--the 18th longest river in the United States--and I had never even heard of it.

The bridge is named for Ann Richards, the spunky Democratic governor of Texas from 1991-1995.

We passed some interesting shopping spots on our stroll.

Next stop: The Bullock Texas State History Museum, but as it was at the other end of Congress Avenue, we called on Lyft to take us there.

If you are visiting Austin this should be a stop on your tour. We moved through it pretty quickly, and many parts of it were not interesting to us, but it gave us a good overview of the history, challenges, and peoples of the territory/nation/state of Texas.

I like quirky things, and these carved wooden stirrups with faces from the early days of the Spanish colonization of the area fit the bill.

In the 1680s, King Louis XIV of France sent an exploration expedition to North America. It was a complete failure. All the ships were lost to pirates, disasters, and poor decisions, with the final remaining expedition ship, La Belle, sunk in a storm in Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast (far off course). In 1995, more than 300 years after its demise, archaeologists discovered the wreck and began a decades-long process of recovering the hull and more than 1.6 million artifacts. The ship is now on display in the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

Hey, we saw that same sculpture of Sam Houston (L) in the state capitol! This is the plaster cast made from the original clay model. The one in the capitol is marble. Houston (1793-1863) was a leader in the Texas Revolution, President of the Republic of Texas, a United States Senator, and a Texas Governor. The same artist, Elisabet Ney, created the bust of the capital city's namesake, Stephen F. Austin (R).

I like Sam Houston. He seemed to be a voice or reason, and he was a spiffy dresser.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the Texas Revolution, which began on October 2, 1835, when Mexican soldiers tried to reclaim a cannon loaned to settlers who refused to give it back. In March 1836 the Republic of Texas was born.

The 13-day siege known as the Battle of the Alamo was part of that conflict and ended badly for the Texians and Tejanos who defended the Mission near present-day San Antonio. A model is on display in the museum.

Texas was annexed  to the United States in 1845 and became the 28th state later that year. I think this rather ugly larger-than-life statue commemorates that event.

So who is the "Bullock" in the name of this museum? Well, he lived between 1929 and 1999 and was a Democratic politician (Gasp!) from Texas who served as Lieutenant Governor under Ann Richards and George W. Bush. This museum was his brainchild and he was the driving force behind its creation. He was also known for a phrase that he made popular: "God bless Texas."

I liked the cultural and modern history parts of the museum the most. I was happy to see these Texas Longhorns, Texas icons for sure. We saw a lot of these grazing in Texas pastures.

This airplane and others  like it, known as "Texans," were used beginning during World War II to train several hundred thousand pilots in 34 countries over 25 years.

I was intrigued by this dress display. The designer, Nan Blassingame, is of Cheyenne and Arapaho ancestry, and she designs clothing inspired by her ancestry. These are known as "jingle dresses" because the metallic sequins on the skirts jingle.

I definitely associate NASA with Texas, as in "Houston, we have a problem."  In 1961, the Manned Spacecraft Center, which became the home of Mission Control and the astronaut training program, was established in Houston. I was happy to see an Apollo 11 display depicting Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon.

This is a photo of the control room during the Apollo 13 space mission, the one that was aborted a few days into the mission because of equipment failure but that miraculously made it back to earth.

No, this is not a movie theater seat; it's a chair from the legendary Houston Astrodome, the first U.S. sports venue to feature cushioned, movie theater-style seats.  The arena had 42,217 seats, 10,000 of which could be moved to form a football field. Sometimes called "The Eighth Wonder of the World," the Astrodome was the world's first domed indoor sporting venue when it opened in 1965 and was twice as large as any single human-made enclosure ever built at the time. "Everything's bigger in Texas." Survivors of Hurricane Katrina were brought to the Astrodome for shelter in 2005. (Note: The Astrodome has been closed since 2008.)

By this time we were on the upper floor of the museum, looking down at the entry way. The floor was my favorite thing in the museum.

Note the compressed figures, meant to be viewed as if seen from above. 

On our way out, we stopped to appreciate the Texas Lone Star, which really is everywhere in Texas. 

It was time for dinner. Bob had scouted out a quirky restaurant called the Magnolia Café that opened in 1988. Apparently President Obama had a meal here in 2016 with a University of Texas student who had written him a letter about her family's job struggles.

It's a funky place with a lot of personality.

The décor is pretty chill, not exactly the kind of place you would expect the POTUS to hang out. 

Did you note that pterodactyl suspended from the ceiling? It is wearing a tiara and a pair of Converse tennis shoes.

Bob had chosen Magnolia Café for its numerous vegan options. It was pretty good. In fact, we came back the next day for another go at the menu. I had a vegetable stir fry with pineapple and ginger and Bob had an impossible meat vegan burger loaded with toppings, which he declared to be one of the best hamburgers he's ever had.

The Magnolia Brownie a la Mode for dessert was above average but not the best I've had.

We ended our day by walking back to Congress Bridge for a "bat tour."  

Hundreds of thousands of migrating Mexican free-tailed bats live under the Congress Bridge between the end of March and early fall. They come out at night to feed.

Who knew Austin is famous for its bats? Not I.

The tour was given at sunset from a nice river raft:

We had a great guide who included lots of information about the city and its architecture.

And yes, at the promised time the bats emerged.  We were there at the very beginning of the bat season, and apparently at its peak towards the end of the season there are many, many more bats than this--up to 1.5 million.

Congress Bridge was crowded with bat watchers, another (free) way to see the spectacle.