Sunday was a picture-perfect day at ACL Fest. Temperatures barely reached 80 degrees due to the cold front that came through central Texas on Saturday. Except for a few muddy spots, the Zilker Park grass held up well after the overnight rains.
After a hot, tiring Friday at ACL Fest, Saturday turned out to be a great day. Bill and I managed to get up close for several performances and especially enjoyed Portugal. The Man. and Greensky Bluegrass. The sun was hot, but there were plenty of clouds as a cold front blew through in the late afternoon. Temperatures dropped by 20 degrees over the evening hours, but the accompanying rain held off until after midnight.
The 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival is underway in Zilker Park. The festival now spans two weekends with after-shows in Austin, Dallas and Houston. Bill and I weighed the pros and cons of each weekend, considering factors such as the UT football schedule, probable weather (hot or very hot), and park grass conditions, and decided to attend the first weekend.
Hmmm…if it’s the last weekend in September, then it must be time for the Fall Pecan Street Festival! For the first time, I found myself there on both Saturday and Sunday. Neither day was particularly crowded; the threat of rain seemed to keep folks away this time. A storm did blow through late Saturday afternoon, but I was already inside eating dinner when the downpour started.
Last week’s All ATX concert at the ACL-Live Moody Theater was a benefit for HAAM, the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. Bill and I love these local benefit concerts. Besides supporting worthwhile non-profit organizations, we enjoy hearing a variety of talented musicians and frequently become fans of performers that we probably wouldn’t know otherwise.
One of the perks of living in downtown Austin is being able to take advantage of the Capital Metro bus system. In my previous suburbanite life, I had never even stepped inside a CapMetro bus. But now I often take the 101 bus back-and-forth to UT, and I’ve found that the Airport Flyer is the easiest and cheapest connection to the airport. Currently the fares for the routes are $1.00 each, although an increase is pending.
The 2013 Austin Pride Parade attracted huge crowds as it slowly wound down Congress Avenue and across Fourth Street on Saturday evening. Rainbow-themed flag, balloons, and banners proclaimed this year’s theme, “Love Unites,” throughout this 2+ hour parade.
Earlier this month, Austinites celebrated the reopening of Wooldridge Square Park on Guadalupe between 9th and 10th Streets. This one-acre block is one of the four public squares from the original city master plan. The park was named for Alexander P. Wooldridge who was Austin’s mayor from 1909 to 1919 and lived on the north side of the block. The park had been closed for the past year for restoration work to update the irrigation system and replace the sod.
The University of Texas women’s volleyball team was looking good at last weekend’s Nike Big Four Classic tournament. Four top teams competed in this two-day event in Austin: University of Florida, Stanford, Penn State, and hometown favorite UT.
I didn’t hesitate when friends asked me to join them at the Austin Home & Garden Show on Sunday. While they were busy considering flooring options, I wandered around the Austin Convention Center, dreaming about my next project….