Bill and I have lived in downtown Austin for two weeks now. We spent much of the last two weeks cleaning out our house in the ‘burbs and just going to the apartment to sleep at night. But now that work is all behind us. Here’s a summary of our firsts overlooking First Street (aka Caesar Chavez). Technically our address is Colorado Street, but our apartment faces south to First.

Our first visitors were Mary and Rainbow. Both of them liked the view. Rainbow had no problem going up in the elevator but did not want to get back in for the trip down. Everyone has dogs in this building so all these dogs must get used to the elevator eventually…except perhaps the bulldog in the baby stroller. 

Our first fireworks were on Friday evening. We were treated to an unexpected 10-minute display around 9 PM. At the end, loud applause and cheering errupted from the downtown balconies. We have no idea what was being celebrated although we suspect it was related to the next entry.

Our first regatta was Saturday morning. We had noticed that red buoys appeared in the middle of Lady Bird Lake on Friday afternoon so we wondered if something would happen. Sure enough, at daylight the lake was filled with crew teams. The races lasted all day, but we couldn’t tell who was winning, or even who was competing. I need to find the binoculars…

Our first walk to a University of Texas football game took about 30 minutes, one way. It was a pleasant Saturday evening except for the game. UT is not winning this year. Bill is not happy.  This photo is from my favorite third-quarter vantage point behind the north end zone. Note that I even got an action shot.

Our first Halloween was celebrated all weekend. Costumes abounded. We walked down Sixth Street on Saturday evening after the UT game. I did not take any pictures since we were mostly walking after a boy with a bare behind which was not very appealing to photograph. Bill thought that we’d better stock up on candy since some families live in the building, but no one knocked on our door.

Our first road closure was on Sunday morning for a 5K/10K Race for the Water. This race headed north on the First Street Bridge, and then west on Caesar Chavez. (Last week’s LiveStrong race headed south from the bridge and looped around South Austin so we weren’t impacted.) Only two lanes on Caesar Chavez were closed on Sunday morning so we were able to leave downtown without any problems. In the near future Bill and I hope to roll out of bed, hop on the elevator and participate in some of these races.