We started out today by heading to the Capitol Building, which is pretty impressive. This and the other nearby buildings reminded us that the Americans really do know how to make a building! There is a nice park in front of the Capitol and Damien took his first photo of the trip - a squirrel of course!
We then headed to South Congress, a cool strip of shops and food places. There are a lot of local arts, clothes, jewelery and souvenirs in some pretty quirky and fun shops. We nearly floated into a pizza place due to the great smell wafting out the door but managed to resist as it was only about 11am. Nadia found a great coffee spot and we'll probably have to go there tomorrow morning. We had lunch at Guero's, which has a cool garden under a huge oak tree with live music and cheap (but delicious) tacos.
We then explored around Lady Bird Lake - named after LBJs wife. It wa pretty nice - just out of Downtown, with some nice pools, kayaks for hire and walking paths. We explored a little more than intended due to some GPS mishaps but had a lot of fun.
It is very warm and muggy so we headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and a cool shower. The jetlag started to bite but we headed out for a steak dinner. If you're ever in Austin I can recommend Perry's Steakhouse. We had delicious food but could have easily shared one of the appertisers. Damien had calamari and it was nearly a main course size. For mains, Nadia had fried shrimp - they were the size of small lobsters and Damien had a prime ribeye that was delicious and so tender he could have pulled it apart with his fingers.
We had grand ideas of hitting the town for the night and found Maggie Maes, which was a cool place with several bars and a rooftop beergarden. There was a band playing downstairs but just as people started coming in the jetlag came back and we had to admit we were done for the night!