Landmarks

I spent inauguration night with a friends at The Hole in the Wall bar, a whopping three stage venue. They featured a great bluegrass band, a political comedian, and the Horse Opera covering the entire Springsteen album Born in the USA. A valuable tip for Springsteen is that the title of each song is the chorus, and the chorus is 90% of the lyrics. Repeat "Born in the USA" 19 times. You have now memorized the song. And the tune will not leave your head no matter how you try. All in all, there is nothing more Obama-rama-radical than a bunch of tatooed college guys rocking out in their USA flag shirts. Their flag bandanas hanging from the back pocket. The washboard player with a stars and stripes cowboy hat. The one guy in a red-white-blue leather jacket...

I had to stop for a photo-op at the tiny Eiffel Tower at Dreyfus Antiques'. There is no explanation why this replica sits in the parking lot, protected by a laughably tiny fence. But it was on my map of Austin as a Landmark, so I had to visit. Later I passed a tiny shed, turned restaurant, marked by a mounted plastic banana that is as big as the roof. So weird that it's normal.

While Chicago weather was below zero, ours was 81 degrees Thursday. It was perfect for a trip to Zilker Park, the central public park of Austin. I paddled a kayak down Ladybird Lake, aka Lake Austin, actually a river, actually the Colorado River. Hundreds of turtles were sunning themselves on logs, ducks were diving for fish, and white geese honked at passing boats. The tributary from Zilker opens into the river, cutting between the high hills of the green belt. The only anxious moment was when a few swans came within pecking distance and I realized these birds are as big as my kayak!

I ate lunch by the park at Shady Grove. They make a peppery chicken fried steak, and serve their salad with jalapeno lime dressing that can make you forget you're eating boring lettuce. This picture is of their bathroom, which is an outdoor old-school trailer. Austin loves its converted trailers.

Headed to Speakeasy on Saturday night for a live band that played everything from Sweet Home Alabama to Sexy Back. The crowd two-stepped, they bumped and grided, they line danced, they booty shaked. It's a strange dichotomy when men in suits sit with girls in western boots and tie dye dresses. When a guy in a red jacket does the moonwalk while his friend with the long hippy hair smokes a cigar. There is no judging dumb hicks or snooty yuppies because they are all in the same group of friends, where a guy with a mullet sips a pink martini and reclines on a bed.