Passing Austin on the Side

Last week, I rode the Amtrak train to visit my daughter and her family in Fort Worth. Someone asked me if I took many pictures on my trip. Ha ha ha....what a silly question. I held my camera and pointed it out the window for almost the entire 5 1/2 hour trip to Fort Worth and the entire trip back home. Altogether, I probably took about 600 pictures. That makes sense, because my obsessive personality keeps me glued to the window, for fear of missing anything at all. 

Today, I would like to share a few of the shots I took as we entered Austin. The train stops at Austin in a kind of grungy section of town. This derelict building was what I looked at while waiting for passengers to board and leave the train. Now, I have to admit that I love derelict buildings, so I didn't mind. 

We passed by one of the many places where several freeways interesect. It is unusual to see standing water under the freeways, especially since we have been in such an awful drought. Thankfully, there has been quite a bit of rain, this spring. It rained the night before, hence the standing water.

Austin is the state capital of Texas, and the self-proclaimed music capital of the world. It is claimed that there is more live music going on in different venues any given day than in any other city in the United States. That includes Nashville.

Austin is also the home to many high tech firms, including Dell, so there is quite a bit of money floating around some parts of the city.

It is incredibly expensive to live downtown. There are some very quaint homes, both large and small, built in the early twentieth century, but they cost quite a bit if they are near the center of town. Many people live in apartment complexes.

The tallest of the buildings, with all the chrome and glass architecture, have been built in the last few years, and there was a bit of squabbling about building them, too. It seems that Austinites love their downtown riverfront, which they call the Town Lake district. That confused me for a while, because I could never actually find the lake. They are really referring to the section of the Colorado River (not the one in Colorado, either...it is just a little Texas river with the same name) that flows through Austin. 

As you can see, it is gorgeous. There are biking trails, hiking trails, walking trails, doggie parks along side the "lake" and folks get on the water in colorful kayaks and canoes. The people who use the trails and nature parks complained that the tall buildings would ruin the view of the sky, and cast too much of a shadow over their fun. Well, anyhow, the ultra-modern, high dollar buildings did go up and they add elegance to the Austin skyline.

Here are a couple more pictures that I just had to include. This is the City of Austin Power Plant site. I love the art deco letters on the plain concrete plant. Even their power plant has charm.