Texas Holiday

Sara and I traveled to Texas over the winter holidays to see family and to check out a little part of a big 'ol state.

I grew this mustache just for Texas.

Family came from all over to Austin (hi Ma!), which has a very Portland sort of vibe to it.

The city sprawls though, so we didn't check out much more than the urban core. There was a lot of great food, most notably Torchy's Tacos, which have perhaps the best tacos I've ever tasted, which is saying a lot.

The Frost Bank Tower in Austin

The Texas History Museum was much needed to catch us up to speed on Texas, and the LBJ Library was fascinating.

The LBJ Library

After doing the family thing, Sara and I headed on out to the Hill Country State Natural Area to camp for a few days. It is mainly a horse camping destination with very few camp sites; we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. The countryside was beautiful, and we checked out a few surrounding areas like the Lost Maples State Park.

Lost Maples Park

Cactaur!

After a few days camping we went through San Antonio and checked a bunch of missions, including the Alamo. Every part of San Antonio we went to was pretty run down; Sara did some research and it seems that they actually have a pretty good economy. Either they don't put any money into beautification, or we somehow managed to go consistently from blighted spot to blighted spot.

An old mission door.

More photos here.