Day 46 & 47 - Austin, TX

Austin was described to us as a blue dot in a sea of red. It is a very liberal city and this was immediately apparent when we drove into Austin and the first shop we saw was a gay sex shop with some very interesting equipment in the window, not something either of expected to see in Texas!

We stayed in the JW Marriott in Austin and as a Platinum guest, we enjoyed the free food and drink in the executive lounge before heading out for the night.

For our first night in Austin, we watched the 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats that roost under the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge fly out to hunt at dusk. This is the largest urban bat colony in the world! We arrived on the bridge early to make sure we had a good spot and then it felt like we waited for ages before the first few emerged. With the first group out, we were a little disappointed thinking this was it, then they all came out and it was like a black cloud flying around the sky.

Whilst the bridge gave us a good view of the bats, at times it was difficult to see them until they were against the sky. We were envious of the people below paddle boarding, kayaking and boating underneath the bridge so we decided that for our second night, we'd get bat pooed on!

There are two 'night out' areas in Austin. There is 6th Street and Rainey Street. Not knowing much about the difference between the two of them, we decided to spend Friday night in 6th and Saturday night in Rainey.

6th Street was like the streets in the music towns we had visited. It was full of people, the bars were streaming out live music and dance tunes and the alcohol was flowing. The road itself felt like a less-country version of Nashville although I liked that the police stopped all traffic from going down the road and even removed any cars still parked on it after 9pm. Another difference was the late night snack options. Instead of the fried chicken we saw everywhere in New Orleans, the late night snack option here is a giant slice of pizza or a taco from a street vendor. The pizza was really good but then I always think pizza is good at 1am after a few cocktails!

The next day, Lee came up with a walking tour to get us around some of the key places to visit in Austin. This included the State Capitol Building, Baylor Street Art Wall, Lady Bird Lake, Barton Springs Pool and the 'I Love You' mural. The walking tour was going well until the temperature went over 100F at lunchtime and walking became unbearable. We needed a change of plan!

We stopped for a fish taco and a cold drink to decide to what to. We had seen these scooters lying around all over Austin and after a quick Google, we worked out that they were electric scooters owned by two different companies; Bird and Lime. You download their app, scan a free scooter and away you go. We had to download both apps as we only have one phone and you can't (or we couldn't work out how to) hire more than one scooter with each account. So with Lee's Bird and my Lime, we set off revitalised and although still hot, having too much fun to care.

We found a company along the lake called Congress Kayaks who did bat tours on the river in the evening. The tour was full that day but the tour guide was lovely and squeezed us in! Lee and I shared a Kayak and we did a lot better this time, Lee took on the steering controls and I was the powerhouse (or more accurately, the 'slow-and-steady-house'). Being on the lake in the evening was amazing and one of those memories that will stay with us forever. The bats of course were awesome, we went under the bridge (paddling as fast as we could to miss the poop from 1.5 million bats who were just waking up) and then watched them emerge and finally all fly off. But, it was also amazing to watch the sun go down whilst on the water and see the pretty colours of the sun against the buildings. It was just so calm and relaxing.

After a quick shower to rinse off any bat fluid that might have made it onto us, we headed out to Rainey Street. I have never seen an area like this. It is a street with old houses but they have all been turned into bars. You walk through what looks like someone's porch and into their house only for it to turn into a bar, dance floor and in one case, an adult fun house! It was surreal. I don't think Rainey Street was planned to be this way having originally been a residential street which was rezoned to commercial after the convention center was built but what they now have is so unique its actually worth the trip to Austin just to see. Compared to 6th Street, the crowd felt older and more mature, the girls had more clothes on and the drinks were craft beers, local wines and original cocktails compared to the cheap drinks on 6th. We visited on a Saturday evening but during the day it looks like a nice street to chill out in enjoying the sun with drink listening to some live music.

Food wise, Rainey beat the pizza on 6th! Each bar had a food truck incorporated into the bar and there were two food truck parks with 6-8 food trucks in each. The food in the food trucks is not like the dirty burgers you get from a van outside football grounds in the UK, it was high quality, fresh and really tasty. We shared a couple of tacos which tasted better than any tacos we had had so far. It was just a shame we didn't have longer to work our way around all the food trucks.

We left Austin thinking that this is a city we will be coming back to. We enjoyed the vibe, and feel that we only touched on the sights; there is still so much to explore.