Whirlwind Texas Weekend

My friend (and former roommate from Emory) Doan has been living in Houston for the past several years, but I haven't yet had the chance to visit her. She's moving to Portland Oregon soon, and I found a really good flight deal to San Antonio, so I went to visit her and combined it with some roller coasters and a visit with my friend Chandra in Austin. Covering 650 miles of asphalt and three major cities in just three days wasn't the best idea - I wish I had more time to visit with my friends - but I still had a great time.

I started at the San Antonio airport and immediately drove to Houston. Doan lives near the Texas Medical Center, which is a massive area with hospitals, a lot of cancer research organizations, medical schools, nursing schools, public health schools - it's the largest medical center in the entire world. It's really a bizarre area, like its own little city (except nobody lives there). Nearby is Rice University and Hermann Park. Houston has some of the bad aspects of Atlanta (sprawl, air pollution, massive highways and traffic), but it has a few neat neighborhoods and a high-class arts scene. I wish it had more trees and wasn't so hot!

Statue of Sam Houston near Hermann Park

Skyscrapers in downtown Houston

Japanese Gardens in Hermann Park

Rice University

Houston's light rail system

Doan in Discovery Green, downtown Houston

We took a quick roadtrip down to Kemah and Galveston, two coastal cities that each have a seaside amusement area. I rode two roller coasters, and we got to check out the Gulf of Mexico. Galveston was recently devastated by a hurricane, but it seemed to be recovering. The whole amusement pier area was brand new.

About to ride the Boardwalk Bullet! It's actually one of only two wooden coasters in Texas. Very fun ride!

The Pleasure Pier in Galveston

Beyond 90 degrees on Iron Shark

Doan made a new friend

Major thunderstorm on the way back to Houston

BBQ from Goode Company. The meat was decent, the bun was great, but I didn't like the sauce very much.

After dinner I drove back to San Antonio, and went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas the next morning. Fiesta Texas is a neat amusement park that is built into a former rock quarry, so 100-ft tall rock cliffs surround much of the park. Several of the rides go up on top of the quarry wall. The new coaster is Iron Rattler, which is actually a wooden coaster built in 1992 that has been redesigned with steel I-beam track and an inversion. It's a fantastic ride - smooth and fast and with some good airtime and a tunnel finale. It probably ranks in my top 15 or so steel coasters. Unfortunately it was already insanely hot and humid, so I left the park shortly after noon to drive up to Austin.

Goliath swoops over the entrance

Iron Rattler time!

The first drop over the side of the quarry wall

Iron Rattler doing its thing

The Superman coaster also interacts with the quarry wall

Goliath's first loop

After getting the three new credits I didn't have at Fiesta Texas, I drove up to Austin to visit Chandra. Austin is a really neat city. It seems like everywhere you look there is a bar, a food truck, or a cute little local shop. The lack of chain stores and restaurants was refreshing. It's really a fascinating city of contradictions and idiosyncrasies - the liberal heart of a conservative state, the home of Rick Perry and hipsters, high-rise condos and bike lanes, cowboys and tourists and Yankee transplants. It seems that even with all of its rapid growth, Austin has kept weird (and South Austin has kept even weirder). There are definitely challenges ahead for the city. What happens when glass-covered 30 story condos raise property values and push out the restaurants and bars that made Austin unique in the first place? How will the city maintain its progressive mindset when the Texas legislature tries to reign it in? Can a bus system and one small light rail line with only 9 stops (and no concrete plans for future rail expansion) support all of the growth, or will the roads and highways just become more crowded? Despite these issues, Austin remains a vibrant and attractive city with a strong heartbeat of BBQ and PBR.

Simón Bolívar takes a catnap

View of the Capitol from the car

Austin does have one light rail line - but it doesn't run on Sundays!

101 beers on tap at Bangers. Drool...

Interesting! Lots of off-beat stuff like this around Austin.

At The Liberty Bar

Waiting for the bats at the Congress Ave bridge - over a million bats live here!

Downtown Austin

This was the best shot I could get of the bats

This was my second trip to Texas this year. My friends in Dallas and Houston will soon be moving out of the state, but I'm already thinking about another trip back to Austin to do some more exploring.