Old and (mostly) new in Austin

Walking in Austin's Turkey Trot last weekend was a lot of fun. And a real bonus treat was getting to see and snap photos of some of A-town's attractive new skyscrapers.

The city has grown by leaps and bounds since we were law school and library school students there in the '70's. (Meaning that we define "new" as anything built since then.) And it's still growing, as you can see by the construction cranes in this panorama of downtown from across the river, at the Trot's finish area:

Unlike some cities that shall remain nameless, Austin hasn't just bulldozed all their old structures to make room for the new. So tourists are able to see cool vintage buildings along with the flashy new ones...

A particularly photogenic structure is this tower, right on the riverside:

The kids knew enough about Austin architecture to tell me that this was used by the Fire Dept. Which tidbit allowed me to find this interesting description on the all-knowing internet.

It's not the only quirky photo opp, either, not surprisingly, given that this is Austin, after all.

are you feeling lucky? are you?

a houseboat near the 1st Street bridge

Such an interesting city. With all kinds of funky little pockets and buildings. I couldn't resist including this shot of the little bakery where we picked up a late post-race brunch:

So cool! And yummy muffins to boot. Plus, they were OPEN on Thanksgiving, which was much appreciated. 

Another odd Austin note for this place: they are on 38½ Street, which is more of a major street than 38th is. Gotta love weirdness like that.