A weekend with Lady Bird: part 1

When I lived in Austin, 'way back in the last century, this lovely body of water running through the heart of the city was just called Town Lake. Soon after she died in 2007, however, it was renamed for this First Lady, an early champion and advocate for environmental issues. A couple of weekends ago I was able to enjoy both the lake and another Austin attraction named for her; I'll tell you about that one next time.

But first, the lake. Longtime readers (and those who've seen my London blog) might remember when I've written about the very pleasant walk you can take around a good-sized chunk of lakefront. But the last time I took that walk was an astonishingly long time ago.

This time, the occasion was an annual get-together of a group of Rice women who graduated around the same time as myself (also far back in the mists of time). They meet every spring in a different Texas city and getting together for a weekend of visiting, touristing, eating, and drinking with these delightful ladies is quite fun. This year the meeting place was Austin, and one of the activities was a walk around part of Lady Bird Lake.

As you can see, we were very lucky with the weather. It was even cool-ish when we started the walk by crossing over Barton Creek...

Then upstream to the MoPac expressway, where there's conveniently a pedestrian walkway tucked underneath. (There's a great view of the downtown skyline from here; you can see it above.) 

This was really my old stomping grounds, since I lived in an apartment very near the then-brand-new MoPac, on 6th Street ('way before 6th Street was cool). 

Our trail took us—and large numbers of Austinites out for walks and runs—back towards downtown and the pedestrian bridge that was new when I saw it back in 2011. On the way we walked under the Lamar Street bridge...

...which we could look back to as we crossed on the pedestrian bridge...

These were only two of the many, many watercraft out taking advantage of the great weather and lack of wind on the lake this Saturday. I've actually paddled on the lake myself, again back in 2011. We went upstream to the next bridge where the enormous bat colony lives and waited for the bats to emerge at dusk. (You can read about this adventure here.)

This time the scenery was much less eventful, but still quite enjoyable. Especially when coupled with good visits with friends new and old.

fun Sunday brunch at Mi Madre's

Next up: Lady Bird's truest obsession...wildflowers!