The trail goes through Slaughter Creek Metropolitan Park (4103 Slaughter Lane), and is a great way to get in even more of the great outdoors before continuing your day. You can even try out the salsa dance lessons on Sundays. Narrow vertical slits of windows let in some light, but are kept small to keep out the heat. A row of windows located down the building’s center is angled inward to accommodate shadows and light. Continue your trip down presidential memory lane with a visit to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum (2313 Red River). You may need to purchase a specific plan for your destination to cover you on your trip. To keep the pace of the broadcast moving along, the commentary is regularly broken up with related pretaped segments that may feature the mechanics and crewmen of a certain team, features on previous races and race winners, and light-hearted interviews with drivers or a look at drivers’ everyday lives.
Saturdays tend to be very busy, so keep that in mind. And you won’t mind paying a premium price for it. After seeing some of Austin’s beautiful architecture from the lake, spend the afternoon learning about architect Abner Cook, who designed many important buildings in town. Learn about the Federal style architecture at the Governor’s Mansion (1010 Colorado St). Visit the ultra-hip Penn Field Design District (3601 South Congress Ave), a mixed-use retail space and noted architectural renovation that is now home to the Design Center of Austin (3601 South Congress at Penn Field, Suite C), a collection of specialty showrooms for architecture and design that’s open to the public and to the trade. Head to local outfitters Zilker Park Boat Rentals, which has been open since 1969; Austin Outdoor Gear and Guidance (3411 N Interstate 35) or the Rowing Dock (2418 Stratford Dr). The Paramount’s sister theatre and another local favorite, the State Theatre (713 North Congress) was heavily damaged by a water main break in June 2006 and is currently closed for extensive renovations.
2006 ACVB Photo/Austin Theatre Alliance The Paramount Theater has been a fixture in Austin for 90 years. 2006 Christopher Houben The breathtaking view from Mount Bonnell lets you survey the Austinskyline, Lake Austin, and the surrounding Hill Country. Make a stop at the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria (3809 West 35th St), which is on the way back from Mount Bonnell, and enjoy the exhibits that celebrate the marriage of art and nature. Afterward, you can wander through the Austin Museum of Art (823 Congress Ave) to view some of the best American art made since 1900, then enjoy a glass of wine at Cork & Company (308 Congress Ave), where reasonably priced and humorously-named wine flights like “Cab Ride to Manhattan” featuring top Cabernet Sauvignon wines and great cheese plates are worth the visit. Art car shows are springing up around the country, which is good for local car artists but not so great for the big national shows. 2 days: Spend the next day on South Congress Avenue, also called “SoCo.” Start your day with hot coffee to go at Jo’s Hot Coffee & Good Food (1300 South Congress), which is known as much for its people-watching and “Austintatious” attitude as it is for the coffee.
