http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-09-
15/boac_test6.html
Outdoors & Recreation
Best Snorkeling
Barton Springs Pool
We love snorkeling. On a hot day, nothing feels better than donning a
mask and fins and diving in. And only at Barton Springs can we find
the elusive crawfish. The fascinating turtle. The filmy forests of
seaweed. And most thrilling of all, the many varieties of kicking,
paddling feet.
Swingin'est Swings, Eastwoods Park
photo by John Carrico
2100 Barton Springs Rd., 867-3080
Way to Get Bats out of Your Belfry and Into Proper Housing
Bat Conservation International
Bats have a bad rap. Starring in horror movies and getting linked to
that vampire cult were definitely bad career moves. Geez, If only
we'd known our Mexican free-tail friends eat more mosquitoes than we
do potato chips, there would have never been any misunderstandings.
Bat Conservation International is a locally based group doing
worldwide pro-bat PR. They offer membership, bat house plans, and
info about North America's largest bat urban colony -- the one
located right here in Austin, Texas, under the Congress Avenue bridge.
500 Capital of Texas Hwy. N., 327-9721
www.batcon.org
Best Place for an Old Lady to Learn to Ride an Old Horsie
Bear Creek Stables
Lifelong Texan? And how old are you? You say you don't even know how
to get on a horse? Well, "neigh" to that! The mercifully pretense-
free Bear Creek Stables -- free from $2,000 children's show saddles,
high black riding boots, and horses worth more than a shiny pickup --
teach riding plain and simple, with instruction safe and thorough. So
get ready to saddle up, head 'em up, and move 'em out. But if you
take our advice, you'll steer clear of the rambunctious Spitz, unless
of course you're fond of standing for a week at a time.
13017 Bob Johnson, 282-0250
Best Potential for a Live Music Venue
Dart Bowl
If only every Saturday could be spent bowling with the sweet pop
melodies of Houston's Junior Varsity and Japan's Lotti Collins
playing in the background, as they did, right here in Austin last
spring. Does Austin really need another live music venue? Yes!
5700 Grover, 452-2518
Classical Music Day Trip
International Festival-Institute at Round Top
Now in its 30th year, the Festival-Institute in Round Top is world-
renowned for its eclectic, time-spanning repertoire. The bucolic
small town northeast of La Grange hosts about 50 concerts each year,
including orchestral, chamber music, choral, vocal, brass, woodwinds,
and solo performances. Concert pianist James Dick, the festival's
founder and artistic director, makes frequent appearances throughout
the season. And tickets are only $10 and $15 ($5 for children). PO
Box 89, 78954, 979/249-3129
www.festivalhill.org
Best Sunset With a Shiner
Dry Creek Saloon
If Regis hasn't called recently but you still want to feel like a
million bucks, head to the Dry Creek. You've got the same view as the
mansion down the street! You've got a cold beer and an Austin sunset!
So what if your wooden chair is broken and your table is covered with
cigarette burns? Just take a sip and savor. This is the meaning of
life.
4812 Mt. Bonnell, 453-9244
Best Bowling Alley Food
Dart Bowl Diner
Half the fun of going bowling is being able to eat and drink
copiously while you roll. However, the Dart Bowl Cafe's food is good
enough to attract a sizable crowd of non-bowlers. Their truckstop-
style enchiladas are legendary, but their super-size hamburgers and
fresh-cut French fries are no less magical. Try a meat-and-three
lunch special during the week, and don't forget Dart Bowl's wonderful
homemade bread.
5700 Grover, 459-4181
Best Beer Ball
Dell Diamond's Thirsty Thursdays
The Round Rock Express has given Austin the closest thing to a big-
league sports franchise. Yet if minor-league baseball and Spike
aren't enough to lure you out to cheer on the home team,
maybe "Thirsty Thursdays" will with its $1 beers and sodas. What a
deal! Just make sure to have a designated driver -- after all, the
way home is through Williamson County.
Round Rock Express, 3400 E. Palm Valley, Round Rock, 255-4946
Best Reason to Attend UT, Gregory Gym
photo by John Carrico
Swingin'est Swings
Eastwoods Park
We've never flown so fast, climbed so high, swallowed as many bugs,
and fallen on our butts so often. Tucked between north campus and
scenic Hyde Park, with plenty of shade, the Eastwoods Park swing set
is the perfect spot for a cool breeze across the face and the chance
to hearken back to the days when who was highest had everything to do
with fun and nothing to do with illicit substances.
E. 31st, two blocks east of Duval, 499-6700
Best New Rec Facility
East Community YMCA
Austin doesn't have enough YMCAs to begin with, but state-of-the-art
athletic facilities are but one of many amenities the Eastside could
really use. And with the center of East Austin moving farther east
all the time, it's becoming more important to having such amenities
out past Springdale Road and along Ed Bluestein. So the East Austin Y
is filling many needs in the nicest way.
5315 Ed Bluestein, 476-6705
Best Adventure Story
Matt Sanders
Sanders, 23, spent six nights trapped on a glacier in the Swiss Alps
and lived to tell about it. The Round Rock High graduate was hiking
the sledding trails on Christmas Eve 1999 when a huge storm slammed
into the side of the mountain near the famed Matterhorn. The lights
of Zermatt, Switzerland, were about five miles away, but his
frostbitten feet prevented him from making the hazardous trek. After
the third day, search parties had given up hope of finding him alive
in the 22-below-zero temperatures. On his birthday, the sixth day of
the ordeal, a rescue helicopter appeared overhead. At the same time
his mother was in a nearby town filling out the paperwork on
a "missing person presumed dead."
416-2361, 441-5413
Best Reason to Attend UT
Gregory Gym
Boasting an indoor jogging track, a seven-lane swimming pool, a
climbing wall, 10 wallyball courts, a horde of sorority girls (when
in season), and so much more, the relatively recently revamped
Gregory Gym is available to UT students for the incredibly low price
of: nothing (if you don't count the massive student fees that Mom and
Dad pay). Students can also sponsor the memberships of friends and
family who are non-university affiliated. What better reason to
maintain a 1.5 GPA?
Speedway & 21st, 471-6370
Best Something for Nothing
Free Pool at the Cue Lounge
Don't know pool from pinochle? Well, partner, here's your chance to
learn. At the Cue, the drinks are always cold and the pool is always
free. And as our momma always told us, you can't beat free. Grab a
huge, frosty Cue 'rita in one hand and a pool cue in the other and
claim your table; with yummy food, good, strong drinks, and plenty of
entertainment all just a few steps away, it could be a long, long
night.
409 Colorado, 236-1808
Finest Moonlight Prowl
Jim Nicar's Free Friday Night Tours of the UT Campus
Bullet wounds in the George Washington statue, the final resting
place of UT's first mascot, and tales of history, romance, and
protest fill professor Jim Nicar's unofficial tours of the university
campus. The gregarious lecturer presents a side of the school that
you won't find in history books. It's like hearing the family history
from a favorite uncle. The history tours are held on alternating
weekends in the spring. Nicar also gives a UT architecture tour,
called Sunday Stroll, in the spring. Sign up early at his e-mail
address.
nicar@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Best Armadillo Watching
McKinney Falls State Park
Austin is blessed with many reasons to put on your hiking boots.
We've got places to canoe, fish, and bike. And right in South Austin
we have world-class armadillo watching. We recommend a cold drink,
comfortable shoes, and few hours to wander around McKinney Falls' 744
acres. We've seen four armadillos in an afternoon: Beat that.
5808 McKinney Falls Parkway, off Hwy. 183 S., 243-1643
Best View for Pretending You Live in L.A.
Mount Bonnell
Best Late-Night Bowling, Highland Lanes Electric Bowling
photo by Kenny Braun
Why move there when you can sit up on the lush hill and look out over
lights that could just as easily be Hollywood, so long as you
concentrate on the computer millionaires' mansions and ignore the UT
Tower?
3800 Mt. Bonnell, 499-6700
Best Place to Relive Junior High
Playland Adult Skate Night
Couples skate, all-boy skate, all-girl skate. Aw yeah, you know what
we're talkin' about. Ever thought about reliving those nights at the
rink? Well now you can. Every Tuesday night, 7-10pm, it's adult skate
night at Playland Skate. Bring your own wheels if you've got 'em;
rollerblades are welcome as well. It's just like you remembered.
Well, except the bathrooms are a bit smaller these days.
8822 McCann, 452-1901
Hardiest Perennial/ Most Free-Growing Herb
Rosemary
As our collective St. Augustine lawns toast to a crispy brown,
there's one perennial that remains hardy, giving, and green. It's
rosemary. New residents may not realize that those dried flakes in
their cabinets are a poor substitute for fresh branches of their
large and fragrant backyard hedge. Poor soil? No water? No problem.
Cheap, dependable, delicious.
Growing resolutely in gardens all over town
Best Bowling Trend
Late Night Rock/Disco/ Xtreme/Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling
It's late night at the bowling alley: The lights go down and the
music and fog from the smoke machine come up. It's not your daddy's
bowling alley, baby: It's extreme! It's wild! It's rock! It's disco!
It's shake-your-groove booty, 10-pin, jungle-boogie action! Get your
mind out of the gutter, shut yo' mouth! Bowling like this really
can't be described -- it must be experienced. One must see for one's
self the effects of a black light on certain bowling ball colors --
and the special resonance that a strike has when backed by the
Village People. Make sure to get there early; you may have to wait to
get a lane.
Highland Lanes Electric Bowling, Fri-Sat, 11pm, and Tue, 8:45pm, 8909
Burnet Rd., 458-1215; Showplace Lanes Xtreme Bowling, every night,
midnight-3am, 9504 N. I-35, 834-7733; UT Underground (Texas Union)
Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling, 24th & Guadalupe, 475-6670; Westgate Lanes
Rock & Bowl, Fri-Sat, 11pm, 2701 William Cannon, 443-6864.
Best and Brightest Historical Landmarks
Moonlight Towers
Splendiferous name. In 1895, 31 originals were installed as lights
illuminating our once-bucolic village, and today 17 remain in various
locations. You may have overlooked them in Ausprawl, but they are
tall -- 165 feet tall -- and impressive. Imagine back then ... each
tower illuminated a circle of 3,000 feet using six carbon arc lamps
so bright that a farmer could read an almanac on the darkest night.
Though only 17 of the original 31 remain, that's still more than in
any other American city, all of whom abandoned the inefficient
mercury vapor lamps years ago. A victory of beauty over finance, long
may they burn.
17 locations all over town
Best Guilty Pleasure for Animal Lovers
Squirrel-a-Whirl
The Squirrel-a-Whirl and its generic cousin the Squirrel Spinner are
the funniest devices you'll ever have to flagellate yourself for
enjoying. Ostensibly designed to distract squirrels from bird
feeders, these apparati draw the rodent to treats mounted on a
carefully balanced platform, which spins the squirrel off if he
missteps. The real fun comes when teams of Austin's plentiful
squirrels attack the task -- when one makes a wrong move and the
others go flying, you'll collapse laughing over the scolding he gets
from his pals! You're a bad person!
Breed & Co.(and elsewhere), 718 W. 29th, 474-6679
Best Excuse to Eat Boudin
Swamp Romp
So what exactly is boudin? Well, it's just something that you'll have
to try for yourself. The perfect opportunity comes around every April
at the Louisiana Swamp Romp & Crawfish Festival. This festival has it
all. Great music, arts and crafts, and of course lots of authentic
Cajun food. And we do mean lots of Cajun food, including the favorite
boudin.
www.roadstarproductions.com/
Best Way to Land in the Cooler
Swimming in Barton Springs After Curfew
Offering the fuzz and the physical shock of exposing one's self to
the Plutonian temperatures of Barton Springs after 10pm (not to
mention the potentially high fecal coliform levels), late-night
aquatic recreation at the popular swimming hole can be one of the
most benign, enjoyable ways to end up meeting a member of the APD.
Best and Brightest Historical Landmarks, Moonlight Towers
photo by John Carrico
Located inside Zilker Park, 476-9044
Most Amazing Footprints
The Dinosaur Tracks in Zilker Botanical Gardens
And we thought we were Austin old-timers. In the back of Zilker
Botanical Gardens, a large fight took place millions of years ago
between a turtle and a dinosaur. Nowadays, the prints are visible,
and we love to take sandwiches over to gaze at them and think about
who really lived in Austin in the good old days.
2220 Barton Springs Rd., 477-8672
Best Gazing in the Grass
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
The graceful oasis in far Southwest Austin is the embodiment of Lady
Bird herself: serene, natural, friendly, and charming. The Wildflower
Center is the realization of a dream Mrs. Johnson had, and it has
come to fruition in a way that exceeded our considerable
expectations. It is a favorite site for weddings and other special
occasions as the scenery cannot be beat and the facilities lend a
uniquely Texan festivity to any event. Classes in a variety of things
botanical have reached out to the citizens to share Lady Bird's
passion. And the gift shop has some of the most sought-after items
around. The most wonderful feature of all, though, is that it manages
to capture the beloved spirit of its cherished namesake.
4801 La Crosse, 292-4100
Best Underground Scene
The Wilson-Leonard Archaeological Site
For 11,000 years (that's 550 generations) people lived along the
banks of Brushy Creek in Cedar Park, leading lives so well attuned to
the landscape that, eventually, no one remembered or could tell that
anyone had lived there. But in 1973, archaeologists scouting in
advance of a Cedar Park-Round Rock highway found the Wilson-Leonard
site, named after local landowners. Working through fits of funding
over the next two decades, they eventually discovered the site had
been occupied for 11,000 years and was preserved throughout 15 feet
of geological strata. Amazing enough, but they weren't finished: They
also found the Leander Lady -- one of the oldest intentional burials
in the new world. The road from Cedar Park to Round Rock could have
spelled doom for the Leander Lady's former haunts, but thankfully the
Archaeological Conservancy intervened, purchasing and preserving the
Wilson-Leonard site in the face of development all around. And this
year, the Texas Department of Transportation published their
monograph on what remains of the site. A tip of the trowel to both
groups for preserving an irreplaceable example of our ultimate
heritage and the human habitat -- and perhaps prompting us to revise
our definition of "new in town."
Texas Department of Transportation, 416-3001
www.dot.state.tx.us/insdtdot/orgchart/gsd/pubs/Envpubs.htm
Best Alternate Route to San Antonio
U.S. 290 to TX 165 to U.S. 281
We try not to bitch too much about I-35; after all, it's our front
yard. But as anyone who's driven to San Antonio knows, the trip plain
sucks. What should be a fairly straightforward, hour-or-so trek has
become anything but. Between the construction and the monolithic
trucks, it's almost impossible to arrive at either destination
without literally fuming road rage. So what about those good ol'
Texas back roads? The 290 West bit toward Dripping Springs, the first
leg of the trip, is a bit crowded, true. But from there, head south
on TX 165 and revel in all that's beautiful about Central Texas.
Rolling hills, lots of trees, two-lane blacktop and, most
importantly, no traffic! Near Blanco, head down U.S. 281 and follow
it smoothly into big SA. Ah, isn't that better?
U.S. 290 to TX 165 to U.S. 281
Nicest Way to Take It Off & Put It Right Back On
Walk From Congress Bridge to Amy's on Guadalupe
There's no better way to explore our fine city than on foot. And on a
leisurely afternoon, with a cool breeze and that cloudless blue Texas
sky, here's the perfect idea to while away the time. Begin at the
river, you know, Town Lake, follow Congress up to the Capitol, head
north through UT's scenic campus, then up the famously funky
Guadalupe Drag to that Austin original, Amy's Ice Cream. Indeed,
you've covered some ground, but there's lots to see between here and
there, and ahhhh, those sweet rewards!
www.austin.citysearch.com/E/V/AUSTX/0004/64/86/
Best Place to Dog-Watch
West Austin Park
This quaint little park tucked away in Clarksville is silent at night
and during most of the day. But around 6pm, when everyone is getting
home from work ... let's just say, watch where you step! The park
suddenly comes alive with all walks of life, of the canine variety,
that is. Dogs have always seemed capable of bringing people together.
And there's a veritable kennel-full of chatty gossip going on here
every afternoon. With plenty of shade and a playground for the
kiddies, this is the place to shoot the shit (pardon us) with fellow
dog owners.
W. Ninth, four blocks west of Lamar, 499-6700
Best Nature Experience
Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve
Whether you're looking for a place to commune with nature or for
classes for the school-age explorers, the Wild Basin Wilderness
offers the community an incredible resource. Hiking trails wind
through a deep valley in the hills, a short drive from downtown
Austin. Every weekend special programs introduce or re-acquaint the
visitor with the wonders of nature. As beautiful as it is
educational, this is how the Hill Country looked before the Europeans
arrived.
805 Capital of Texas Hwy. N., 327-7622
www.wildbasin.org
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