Keep Austin Weird

I was recently in Austin for the first time, and while work trips never really give you much opportunity to explore cities in the way you can as a tourist, I did find it to have a fun, hip vibe. I also found it to be ridiculously hot and humid. On one evening, I remarked to a colleague who lives in Texas (she had just commented on what a lovely evening it was) that it was pretty hot. Meaning it was VERY hot. Like 87 degrees with 97% humidity. At 7:00 PM. And she replied, “This is not hot.” It’s not my fault, people. San Diego makes me weak.

The thing I did do while in Austin was see the bats. I took a boat tour up and down the river, learning history about various parks and buildings, ultimately ending up on the water right in front of the bridge where they all live (by they I mean the bats). Definitely quite a sound to hear the largest urban bat colony just above you as you sail through underneath. The thing about the bats is they always leave, every night, after sunset, to feed. My river cruise guide says there are so many of them that it takes 4-6 hours for them to all leave. So what you get in Austin is a huge crowd of people lining the bridge each night just waiting to see the bats. It’s a thing. And yeah, maybe it’s weird, but if you’re ever there, do it.

These bats are all female and all pregnant (the males just hang out in Mexico all year apparently), meaning these 750,000 bats will turn into 1.5 million in a few months when the babies are born. I mean, talk about teeny weeny little soul sisters. Kind of adorable. And certainly something that belongs in a city with a tagline about staying weird.

Bats aside, the weirdest thing to me about Austin was the HOTEL CARPET. I mean, can you even look at this picture for more than two seconds? Imagine being there for several days where you had to avoid looking at the floor of your hotel room. Just such a weird choice for a hotel carpet. I guess it’s perfectly apropos.