My oldest daughter Gina phoned a few months ago to say that in early May she would be presenting a research paper on the effect of neighborhood tree density on incidents of asthma to a conference in San Antonio, Texas, and that she planned to fly into Austin a few days early to find out if Austin might be a good place to work after concluding her contract at Columbia University in New York City. Since her birthday would fall during her weekend in Austin, she asked if I might be interested in joining her.
As it turns out, just as we arrived in Austin, Gina's paper became something of a sensation in the epidemiological community, resulting in a live inteview with Irish Radio, a report on the BBC, and multiple other references in broadcasts on TV, radio and internet, so in addition to celebrating her birthday and that of my good friend Mike, who lives about an hour north of Austin, we were celebrating her flash of niche fame.
We originally planned to spend the whole weekend in Austin, but I really wanted Gina to see Mike's community, which is sort of like Big Bear Lake forty years ago, but without any ski mountains (or hills of any kind). Houses sit on lots surrounded by trees, and deer wander through the streets. It's a considerably different world from Los Angeles or New York....or even Austin.
That night we headed to Chuck's Pea Ridge Restaurant for Friday night catfish. It was delicious, and all you can eat for $8.95 turned out to be less than what they served on the first plate. I enjoyed some great fish fries with my cousins on summer vacations when I was a kid, but this meal managed to hold its own with the best of them. If you're ever in Morgan's Point Resort, Texas, on a Friday night, don't miss it. The jalapeno hush puppy sticks alone are worth the trip.
We planned to go out to one of the local watering holes after dinner, but first we stopped back at Mike's so Gina could finish up a little work on a project and transmit it over the internet. As frequently happens with "friends and family" vacations, we got sidetracked and ended up watching Adam Sandler's "Click" at Mike's.
After awakening early and scarfing down three delicious breakfast tacos at Taqueria Tres Magueyes, the kind of authentic cafe with amazing prices ($1.99 for breakfast) you find throughout this rural area, we headed toward Austin. Gina's good friend Mamta was in transit to meet us, and we all stopped at an outlet mall in Roundrock, about twenty minutes outside of Austin. Gina and Mamta did a little birthday shopping, while Mike and I wandered in a different direction. By the end of our stop, my hands were the only ones not carrying a bag. As I've said before, "If I need a new pair of shoes, my wife will tell me."
We checked in at the comfortable Hyatt's Summerfield Suites at the Arboretum and then drove over to check out Gina's potential future employer, the University of Texas. It's a beautiful campus, and the students seem proud to be a part of it. At Sixth Street, the Bourbon Street of Austin, we found a big street fair going, and it was a bit too much commotion for us, so we headed for a very late lunch to the County Line On the Lake, a restaurant recommended by my wife based on her business trips to Austin. "The Lake" is really a river, and the part where this restaurant sits isn't particularly wide, but there are lots of turtles in the water next to the outdoor patio. We enjoyed watching the turtles scramble for the bread we threw them.
We ate a barbecue sampler platter and some bread along with beer. A sign proclaimed it had been named "Best Barbecue Restaurant in Austin in 2007." Our plan to eat a bigger meal there was foiled by lack of vegetarian dishes, as Mamta is a true vegetarian. Mike wondered if it was legal to be a vegetarian in Texas. In any case, it was a good excuse to get to our next destination, The Oasis, which is located high on a ridge overlooking another part of the river, and this part really does look like a lake. 
The Oasis is a gorgeous five story restaurant with maybe 10,000 square feet on each level. We secured a table next to the railing where we would have an unobstructed view to what is purported to be the best sunset in Austin. The fact that we were over two hours early from that time didn't dissuade us, and when sunset approached and others squeezed in to stand nearby for a glance at the sunset, we were glad we invested the time. By the way, the nachos were outstanding.
We drove down the hill and back to Sixth Street, where Mike took us to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. Suffice it to say this place is rated at least R for some of their raunchy interpretations of songs, but the performers were very funny and talented. The funniest part of the night was when they began playing the fight song for the University of Texas for a big tip, only to change to Texas A & M's song when a bigger payment was made. The battle went back and forth, with payments getting bigger and occasionally breasts being bared to bribe the pianists. Mamta paid for them to humiliate Gina on stage for her birthday, and fortunately she escaped fully clothed and with her dignity preserved.
We returned to our very nice hotel room about 1 AM, and the next morning Gina and I drove over to the state capitol to walk around. There's a large painting of Davy Crockett in the lobby. From what I can tell, this Tennesseean only lived there long enough to change clothes and fight bravely at the Alamo, but he's still one of the great heroes of Texas. I saw a tee shirt on Sixth Street that read, "Y'all can go to hell. I'm going to Texas.--Davy Crockett." The capitol building is awesome. 
We had breakfast around noon at Kirbey Lane's, an Austin institution with a sign proclaiming it to serve the "Best Breakfast in Austin in 2007," and it was also great. With my plane leaving in a few hours, we headed back down town, but somehow my impeccable sense of direction went peccable, and we got lost, with Mamta helplessly following my meandering rental car in her car. We decided this was a good reason to look at houses, and we found prices to be quite reasonable even in one of the better neighborhoods of Austin. We eventually found our way back to the capitol for one last look, and then headed to the nearby Old Hickory Bar patio for a cold beverage before bidding Austin farewell.
My nonstop flights on jetBlue between Long Beach and Austin turned out to be rather pleasant. They have just enough extra legroom to make the seats comfortable, and the personal video monitor with satellite television makes the time fly by.
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