Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum & the Capitol Building - Austin, Tx

Ok, so I only got to three of my five I had planned, but it's been brutally hot and I'm 8 months pregnant, now. I can write up a few of the other places I went, later, because even if I've been there before, you probably haven't.

Anyway, the kids had cousins in town, just before school started, so we did a ton of stuff together. One of these days we went to the Texas State Capitol. If you get the chance, this is always a fun tour.
They've done a fabulous job of keeping all the historical architecture while upgrading technology for modern convenience. Of course, the funnest part when I was a kid (and even now as a parent) is to walk to the center of the rotunda and look at the seals of the six sovereign nations that have ruled here (FYI, this is where the Six Flags theme parks got their name, the Six Flags Over Texas) and then look up to the star at the very top of the rotunda dome.


I never get tired of the capitol. There's always something new to discover, and the building itself is just so beautiful.

Just up the street is the Bullock Museum. The exhibits are pretty good, and they do cover the whole of Texas history, from pre-colonial & Spanish eras, all the way up through the Alamo, cowboys & the Civil War then on to NASA & Buddy Holly.


It's an interesting place, but not quite as cool as I was hoping. This was especially a bit of a letdown after the utter awesomeness of the capitol. The one thing they do have going for them is the IMAX theater. They're currently showing Dolphins & Whales, Grand Canyon Adventure 3D, Sea Monsters 3D, and The Dark Knight. Yup, they've got Batman, and he's three stories tall. How cool is that?

**In the interest of full disclosure, all these pictures are off the web. I got there too late to do the whole tour at the capitol and the Bullock museum doesn't allow cameras.**

Zilker Summer Musical (Beauty & The Beast) - Austin, TX

We finally got to the first of our adventures for the Summer Adventure Challenge. Last night we went to see Beauty & The Beast at the Zilker Hillside Theater, the 50th annual offering from the Zilker Summer Musical. The play, as always, was free, but they've started charging $3 for parking for big events like this. We parked at the soccer fields across the street because we only had a dollar with us. People show up about 5:30 or 6pm, so the hillside fills up fast for the 8:30 show. We got there at 8 and joined some family that had gotten there earlier. Our view was partially obscured by the lighting arch, but we were still close enough to gawk at the costume detailing.


The puppetry for the prologue was very inventive--I had wondered how they were going to do that. The flash you see is the old woman turning into the lovely sorceress.


I loved looking at the costumes (blame the history buff in me), and the most curious thing I noticed is that the play was set a good 50 years before the movie. I haven't seen the Broadway version, so I can't say how this play differs from that one, but our costumes were definitely 50 years before the costumes in the movie. They were still beautiful, and delightfully detailed, though. The wolves were very clever, and my favorite servant was the sugar tongs.


The children were all entranced by the action on stage.


At intermission the cast members come out with donation buckets. It's a fun tradition--everyone loves getting to see a part of the play come out among us, and it gives everyone the chance to contribute what they can to the cause. (For those who are curious, it took $200k to put on this year's production.)


By the end of the play, my son had gotten really into it. When Belle left to go help her father, he kept asking "Where'd go, Lella?" I tried to tell him that it wasn't Cinderella, it was Belle, but eventually gave up and told him she went to help her daddy. Then, when the beast and Gaston were fighting, he would gasp and look at me with this funny little fish mouth every time something happened.


It was a late night, the play getting over just after 11. We took naps in the afternoon to get ready, but everyone was still wiped out.


I asked my daughter, this morning, how she liked the play, and she said it was good. She liked the songs and the clothes, and thought it was fun that the actors got to play dress-up and pretend to be the people in the story.

Concert & Fireworks at Auditorium Shores - Austin, TX

It's not on our list because we go every year, but I thought I'd share.

Every year the Austin Symphony Orchestra puts on a free concert and fireworks show for the people of this lovely city. After several years of construction and renovation, it was back at Auditorium Shores (the park along the river, right in front of the Long Center, where the Symphony performs), a way better location on all fronts than Zilker Park (huge park just south of the river and downtown) could ever hope to be. To be fair, Zilker has Barton Springs pool and picnicing areas across the street from where they did fireworks, but those are before-activities, not during-activities, and traffic was beyond awful in and out.

We caught the bus because parking is usually a nightmare with that many people, and we live right on one of the lines that goes right past Auditorium Shores. Once there, we met up with my husband's sister and her family. We ate snacks (there's tons of food vendors, though we usually bring our own) and grooved to the radio station that broadcasting the concert. At concert time, we could see the symphony pretty well and the sound system was set up so everyone, even the people on the other side of the river, could hear.


My son rocked out to Leroy Anderson and his Syncopated Clock, dancing around the blankets, and loved being bounced on my knees for Sousa and the 1812 Overture. My daughter somehow fell asleep during that last one and missed ~95% of the fireworks.


The show was great and as a bonus you could see the reflections ripple down the side of one of the new condo towers. It was a super cool effect.


Here's a video of the show. No, my camera doesn't have sound.