I enjoy exposing people to new things or possibly things that one should do at least once in their town but just haven't gotten around to doing. It was with this in mind that our home team decided to do some "Austin firsts" with our crew for some that haven't yet partaken in some of the uniquely Austin-y things to do.
We started off our evening with a trip to Frank & Angie's Pizzeria, some of the best pizza in Austin. With great names for the pies like The Travolta (a white pizza), the Scorsese (a meaty pizza) and the Chairman of the Board (a supreme pizza), the atmosphere is as much fun as the food. It usually fills up pretty quick, and the parking is pretty limited, but if you can get down there before the rush it's a great experience.
From there we headed on down to the Congress St. bridge to see the bats fly. There are several massive colonies of Mexican Free-tailed bats that live in various parts of Austin, with the most popular location being the park near the offices of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper. We've had several folks that have lived here for many years and still haven't been down to see them fly, and it's definitely something that every resident should do at least once. It's amazing to see - they start circling under the supports of the bridge, a little at a time, and then one makes a beeline out from underneath to start; perhaps he's some sort of scout or something. Within 10 minutes of that one leaving, the rest of the flying population leaves to go bug-hunting in one giant column that can take an hour and a half or more to complete. At this time of year, the viewing was okay, but the females had just given birth so the entire colony isn't yet flying. By the end of August and into September all 1.5 million of them will be leaving on a nightly basis at the fall of dusk to go keep Austin mosquito-free. It's a wonder of God's creation.
Finally, we ended up the evening with a viewing of Better Off Dead - John Cusack at some of his most amusing. It's one of those John Hughes films that everyone should see because it's just so much fun to watch (even though it's highly cheesy). We had a fairly large percentage of our group that hadn't seen the movie, so some of us that are "in the know" on these things decided that this would be a perfect movie to kick off a "movies everyone should see" series. There are so many movies out there and to know that someone is going through life having never seen "Ferris Beuller's Day Off", well....that's just tragic.
So all in all, we had a good night of fun and hangin' out, and now I feel like I've helped enrich the lives of my surrogate family by given them opportunities to experience some of the awesomeness that Austin has to offer. The next outing should be quite fun as well. Anybody got any good ideas on what we might want to do next? Something that every Austinite should do at least once?
Do tell.
