Austin’s Food, People, Hot Spots and Vibe
Find your Zen-Yoga with WeViva at KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program)
Living in one of America’s fittest cities, an Austin woman identified a lack of healthy lifestyle options for adults in low income communities, particularly in the areas of fitness and wellness.
Carolyn Haney, Founder of WeViva, created an amazing mix of lifestyle and social trials that are changing the way families in low income communities think about and implement exercise and nutrition in their daily lives. [Read more...]
This guest blog post is by Hunter Stanford.
Wells Branch is a course your grandfather would approve of. No bells, no whistles and it isn’t here to prove anything. Rather, one might consider this disc golf course to be a straight-shooter.
Maybe you’re still scratching your head. My grandfather doesn’t even know what disc golf is. To be clear, the Wells Branch disc golf course is as standard of a course as they come. There’s nothing incredibly hard, easy, varied or zany. Whether that’s a bad thing or not is really up to you and your expectations. [Read more...]
Getting ready to fly
Hollywood blockbusters tease our sense of adventure with enticing special effects.
The imagination revs up when we see gadgets like Marty McFly’s hoverboard in Part II and Part III of Back to the Future. Even though the technology may not exist in the real world, our desire to experience the fantastical is alive and well.
Face it. If you could hop on a real hoverboard or jump on the Green Goblin’s “Sky Stick” right here in Austin, wouldn’t you take the shot?
The question isn’t hypothetical. [Read more...]
The group gathers for the start of Thursday Night Social Ride
This guest blog post is by David Thomas.
I first encountered Social Cycling Austin in 2009, during SXSW. I was cruising about downtown on a 3spd beach cruiser with ape hanger handlebars. A couple of folks invited me on a group ride that was sponsored by the newly formed Social Cycling Austin group.
The years passed and my schedule never permitted me to join them in their rides again…until recently.
Social Cycling Austin was founded in 2009. Keith Byrd was very active in its organization and Brooks Goldsmith took care of their social media. The group’s goal is to bring awareness to bicycling in Austin. Their mission statement is summed up in their motto: “Putting Butts on Bikes since 2009.” [Read more...]
Though everyone is using the same inspiration, paintings can turn out very different!
I once decided after a friend gifted me with his old easel that I was going to paint.
I went out to the local craft store and bought a starter kit, some brushes and some really cheap canvas. I wore an old white button-down shirt, ready to have it creatively splattered with paint. [Read more...]
Brad’s tall bike
This guest blog post is by David Thomas.
Austin is known as a bike friendly town. Bike lanes are all over the place, even in areas that see almost no bicycle traffic. City buses and MetroRail accommodate cyclists and there are seemingly countless bicycle shops in the Greater Austin Area serving countless riders with different preferences and riding styles. So it’s no surprise that an event like FrankenBike exists in Austin.
On the morning of January 25, 2013, my girlfriend’s son and I loaded up our bicycles and headed south to 5th and Comal. We were going to FrankenBike. After a pit stop at McDonald’s, we parked near the corner of 5th and I-35. We unpacked the bikes and started our seven block trek through drizzling rain, construction and traffic and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Sorry, I lost myself, though there was construction going on around 5th and San Marcos. [Read more...]
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Owner Rob Smith with popular board game, Small World
Sometimes when you’re looking for things to do in Austin, you want to find something a little more low-key. We recently discovered Great Hall Games on N. Lamar near 2222 (5501 N. Lamar Blvd.). It’s become our go-to spot to spend a couple of hours playing games together in a friendly, laid-back environment.
Great Hall Games keeps an active schedule, with planned activities six days of the week. Here’s the rundown: [Read more...]
How long have you lived in Austin? I’d bet money that it’s less than two years. Maybe even less than a year.
Now, it could be that the odds are in my favor. People who have lived in Austin for more than two years are seasoned Austinites. They don’t need to read blogs to find things to do in Austin.
Or it could be that my initial hunch is right. True blooded, native born Austinites have all dissolved into thin air, displaced by the pressure of so many transplants. (Though I did live here as a young kid, and I did go to UT, I’m a transplant too. But that’s beside the point.) [Read more...]
This guest blog post is by Hunter Stanford.
All day we saw six people, were never in danger of being hit by a car, never once wondered just where the heck we were, and actually caught a glimpse of some seemingly unspoiled nature.
Further, there were no hordes of joggers, groups of stubborn mothers hogging the walkway, or middle school punks with their glares.
These, my friend, are some fine stats for a disc golf course. [Read more...]
As Austin bloggers, we can assure you that there’s no shortage of things to do in Austin. Our Austinot blog is full of them, and each week we’re invited to try something new and unique.
When it comes to exploring all that Austin has to offer, there are only three things that limit you: traffic, parking and your imagination.
Any Austinite will tell you that parking and traffic can be maddening.
But what if you could permanently eliminate these maddening aspects of our city and let your imagination run free?
Enter Rocket Electrics. [Read more...]
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Click Play on the podcast player above to listen to this week’s episode of the Austinot Podcast!
In honor of a rainy September weekend, here is our Austinot list of what to do when it’s raining in Austin. We moved to Austin from Seattle. In Seattle, if you don’t leave your home because of rain…you better have a comfortable couch. In Austin, most of us like rain. But we don’t get it a lot, so we don’t really know what to do when it arrives. We want to help you out with that. Our list isn’t exhaustive, but we like it a lot. Feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments!
Pottery painting at Cafe Money in Austin
With three Austin locations to choose from, spend your rainy day painting pottery in a welcoming and fun environment. There are dozens of pieces for you to choose from, and Cafe Monet provides all of the paint and art supplies you need.
After you finish, leave your pottery there for a week so that they can fire it in your kiln. Then it’s yours to take home. [Read more...]
When I was a member of the United States Coast Guard, I had to go to several laser tag arenas as part of “team building” exercises. I also went to a few with my church community as part of “youth group” events. Call it what you want, the experience was always the same.
Heading to Blazer Tag, I figured I was in for your typical laser tag arena, an over-priced “family fun” indoor playground boasting semi-defective equipment, disinterested employees, sticky floors and the stereotypical bunch of little kids running around.
I was wrong. [Read more...]
Eric and Brittany with matching bikes, ready to explore!
Discovering Austin, TX is a great adventure to be on. Here at the Austinot, it’s what we do every day. The Austinot is not a typical blog that posts every now and then. For us, discovering Austin is our full-time job.
We love to get the word out about everything related to Austin, TX and we are just getting started! [Read more...]
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Historic rock structures at McKinney Falls State Park
Click Play on the podcast player above to listen to this week’s episode of the Austinot Podcast!
We’ve been on a state park kick lately. And for good reason. Texas state parks are beautiful and no two are alike. They also provide something Austinites crave in the middle of summer: water.
This past week, we finally made our first trip out to McKinney Falls State Park. I don’t know why it took us so long to go, considering that it was all of 25 minutes from where we live in North-Central Austin. [Read more...]
What’s creepier: The phrase, “I was desperate for ‘A Grown-Ups Love’ or that creeper peeper with the “S” sweater is named Lonny?
I don’t know how to describe marriage. Sure, there are descriptors you can use to paint the picture of a relationship: happy, sad, angry, contentious; whatever. But the abundance of healthy relationships, I think — ones that work anyway — are centered in a type of commonality that isn’t really ripe for description.
When I belch and watch football and grunt like a neanderthal or if I’m dragged to the profoundly miserable Sex and the City 2 or made to endure indubitably girly “craft nights” — you know, these things that would otherwise find people incompatible — there’s that commonality with each other that brings us together. [Read more...]
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