LBJ Museum, Texas Natural History Museum -- Dave's Parents Visit Austin (March & April 2006) -- Part One

Dave’s Parents Visit Austin (The Visitation – Day One, 30 March 2006)

            My parents were due to arrive circa 11.15 on the morning of 30 March.  I was going to drive to airport to greet them, and lead them (in their rental) back to the hotel (the same place where they had stayed when they visited back in Spring 2003).  I was pulling in the airport parking garage seeking a parking space circa 10.40 when my phone rang.  Seems the flight was very good, and Mum and Dad had arrived early and were already at the airport.  I’d expected to wait a few minutes or the flight to be a little late (thus brought the Ipod), but hadn’t expected it to be at all early.

The rental vehicle was a brown Jeep Liberty, which I kept in my rear vehicle mirror going up 183 back to the hotel.  Mum and Dad aren’t use to driving in Austin traffic, so I went slower than my normal 70 to make sure they kept up.  Once they were checked in to the hotel (and changed to lighter-weight clothes for the warmer weather), there was lunch at Boston Market.  I use to eat lunch frequently at the one in Saratoga when I’d meet Pete during the day years ago, and it was good.  This was not all that great as far as I was concerned, so I’m in no hurry to go back any time soon.  My gravy was basically brown-colored water, and I didn’t even get the addictive piece of corn bread that Boston Market (then Boston Chicken) did so well.

The plan was to stay around the Austin area today (as Mum and Dad had been up since pretty early in the morning), so the first stop was the LBJ Museum.  It took a little longer for me to find the museum as it was now being resurfaced and covered in scaffolding.  That meant I looked right at it and didn’t even see it.  I’d been to part of the museum before (when they had an exhibit on the music of the 70s), so this time it was nice to actually get to wander through the entire thing.  The replica of the Oval Office on the 10th floor was interesting, especially the huge phone that was on the President’s desk (which could probably do less than the four-line phone that most standard phone-monkeys have on their desks).

When we were walking across to the museum, Dad was glad to say that he finally got to step foot on UT-Austin, after having watched them win the Rose Bowl this year.  Going past the stadium you could see how high the “nose-bleed” seats really were, and at the angle they were at surprised you that no one every fell out when leaning forward.  I commented they were the “freshmen seats.”

After the LBJ Museum, we went across the UT campus to the Texas Natural History Museum (which I’d only been to once, during that week when I was a “visitor” to Austin).  I still enjoyed the paleontology portion in the basement the most, and Mum commented that Rob would certainly enjoy this.  Mum and Dad enjoyed the museum as well, but not going up and down the stairs.  I’m not use to looking for elevators because I like the extra exercise.

The plan was then to go down to the Capitol building because Mum wanted to look at the Ten Commandments statue, but since it was now 17.00 rush hour was in full swing, so we changed gears.  We decided to the hotel, relax, and then go for dinner.  Dave took Mum and Dad through UT, then up Guadalupe (aka “The Drag”), and worked our way back to the hotel.  It was not my intention to sit in rush hour traffic, but unfortunately it couldn’t be helped.  In my tour-guide way, I pointed out how we could tell we were on the streets that were part of the college because the street signs were orange, instead of the normal green.

Returning to the hotel, we went across the street to Sam’s Boat for a drink.  This was a place that Aunt Sue wanted to stop over at when everyone was down back in Spring 2003, but never got a chance to (probably because it was too packed).  As there are a couple hotels as well as the UT Business Campus (called “M.C.C.” for some reason I don’t know) nearby, it was logical that the place is packed with loud young people.  Since it was a nice partially overcast and warm afternoon, and I wanted to wait out rush hour a little more, it made since to go over (as it wasn’t very full of those loud young people).  Mum stated that she would have to mention to Sue that they finally got to have a drink at the place where she wanted to go.

Once rush hour had thinned out, they went to my abode where the parents got to meet Stoopid.  Mum referred to Stoopid as, the “grand-dog”.  Stoopid was pretty calm for the evening, but got hyped up when he saw the red light on Mum’s camera.  Stoopid is use to having the laser pointer or flashlight to make a little light on the ground that he would chase around.  After dinner, we all adjourned back to the hotel to take advantage of the pool for a relaxing evening.  I went home a little later and didn’t sleep much because of all the Dr. Pepper that was going through my veins.

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