{"id":1818,"date":"2016-07-15T07:48:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T12:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2016-07-15T10:00:46","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T15:00:46","slug":"an-awesome-time-in-austin-with-11-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/an-awesome-time-in-austin-with-11-year-old\/","title":{"rendered":"An ‘Awesome’ Time in Austin With 11-Year-Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

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AUSTIN \u2014 We have returned to a familiar city\u00a0to see it through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy \u2014 our nephew, Connor. This is his first trip to A-town. Connor is a bright, inquisitive boy possessed with an old soul in some ways. He talks slowly and seriously, adores his cousin Abbie, and loves spending time with us. He\u2019s my chess opponent as well. Connor is inching closer to the time he will checkmate me. The last time we played, the game lasted more than an hour before I finally wore down his defenses and defeated him. His day of victory is coming.<\/p>\n

As we pulled into town, we pointed out the Austin skyline, the UT tower in the distance. After dropping off our luggage and checking out the apartment we rented in West Campus through AirBnb, we headed to the state Capitol. Connor was first entranced with the DPS trooper stationed at the entrance with a semi-automatic rifle strapped over his shoulder. We led him into the rotunda and told him to look up. The five-point burnt-orange star with \u201cTEXAS\u201d spelled out between the points is at the peak. He was suitably impressed. \u201cLet\u2019s go up there,\u201d he said and started up the wide stairs.<\/p>\n

Connor stopped and read the inscription below every painting we passed \u2014of former governors, famous battle scenes such as San Jacinto and the Alamo, Santa Anna\u2019s surrender. We climbed to the second floor and went inside the Senate chambers (the House chamber is closed for renovation). A young man sat at a desk outside the senators\u2019 desks, which were roped off in velvet. He was reading a paperback and casting an occasional eye at the visitors, making sure nobody did anything untoward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat has to be one of the most boring jobs in America,\u201d my Beautiful Mystery Companion remarked. I agreed. We climbed to the third floor and looked down. Connor did so from a distance. Abbie had no intention, having a lifelong fear of heights. I leaned over and looked at the folks at the bottom taking cell phone photos upward.<\/p>\n

As we left, Connor remarked, \u201cWow. That was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next stop on the essential Austin tour was dinner at Guero\u2019s Taco Bar, a required stop on any visit to A-Town. I had assured Connor this would be the best Mexican food he had ever placed in his mouth. The pressure was on, and Guero\u2019s delivered. Connor liked his cheese enchiladas so much we returned the next evening. He agreed Guero\u2019s was considerably better than Taco Bell. I believe his exact word was, again, \u201cAwesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the sun began to set, we headed to Congress Avenue to join several hundred folks gathered for the nightly bat show. On cue, the bats emerged from beneath the bridge over Lady Bird Lake and headed east quickly forming a thick cloud that drew shouts and cheers from the crowd. Connor busily snapped photos with his Nintendo \u2014 which I had no idea was possible. He turned and smiled at us. Seeing the bats fly was tops on his list of things to do while in Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Star of Destiny\u201d film at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum provides a tactile tour of the state\u2019s history, with mist descending during a thunderstorm on screen and lightning flashing along the ceiling. When settlers encounter a nest of rattlesnakes, our seats poked up, causing Abbie to squeal and Connor to look more than a little alarmed. The museum also received an \u201cawesome\u201d rating.<\/p>\n

At one point, he turned to my Beautiful Mystery Companion, who he calls Aunt Hiss (it\u2019s a long story) and said, \u201cYou know, I\u2019m not even missing home because I\u2019m having so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

After brunch at Kerbey Lane, where Connor said the gingerbread pancake was like having \u201cChristmas in your mouth,\u201d we toured the Drag. Aunt Hiss bought him a \u201cKeep Austin Weird\u201d T-shirt and a junior-sized Longhorn basketball and we showed him part of the UT campus. We returned that night, after a second plate of cheese enchiladas at Gueros. One of the hidden treasures on the 40 acres is the observatory on top of Painter Hall, just north of the Tower.<\/p>\n

In all the years I spent on campus, I had no idea it existed. The 9-inch telescope came from the University of Chicago and was installed in 1933. The observatory\u2019s slot into the night sky is turned by hand-crank, and at one point the young astronomy student manning the telescope pressed me into action to rotate it.<\/p>\n

Connor stepped up and first saw the moon, than Mars, and then the show-stopper \u2014 a highly detailed Saturn, with two rings visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cAwesome,\u201d he said. My sentiments exactly.<\/p>\n

Print this entry<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Print this entryAUSTIN \u2014 We have returned to a familiar city\u00a0to see it through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy \u2014 our nephew, Connor. This is his first trip to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[51,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-51","category-columns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1818\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/garyborders.com\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}