Brown Motion

I was in Austin again.  Capital of Texas.  Still humid and somewhat hot.  I got to stroll down the main drag in the early morning from where I was put up to an industry conference I was attending down the road.  Main drag being Congress Avenue. What began in the mid 1800's turned into a brick lined road in early 20th century to its modern Avenue status with tree lined sidewalks on both sides of the six lane road.  It runs south of the Capitol building right over the Colorado River (not the mighty but a local version) which is dammed to form the lake on towards I-35. I got to walk it going downhill starting from my hotel close to the Capitol to where the avenue crosses the Lady Bird Lake in the form of Congress bridge.  Here are some of the interesting sites - from historic and kitchy to modern and definitively Gen Z. One thing you notice is this city takes its main artery seriously and has done much over the years...

In Oakland.  Not exactly the type of town we would venture into.  Largely because of the cliches and the news about what goes on there.  There are some parts one could wander into and not return or so we thought.  It is true in part. But today with our offspring off at a competition the Saturday lay before us like a large chasm waiting to be filled.  With something.  So the better half and I decided to loiter in Oakland.  No particular plan but hit a few things we had heard in passing mentions as a must see. Why not?  So we went to Lake Merritt.  Named for a former surgeon and one time mayor of the City of Oakland circa early 19th century.  He cleaned up what was once a sewer for the city and created a space that now houses a man made lake with drainage to the bay. Gazebo at the north end of the lake The circumference we googled was 3.5 miles which was an important metric before deciding to leave the safety of the automobile o...