Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital of Texas. It was originally known as Waterloo before being renamed after Stephen F. Austin, known as the father of Texas. Austin was chosen as the capital due to its central Texas location on the banks of the Colorado river. It sits on an intersection of four major ecological regions, resulting in a temperate-to-hot green oasis with a highly variable climate having some characteristics of the desert, the tropics, and a wetter climate. Due to this the days we were here the temperature was up around 90F and it was only spring. In the summer months temperatures are well above 100F. Austin's official slogan is The Live Music Capital of the World, the city has a vibrant live music scene with more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city. It is also home to the SXSW festival, one of the biggest in the world.

This climate can be enjoyed in the huge 350 acre Zilker Park. It is named after its benefactor Andrew Jackson Zilker, who donated the land to the city in 1917. It was developed into the park during the Great Depression in the 1930s. We spent the majority of the day down here taking a walk along the river to Barton Springs Pool, the nation's largest natural swimming pool in an urban area.

















From here we went to Texas State Capitol. This is the fourth building in Austin to serve as the seat of Texas government. It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas. It is the largest, but not the tallest, state capitol building in the United States. The building was constructed from convict and migrant labour and at the time of it's construction in 1888 it was billed as the 7th largest building in the world. Members of the public are allowed entry for free and we were able to walk throughout the building. This ended up in us walking into a room that was the welcoming office which had government officials sitting working away in!