(photo of the state Capitol Building by me, as viewed from the conference room of the Lloyd-Gosselink law firm)Last week I was supposed to take a 2 day work trip to Austin to testify as part of an administrative hearing in an underground waste injection well permit hearing. However, it ended up keeping me in Austin pretty much all week, leaving me behind at work as well as mentally and physically drained. If anyone is interested in hearing about the environmental, hydrogeologic or public policy issues from me just email me as I won't be going on about those here.
However, I did get a chance to take in some local color while visiting. After making an offhand comment about running on the hotel treadmill the first morning in town, my friend Heather went into action and found me a good running route, which I more or less used for 3 of the mornings I was in town. The course took me from my hotel, past the Capitol Building, down and around the Town Lake running trails along downtown's south side and then back to the hotel. One of the days I finished the run by running uphill to the Capitol Building steps. This amounted to more than my usual running, but I sure needed it given my frustration level over these days.
Fortunately, I also had enough free time to make it to Homeslice Pizza which is an "independent neighborhood pizza joint serving authentic NY-style pizza—by the pie or by the slice—to nice people like you." They have good pizza, with more than just a bit of attitude, but a well deserved reputation. While I failed to make it to the famed Barton Springs pool, I did make it to the Deep Eddy Pool for some lap swimming. Deep Eddy is also a historic local site. The pool itself is fed from a hand dug well with untreated water that is around 70 degrees--cold but nice. Finally, I also got share a nice dinner at ALC (Austin Land and Cattle) Steaks. Everything here was very good, I was told the flash fried spinach was very good--and it was! Each spinach leaf was akin to a potato chip in texture while keeping the spinach taste, although I have to wonder if it still was technically healthy at that point. Also, I caught up with Heather and Jeff for dinner one night for dinner at Torchy's Tacos near their house, where I had a very good pork green chile taco dinner.
Fortunately I was able to leave for home by Friday evening to see my family and dogs again, although I wasn't so keen on seeing the higher humidity again.
3 comments:
Sounds like you made the best of a frustrating situation. Sounds like you got some good mileage in as well. Congratulations on taking care of yourself even when the stress could have made it very difficult.
I can't believe you had to stay until Friday! At least we got to see you one night and you got some Homeslice. You have to admit the entire trip was worth it to get to run at Town Lake! And you were going to run on a TM-glad I could help you avoid that! I haven't run on a TM since I moved to Austin- too pretty here for TMs!
Sounds like a good trip over all. =)
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