It's Princess Picture Tuesday

Ok, it's picture Tuesday in general. I have photos of my little PQAL or, for those of you who don't know what that stands for, my little Princess of Quite A Lot.

I also have pictures of my hometown. I still run into people in this day and age who think that all cities in Texas, except Dallas and Houston are podunk little dusty places. Well, Austin is not one of them. Austin and it's surrounding "suburb cities" proudly serve as home to over 1.5 million people. Yes, folks, Austin is NOT a little podunk, dusty, horse riding Texas town. We are a metropolis. Though the smallest feeling metropolis there is. I have lived here ALL MY LIFE - SIGH! - and while the population has changed, the activities and amount of things to do really haven't. There's 6th street and the warehouse district. Austin's version of NOLA's Bourbon Street and Dallas's West End. It USED to be a place to go and hear great live music. Now, it's overrun by dance clubs that all look and sound alike. No diversity. Overrun by college girls whose skirts barely cover their pootie-poo and whose shirts can hardly contain their hootie-hoos. I hate being around stupid, drunk, "look at me I'm so cute heehee!", college girls and the a$$holes who try to pick them up. That is why I like the live music venues. They almost never go there. There are some live music venues still left on 6th, but not many. And it will be even worse now that they have passed the smoking ban. While I don't smoke anymore, a lot of people who go and listen to live music do smoke, and that is going to kill this town faster than a jackrabbit on crack). I used to, off and on, for roughly 15 years (more off than on b/c I've probably smoked a total of 4 years if you add up all the times that I've smoked between breaks. Not so bad - 4 years out of a span of 15). Anyway, it sucks for Austin's live music industry and it pisses me off b/c that is what Austin is known for. It's the death knell for it. Then there's the artsy part of Austin. Which is only good if you have $$$ to buy tickets to go anywhere or see anything like the museums, there are only a couple free ones here in town, or the ballet or opera or musicals. Which I all LOVE, but it's just so dang expensive to go to, especially if you're in the middle class or lower class brackets. Then there's the lake, which is frequently populated by a bunch of drunk rednecks with copious amounts of beer, yelling at their kids. The lake is beautiful. Austin is known for it's lakes. But the people that go out there...it's a redneck's paradise. That's about what there is to do here in town other than go to poolhalls or watch UT sports. University of Texas for the uninformed. Well, not REALLY all there is to do, it's just that it's been the exact same stuff that there was to do when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong, Austin is a GREAT place to live. There's really no other place like it in the world, it's just that from someone who has lived here all of their life, you would think that the amount of things to do would have increased as time has gone by.

Anyway, I have REALLY digressed, enough of this rant. I am posting pictures of Austin so that other's can see that it is a fairly large city. Yes indeedy.

So without further ado, here are some new pics of my PQAL featuring her beloved "HAT":


I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture of her. I think it is one of my favorites!


SO the Drama! Here we are practicing our Princess wave. SIGH.


YEE-HAW!


A rare quiet moment from her.


Aaaaaaand back to business as usual!

Now, here are some pics of Austin. Yes, we are a big city with big buildings. We actually do have tall buildings downtown. Though, until something like 1995 or so, there was a law on the books that said that no building was to block being able to view the State capitol building at anytime from any angle. Well, that went off the books and most of this building growth has been in the last 10 years. That's pretty impressive. Though the construction and traffic hassles b/c of it really SUCKS!



The Frost Bank building. Our newest downtown addition. Was completed last year.



Two pics prior to the Frost Bank building.


Just a part of downtown during the daytime.






The capitol building is the white one to the left of the picture. The Texas capitol building is taller than the national capitol building, but it is not the tallest. That honor goes to Louisiana's capitol building. It officially is the tallest capitol building in the US.


Austin has become a hotbed of construction with several multi-story luxury apartment/condo/retail/office/restaurant buildings slated to be up in the next couple of years. Some of them are planned to be over 20 stories tall. The Frost Bank bulding still measures as our tallest building, I think, at 33 stories tall.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures! Will have more next week of my PQAL.