Rain in Austin, Texas

The rain has been falling pretty fast during my time in Austin. Hopefully though, this should change soon and the weather will smooth out a bit.

I've come to realize that Austin is more of a summer city. Alas, with the rain it becomes hard to do a lot of the things I've heard best to do in Austin. There is no possibility of tubing down the river. I cannot sit outside at many of the patio areas of restaurants for fear of getting soaked. There is no option of sweating in the heat during an outdoor movie. The bats under the bridge are all cooped up and cozy for the winter. Austin isn't able to be its full self with rainfall and cold winds. It is, however, still interesting.

Thus far, I've run and driven through the rain to find quite a few new and interesting places in Austin.

First there was the exciting Toy Joy, which was a mecca of quirky toys and fun. Then there were stacks of unicorns. There were action figures of super heroes ranging from Captain Planet to Wonder Woman to Oscar Wilde. Plastic octopuses and frogs hung from the ceiling. Toys were everywhere. It was amazing mostly because of the fact that the toys in the shop were toys replicating my childhood memories, unlike going to most toy stores.

Then there was the Spider House where we got tea and talked about old times. It felt like an English pub had fallen into Alice In Wonderland and had been made topsy tervy. The outside, where I had wished we could sit, was fenced in with old iron bed frames and the tables and chairs were muted and rusting in a variety of colors.

On to Opal Divine's Austin Grill, where we sat in the indoor patio and had a few sips. I yet again felt a bit sad about my trip's timing as I realized that they have Saturday brunches and I would be missing out.

Everyone who had lived in Austin continued to tell me that I needed to go to the Alamo Draft House. The local cinema is odd in that while watching movies you can order whole meals to be delivered to the table in front of your seat. Instead of film trailers, the theater shows hilarious old infomercials, clips, and music videos. I would recommend it to anyone, especially if they are in Austin while it rains.