Installment #13 in Monolisticle's Ongoing Campaign Against the "Internet of Endless Listicles."
Whatever you darn well please.
That’s the one best thing to do in Austin, Texas. And it’s the one thing that makes the city of Austin truly great—the feeling that you can do pretty much anything you want, and no one will care. Or bat an eye. At all. As long as the thing you’re doing isn’t bothering somebody else, you’re good to go. Have at it.
And that’s an important distinction. Because even though Austin is more than a little different from the rest of Texas, it’s still a Texas town. Which means that they place a high premium on civility, politeness, respect, and consideration for others.
And part of that consideration for others is respecting other people’s right to express themselves. Even if that self-expression isn’t your personal cup of iced tea (or prickly pear margarita).
The value of the “Keep Austin Weird” movement isn’t that you are required to be weird; the value is that it’s socially acceptable to be weird. If you want to. Most people who live there aren’t. But simply knowing that you could be weird, or do something weird—if you ever happened to want to do something weird—is pretty liberating. And comforting. Even if you never exercise that societal freedom, ever. Personally, I like to leave the truly weird to others. I'm fine being a spectator.
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The result of such tolerance is an eclectic mix of everything. In Austin, you’ve got your Willie Nelson hippies and neo-hippies and neo-bohemians. You’ve got your Michael Dell tech people. You’ve got your Robert Rodriguez and Mike Judge creative people. And you still have quite a few conservatives. And to each of those groups, all the other groups are a bit weird. But that’s okay. This is Austin.
At a neighborhood coffee shop you're just as likely to run into filmmaker Robert Rodriguez as Michael Dell. And the dress code is equally free-minded. At a nice restaurant you might find someone in a tux or jeans or cowboy boots. Pumps or flats. In a tie or tie dye. Or a tie that’s tie-dyed. It’s all good.
And as the self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital of the World," you can walk down 6th Street in Austin or venture into any bar in Hill Country and hear country, or pop, or psychedelic rock, or punk-rock, or just plain rock-rock. Or maybe even an electric harpist. You never know.
So however you decide to do your weird (or non-weird thing) in Austin, there are plenty of amazing places to do it. My recommendation during the day and during the warm months (which in Texas is the majority of the months) is: find a pool. Austin has some of the best outdoor pools in the world. But the best pool within the city limits is Barton Springs. It's 900 feet of outdoor spring-fed water that heavenly hovers in the 70-degree range all year. And so as not to disappoint on the weird front, it's not uncommon to see topless sunbathers. Not that topless sunbathing is all that weird. But this isn't Europe. It's Texas. Albeit, Austin, Texas.
Venturing slightly outside the city, the best natural pool in the surrounding Austin area is Hamilton Pool, a 27-mile drive outside of town. Is it worth the drive? Absolutely it's worth the drive. Unequivocally yes it's worth the drive. It's also worth the 1/4 miles or so hike through the woods to get to it. Hamilton Pool is a perfect example of Mother Nature doing whatever she darn well pleases. It's more than a pool. It's a natural wonder. The pool is within a grotto—the result of an underground river whose dome collapsed thousands of years ago. There's even a 50-foot waterfall, a trail you can hike along the rim of the grotto, and Ashe junipers. The whole area is something else. Truly.
Yes, there are plenty of other fun and time-worthy things to do in Austin. Walking or biking around Zilker Park and Lady Bird Lake. Shopping and sightseeing along SoCo (South Congress). Listening to live music, etc. But my idea of a perfect day in Austin, Texas would be to start off the day with local breakfast tacos. Drive out to Hamilton Pool for a hike and swim. Grab a late lunch at a barbeque joint back in the city. Spend the afternoon lying around, lounging around and swimming around out at Barton Springs. Hit up a Tex-Mex restaurant for dinner and margaritas. And then a night out to see if it really lives up to its name of "Live Music Capitol of the World." It kind of does.
I’ll admit that Austin isn’t quite as weird as it once was. Which is why they started the "Keep Austin Weird" thing in the first place. It was in danger of losing it’s weirdness. But a drive through town will show you that it still has a long way to go before it comes anywhere close to normal.
A long, long, long way.
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