We had a little time this morning before travel.. so we took a walk up Soth Congress (aka SoCo) to see my old favorite bar.. the continental club. 

Back in the day SoCo had a bunch of thrift stores, antique stores and artist lairs.. 
Sometime in the late 90’s it got a complete makeover.. it’s now full of designer stores whose brands I recognize.. but products I don’t.. (what does Benetton sell anyway)..   
We had a great breakfast  at the same place we ate yesterday with Karmanyaah.. and had the same great Acaii bowl.. Yum.. 

It also has a ton of fun and funny kitsch shops and boutique hotels and restaurants.. It’s still managed to keep some of its funk even. with the makeover .We did some fun wood shopping. 

then it was off to the airport for an uneventful flight home.. it had been a great visit !

Only surprise when we got home is that Dianes huge Aloevera plant had taken a nosedive off its perch.. What. mess !

night all, nite sam

-me

okay was Josh and hannah’s wedding.. It was a really fun and long day

We started with a run down to Barton Springs.. I used to hang out there in high school.. and get up to all sorts of mischief there. 

On the way we stopped to pay respect to Stevie Ray Vaughn.. a great folk/rock/ameriaona icon from Austin who died young..   I’ve always been a fan..
 Now Stevie’s a Sam fan !

Great sights along the trail to barton springs.. and the springs themselves brought back great memories !

Diane found an interesting graphic that explained what I already felt.. that Austin had grown huge since I was here as a kid.. When I was here in high school , Travis county had about 125,000 people .. now it’s closer to 1.5. million !

After we ran back home we washed up.. and walked up Congress to meet my friend Karmanyaah. He’s  a member of Hackclub and is just finishing his first year at UT Austin. He’s  an amazingly bright and helpful person. who’s helped us soooo much in our Project OnBoard .
he made one of the amazing boards we use to advirtize ONBord.. Its called SparkleTilt.. its an electronic level that sows the levelness of things using colored lights.. .. and it’s in the shape of the UT longhorn 

We all had a yummy breakfast then drove over to Wonderspace.. an interactive museum in Austin.. It was a little like MeowWolf in its visuals.. but with none of the story telling. its more like Hopscotch that gabe took us to in Portland.. Super fun. !> in addition to all the LED art.. they had some cool mechanical stuff. including some automated sewing machines that performed in synchronous beauty..  and some amazingly effective stats=ic 3D printed objects that were illuminated by a strobe.. 

My favorite was a set of there simple robotic arms each equipped with robotic cameras that drew a pen and ink drawing of the subject.. I sat for it.. it was so cool !

then back to drop off Karmanyah.. .

Next stop was a great visit with our niece Betsy.. It was so great catching up and hearing about her life in Austin..  She’s such a sweetie !

Finally it was time to prep for the wedding. It had gotten pretty hot.. about 95 and humid. Reminded me of growing up in Houston !

It was an outside wedding right on a beutiful lagoon. We all walked down to the river.. the wedding folks handed out and to use to keep cool.. 
It gave us time to talk to  a few folks. My ferried Lisa wa there with her husband Daniel.. Tim, Ann and Mike C’s wife were there.. … 
Soon the wedding party started to come down

Then here comes the bride !

There was a very sweet and short service right by the river. A few readings, an exchange of rings and vows..  a criushed glass.. And just like that .. Josh and Hannah were Married !

We all walked up tot eh banquet tables and mingled.. Meanwhile, the new couple got a chance to settle and eat in a special little fenced off room. I was glad to see that as it’s pretty easy to forget to eat at your own wedding 🙂 

Then there were some nice short speeches.. One from Mark, One from Josh’s older brother Justin.. a few friends of both Josh and Hannah also spoke. They are well loved people !

Then the first dance and more mingling .. and eating. I got to meet my friend Brad’s daughter Maddie !  She really reminded me of Brad !.. great family !  

I remember the time that Brad, Jim, Bill and I went from Fishkill to the Statue of Liberty in a small ski boat. It was snowing.. we picked up bill’s brother at the Statue of Liberty then dropped brad off at the pier behind the airport.. Crazy times !

Then dancing.. that included both Josh and Mark being hoisted in the air in a chair and danced around. There’s a jewish tradition for doing that when all your kids get married .. 

We had a nice time talking to folks… spent some time taking to my cousin in law Adrianne.. and my cousin Steve and his wife (also Kathy)/ also spent some more time talking to our friends from Vermont.. 

By about 10:30 folks started to head out.. We said our goodbyes.. then walked to our car..    As we did we passed the Bride and Groom’s car.. pretty nice !

It had been a great day !

Congratulations Josh and Hannah ..  you guys look like a fantastic match. We wish you all the best !

nite all, nite sam

-me

Diane and I spent the day re-aquiniting ourselves with the shiny new Austin we were visiting. We started with a really nice longish run along  both sides of the Colorado river. There are great dirt running trails on both sides.

I came back to see a social media post showing my good friend John S getting his doctorate. It is so good to see him done !

Our main destination this morning was the Museum of the Weird. It’s on Austins party street – 6th street.. I’ve always walked by.. but never walked in. It was in a creepy old building with lots of cool/campy exhibits .. kind of like ripples believe it or not. 

Next stop was out to see our good friends Carl and Brynn. Carl and I worked together closely for many years at IBM. He retired several years ago.. and now spends all of his time pursuing his hobbies and being with his family.. I get the family part, but it looks like I need to develop some hobbies if I’m going to try that

Carls main hobbies are model railroading and restoring old pinball machines. He’s dedicated much of his house to those hobbies.. including fancy 3d printers to build pros for his trains.. and an electronic shop where he builds custom printed circuit boards to control his trains.   In fact it was carls PCB work that inspired me to cook up OnBoard with hack club !.

We had a great time eating lunch (carl picked up Chum’s at our request again .. can’t get enough !) 

It was great catching up with Brynn and Carl.. they’ve been so great spreading samstone around the world when they travel for their cruises

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Austin.. and exploring the sights.. as grown up as its gotten.. Austin is still pretty funky !  

We tried to watch the bats come out under the congress street bridge.. but no bats to be seen tonight.. but some great people watching !

Last event for the day was the informal get together before Josh’s wedding. It was a great way to meet up with family and old friends. We got some time to talk to the parents of the groom.. our good friends and cousins Kathy and Mark  , Marks sister Gail and Brother Steve
(Marks grandmother was my great great  aunt Keenie)  (I will get pictures of Steve tomorrow !)  Also saw our friends Tim and Anne from Vermont and my friend Mike Conncannon’s wife ( can’t remember her name !   super nice)  Mike died quite a few years ago.. it was nice to meet his wife

Also met some new cousins..  Jonn and his wife (argh.. name ?) .. who joined us for some late night tacos..

It’s fun being down here !

nite all nite sam 

-me

This afternoon diane and I got back on a plane and headed to Austin. We’re heading to our cousin Josh’s wedding…
I’ve had at least three phases of visiting Austin:

1. In the late 70’s I  used to head to Austin to get up to mischief when I was in high school. It was 168 miles from our door to the main drag in Austin.. Many happy memories from listening to music.. and swimming where we shouldn’t.
2. In the late 90’s I worked on several big chip projects down there.. One year I was in Austin 17 times !  Worked super hard, made some great friends.. and really got in to the Austin music scene
3. In the lat 2010’s I started going down there for more fun stuff.: I gave a talk at SXSW, one at Sente, a couple of visits to the hill country

In each of those phases I saw how Austin had grown.. and also  seen how it has kept its goofy unique culture.

DIane and I found an airbnb in the south congress section of down town.. The airbnb wasn’t so great.. but the area had been totally transformed. When I used to go to the  continental club on SoCO.. the street was full of interesting second had and junk stores.. now it’s full of high end brand stores and boutique restaurants.. Still fun though

Mission one on our trip was to eat at Chueys.. Love that place !

Its nice to be back in my old home state !

nite all, nite sam

-me