Austin 2

Lake Travis

The Oasis is a huge bar overlooking Lake Travis a half hour away from Austin on yet another windy road.  The bar is as large and tackily decorated as Seacrets.  During the off-season, it’s as desolate as the Great Salt Lake.

Carsickness headache.

Lake Travis 

It was 22 F in Austin when we visited.  Those are icicles hanging from the bucket.

Actually, the decor is worse than Seacrets.

Lucky Lizard

Some embrace Austin’s weirdness, while others exploit it.  We went to the Lucky Lizard, which is part store, part museum, and all weird.  Its Museum of the Weird, which is the modern version of a Dime museum, showcases a few freak-show items – few real, most fake.  We even got a tarot card reading.  Unless you’re into that stuff, I would save yourself the money and just check out the store, but be prepared for the hard sell on their t-shirts.

 Bird: Real; Gator: Fake.

Fiji Mermaid: Fake 

Two-headed cow: Fake 

Lizards: Real and squirmy. 

Ayk seeking sage advice from a creepy robot.

6^th Street

Austin is the Live Music Capitol of the World.  Or so they say.  Our friends recommended we visit Stubb’s, but they didn’t have any live shows on a Wednesday night.  Instead we went to Friends and Dizzy Rooster.  They had decent cover bands, but I’m sure we would’ve seen something better if we were there on a weekend.

Ads don't lie.

Dear Austin: Parallel parking is not supposed to be front-end first.  Learn how to park properly.  It’s not that hard.  You can always try again.  (Ours is the red car actually close to the curb).

Day 19: Drive to Joshua Tree

After our short tour of San Diego on Friday, we headed to Joshua Tree National Park that afternoon.  We stopped in Coachella, which other than a music festival every summer, really has nothing going for it.  Maybe windmills.

I would have gotten more pictures of this drive, but it was really windy and taking pictures only makes carsickness worse.

Palm tree farm (not sure what they're cultivating) and Salton Sea in the background. 

San Francisco: Twin Peaks & Lombard Street

Home to the hippies, a house with too many father figures, and sorta close to Ayk's friend Mo.

When Ayk told his parents and I told my mom about the road trip, they were mostly concerned about traveling through the snowy, mountainous areas.  My dad, on the other hand, was mostly surprised and disappointed that we were going to San Francisco.  “San Francisco?” he grimaced.  “The weather’s going to be awful there.”


Of all the wintry places we were visiting, like the Midwest, the Great Plains and the Rockies that get pummeled with snow, he was the most concerned about the rainy weather that San Francisco has year round.  Thanks for the heads up, dad.  Best bring my raincoat (I actually didn’t bring one, so I hang my head in shame for mocking my dad rather than taking his advice).


Though this was Ayk's first time visiting San Francisco, I went for Spring Break my freshman year with some Zetas.  The weather isn't the best, but it's a really great (but expensive) city that I knew Ayk would like.


Thankfully Mo, Ayk's friend from University of Maryland who lives in Sacramento, took us to see some sites new to both of us.  With so much to see, I divided our day on Saturday in San Francisco into four posts.

Twin Peaks

An overlook for a great view of the city, but of course it was rainy that day, so we could only see as far as the Castro and their giant rainbow flag (not pictured).

Ayk and Mo 

We were up to our elbows in "Uranus" ... jokes.

Lombard Street
The windiest road in the US, making it an ideal set for car commercials and a free roller coaster ride for tourists.

People actually live on this street. 

 I'm sure backing out of your garage only adds to the morning stress.

The endless stream of tourists are just the cherry on top. 

Good thing it doesn't snow here.