Tag: Texas

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Texas USA

Driving backroads beats the tar out of the Interstate

Long stretches of farm land near Nome, Texas (photo by Sheila Scarborough)Those who drive long stretches of most US Interstate highways know that, while you’ll get there faster and there might be some good places to pull off, it will be a mostly boring trip.

Fast, efficient, but boring.

If you decide to jump off on a backroad (see William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways) for at least part of the journey, it might add time and you might not see anything, either.

But the chances are good that you WILL make some sort of discovery, the kind that leaves everyone in the car grinning with delight (well, except your teenagers, but they’ll smile inwardly and appreciate it later. You know; years from now.)

That’s what I did driving from Beaumont, Texas back to my home in the Austin area after my high school reunion festivities; I pulled out the map and said, “Please, let there be some road that goes roughly in the correct direction but is not Interstate 10.”

Continue reading “Driving backroads beats the tar out of the Interstate”
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Blog Product Reviews Texas Tips USA

Gowalla and Foursquare lead traveler to House of Pies

Slice of Bayou Goo pie from Houston's House of Pies (photo by Sheila Scarborough)In my tourism training hat, people often ask me about the utility of location-based services like Gowalla and Foursquare.

Here’s an example of why they’re so handy….

I was speaking in Houston at the TFEA (Texas Festivals and Events Association) annual conference, and I needed a quick meal near the hotel.  It was a rather ritzy area – at one point I tweeted, “I’m looking for a Taco Bell in a Smith and Wollensky part of town” – but I did find a sandwich joint where I could run in and out and get something to go.

While parked, I checked in on both Gowalla and Foursquare, because I’m experimenting with them for my tourism-related clients. Both services use the GPS function on my T-Mobile Android smartphone to figure out where I am, and then show me nearby places that are listed in their database.

Both kept showing a nearby House of Pies.

Who wouldn’t want pie after a long drive and before a big speaking gig the next day?  Who has kids and spouses who like pie?

I rest my case.

Without the digital insights from Gowalla and Foursquare (and Yelp if I had launched that app, which also has a location-based function and checkins) I would not have noticed the neon-lit House of Pies building diagonally across the parking lot from me on Westheimer, a major Houston thoroughfare. There’s also a House of Pies on Houston’s Kirby Drive and they’re on Twitter as @HouseofPies1967.

One slice of their house specialty later, I was a fan of their Bayou Goo pie (a “pecan crust with a layer of sweet cream cheese, then a layer of vanilla custard swirled with chocolate chunks and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings”) and even more of a fan of location-based services that bring me the information I need, when I need it, where I am located.

It’s hard to beat that convenience at 9 pm in an unfamiliar city, I’ll tell you!

Take a close look at privacy and notification settings before you use these; the default setting tends to be a public broadcasting of your location via Twitter, Facebook, etc. and you need to think through those implications. You can choose not to inform anyone when you check in, of course; Foursquare calls it “off the grid.”

If you have a smartphone, consider getting one of these free travel apps – I’m partial to Gowalla because it has a scavenger hunt aspect that kids will like, and lots of cool Trips for travel ideas. For more insights, here’s Gary Arndt’s post Gowalla vs Foursquare as tools for travel.

These services can really help with the “what’s around here?” question as you travel.

(This post was included in the 21 July edition of Wanderfood Wednesday. Check it out for other foodie posts!)

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Texas USA

Local favorite: Monument Cafe in Georgetown, TX

Monument Cafe exterior in Georgetown TX (photo by Sheila Scarborough)The Monument Cafe is located right off of the very attractive courthouse square town center in Georgetown, Texas (just north of Austin.)

It’s a restaurant that looks all curvy and Art Deco but was really purpose-built and is quite modern in sensibility, including free WiFi and with a “non-Flash website for mobile and iPad devices.”

The menu is also modern, emphasizing fresh, organic and imaginative food that is often grown or sourced locally.

It’s more of a bistro sort of place than a diner, with fare like burgers and sandwiches at lunch, but also quiche and fresh fish.

The kid’s menu includes a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich; yum!

Monument Cafe interior in Georgetown TX (photo by Sheila Scarborough)Standard Texas diner fare like chicken-fried steak is available later in the day, but also ribeye steaks, pan-fried pork chops and that very Southern fixture, the vegetable plate.

The cobblers, pies and other desserts are homemade, of course, and delish.

The interior is larger than it appears from the outside, and there are always lots of families there.

We had lunch to celebrate my daughter’s high school graduation, and although we had to wait a bit to get in, it was worth it.

The Monument was written up in Jane and Michael Stern’s Roadfood, and one visit will show you why.

Monument Cafe raspberry lemonade Georgetown TX (photo by Sheila Scarborough)

It’s well worth a detour if you are in the area, for parents AND for kids.

I had to include this closeup photo of their raspberry lemonade, in case you have – like me – a sudden urge to take a swan dive into your icy drink on hot days.

Not that we have hot days in Texas, mind you….

The cafe is located at 500 South Austin Ave. From Interstate 35, exit University Ave. and go east 1 mile. Turn left on Austin Ave., head north a few blocks to 5th Street, and it’s on the left.

The phone number is 512-930-9586.  They are open from 7:00 am to 9:00 pm (until 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.)

(This post will be included in the fab Wanderfood Wednesday. Check it out!)

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Blog Texas USA

Report from the Nerd Break at SXSWi

As suspected, not a lot of burning family travel news to come out of my time at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference last week, but here are two items of possible interest to parents….

***  The research work of Dr. danah boyd (yes, she spells it lowercase) into social media usage of people in general, but especially teens.  She argued strongly that privacy is not dead, but you must take much more control of your privacy than you did before the ubiquitous Web.  My feeling is that parents must help in this area, but how many of them are tech-savvy enough to do so?

Here is a video excerpt from her opening keynote and here is a summary of her presentation on the excellent site ReadWriteWeb (with the so-true quote, “By and large, teenagers, according to Boyd, are more conscious about what they can gain by being public, while adults worry more about what they could lose.”)

***  The explosive growth of smartphones continues and will continue as more and more new models and services are offered (my own teen does not have one, but I can see the day coming – for now she works on her mad texting skillz.)   What does it mean when your kid has the Web in his/her pocket?

The biggest techy buzz out of “South by” this year was location-based games like Foursquare and Gowalla, where people can “check in” to different locations and collect virtual prizes for doing so.  The games are more addictive than you’d think (I play and I normally dislike games, and on Foursquare you don’t need a smartphone to play) but there are security implications to revealing your exact physical location to the whole planet, via the Web.

I strongly recommend talking about that with your tweens/teens before they jump into these services.

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Texas USA

Kid-friendly Mexican food in Houston: Lupe Tortilla

Lupe Tortilla in West Houston You know how it is in restaurants with little kids; you need to get seated quickly, get the food quickly and one parent ends up doing the “toddler-chase” while the other one bolts down the contents of his or her plate.

A good noise level to drown out the occasional squawking is a bonus.

I have a recommendation for you in Houston: Lupe Tortilla.

It’s a local chain of 8 restaurants, and I first heard about it when I wrote an article about Pro Stock drag racer Erica Enders (a Houston native and along with her sister, the subject of the Disney movie “Right on Track.”)  Erica loves Lupe Tortilla and they were a sponsor of her race car, so I thought I’d check them out on my next visit to town.

Lupe Tortilla outdoor playground for little ones who hate to wait

At the West Houston location, the place was packed at dinnertime on a Sunday, but the line moved quickly and hallelujah, there is a small outdoor playground that was mobbed with little patrons and their parents.

The food was good with a nice variety, the margarita came quickly and the noise level was enough of a din to cover squawking, but not so loud that you couldn’t carry on a conversation.

Houston being Houston, the restaurant is tucked next to a freeway (Interstate 10) and it took me awhile to find the right access road, but once I got in, life was good.

How can life not be good at a Tex-Mex joint on a weekend?

Pay Lupe Tortilla a visit.

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Photos Texas USA

Photo of the Week: rather massive brownies at Rather Sweet Bakery

Massive brownies at the Rather Sweet Bakery in Fredericksburg TX (photo by Sheila Scarborough) I know, it’s food overload this time of year, but how can you miss when it’s slab-sized brownies?

These are from the Rather Sweet Bakery in German-tinged Fredericksburg, Texas.

It’s tucked behind the historic building where Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz was born, just off of Main Street and down the road from the newly-redesigned National Museum of the Pacific War.

Founded by native Texas Rebecca Rather (known as the “Pastry Queen” and also related to journalist Dan Rather) the bakery is known for gargantuan but tasty tarts, cookies, muffins and scones, plus some of the most gorgeous cakes you’ve ever seen.

One of her featured tarts has a pretty little “hat” of curlicued meringue, and according to the staff the day we visited, the Mexican Chocolate Cake is another best-seller.

There’s a small side room to sit and order hot or cold sandwiches, and right next door they’re getting ready to open a cafe annex (“Rather Sweet, Too.”)

Guaranteed kid-pleaser!

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Texas USA

The annual search for bank robber Sam Bass

Sam Bass flyer, Round Rock TX Frontier DaysPart of the annual Round Rock, Texas Frontier Days July 4 celebration is a fun costumed reenactment of the 1878 Sam Bass Shootout.

The infamous bank robber Sam Bass was fatally shot by lawmen in Round Rock, and his name is plastered on things all over town including my son’s former baseball fields.

Actors used to stage the shootout reenactment downtown until the event became too popular, so it’s now held three times a day in pretty Old Settler’s Park during Frontier Days.

There’s a false-front recreation of town, dance hall girls, a voiceover narrative to explain the action, fake blood and loud firing of blanks – my son loved it.

I shot video at last year’s celebration; maybe it’s time to get it edited and online before we see it again this year!

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Photos Texas USA

Photo of the Week: My Guest Room

hotel-knucklehead-bfwThis Three Stooges sign is on the door to my guest room.

I’m running around cleaning it (and the rest of the house) because Austin’s South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) tech conference starts this Friday, March 13.

As a resident of the Austin metro area and a traveling guest-room-borrower myself, I’m happy to host fellow geeks at this event.

This year’s guests include social media communicator extraordinaire Liz Strauss and the multi-talented Becky McCray, who specializes in small businesses in small towns and rural areas.

On Saturday, March 14, I’ll be speaking at SXSWi about travel blogging (our panel is called Blog Highways: Travel Blogging for the Wanderer) with Seattle-based writer and photographer Pam Mandel.

We intend to pack our panel room in the Austin Convention Center….but first, Hotel Knucklehead has sheets to wash and vacuuming to do!

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Photos Texas USA

Photo of the Week: Ode to Amy’s Ice Creams in Austin

Have you noticed that my family hasn’t traveled anywhere lately? Yeah, we’ve noticed too. 🙁

I’m moderately sulky about it, but I’m determined to fill in the void by exploring my own backyard, in Austin and Central Texas.

We ran around downtown last weekend trying to get to the annual Kite Festival in Austin’s Zilker Park, but the traffic and parking were too crazy (it was a gorgeous, perfectly windy day, too.)

We decided to drown our sorrows with some Crush’ns at Amy’s Ice Creams, an Austin institution since 1984. My son had M&Ms crushed into Vanilla Bean ice cream, and Sainted Husband and I had Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups crushed into Belgian Chocolate ice cream (for me) and Dark Chocolate (for him.)

Amy’s doesn’t use a cold mixing board like Marble Slab or Cold Stone Creamery – they claim a room temperature board does a better job of bringing out the flavors. Their zany, joking staff brings out the laughter, even when the customer line snakes out the door, as it did when we visited.

We love Amy’s!

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Texas USA

A day out with kids in Austin, Texas

I don’t know about you, but lack of time and cash flow have both combined to really crimp the ol’ travel plans this winter.  Too bad, because you can find lots of bargains in January and February, when many places are in the off-season and people are busy cocoon-ing in their houses.

This past weekend, we had a nice Saturday in downtown Austin, Texas, and even though it wasn’t a “trip” per se, it was at least a day out of the house despite rather crummy weather.

Our main reason for heading downtown was a summer camp fair sponsored by Austin Family Magazine. Yes, it’s already time to think about summer camp options, and we wanted to get on the ball because I’ll quite cheerfully admit that we blow it every year and my kids tend to end up in front of video games instead of leaping into some Hill Country lake, as they should be doing during a sweltering Texas summer.

If we hadn’t gone to the fair, we still might have had some fun at the excellent Austin Children’s Museum or maybe the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, which has three floors of exhibits and a popular IMAX theater.

The Texas Capitol is also in Austin and is always good for a stroll, especially when the Legislature is in session. There’s a good Visitor’s Center to get you started.

We also keep meaning to check out the O. Henry House (the famous author lived in Austin for awhile) but I particularly want to take the family to see the annual O. Henry Pun-Off, held every May. My Sainted Husband and son adore puns!

As for our personal excursion, once we finished at the camp fair, we drove over to Zilker Park to see if anyone was swimming at Barton Springs, a lovely freshwater spring pool that is open year-round, with a constant 68 degree F water temperature.

That means that on a 45 degree day, the water feels positively balmy, and we watched a couple of lap swimmers motoring through the 3 acres of clear spring water.

(We also needed to make a bathroom call for the kids. Don’t they ever go at a convenient time?)

After admiring a nice view of the Austin skyline from Zilker, we headed back down Barton Springs Road to find some dinner. Local Tex-Mex joint Chuy’s is a perennial hit (the downtown location has a room with the entire ceiling covered in car hubcaps) but I was feeling burger-y so we went to Hut’s on Sixth Street.

It’s been around forever and serves up excellent burgers, fries and humongous onion rings. The waitstaff is friendly and efficient, and there are lots of kids.

We wanted a reasonably quick turnaround, because we were wrapping up the day at the venerable Paramount Theater on Congress Avenue – they were playing a beautifully restored 70 mm version of the movie West Side Story, on a big screen, the way it was meant to be seen. My nine-year-old son likes music and dance, and he loved it.

The Paramount has a popular summer film series that’s a don’t-miss here in Austin, but they play special movies throughout the year plus lots of superb live performances, many quite family-friendly. The theater’s Executive Director even writes an excellent blog, Off-Stage with Ken Stein.

My Dad went to the Paramount as a child, and he always comments that his first movie there was Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which apparently scared the daylights out of him.

I promise future Austin and Texas highlights, as we continue to travel close to home. Let me know if you have any particular requests.