I like Austin well enough but I always think it gets a huge amount of extra credit by being surrounded by the rest of Texas. Pick Austin up and drop it in California or Arizona (or even next to Tampa or Orlando) and suddenly no one would care. But compare it to the overgrown redneck NRA wunderlands of Houston and Dallas and Austin is a shining city of diversity, modernity, art, cuisine and forward thought.
There’s a handful of places worth visiting in Texas (Austin during the Moontower Comedy Festival this week which I skipped only because their acts were stale and duplicative of last year for the mid level acts, San Antonio for a two day trip, the Big Bend NP the one or two months a year it’s not meltingly hot, Fredericksburg and the wineries surrounding the “Hill Country” and Lockhart for the “BBQ” Texans claim as their god given heritage but are really based on old Jewish recipes for brisket), but for 95% of it I view Texas a just a bigger, richer Arkansas or Mississippi with far more white rednecks shooting Yosemite Samlike at all times.
Now Phoenix and Tucson (which I like better) are a really underrated metro area. All four major sports, big diversity of food, and big name music and comedy acts coming in all the time. We don’t think of it much in Florida, but I definitely love the area and would have it in my top 10.
