Sights in Texas
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Congress Ave Bridge
Every year up to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats make their home upon a platform beneath the Congress Ave Bridge. It's become an Austin tradition to sit on the grassy banks and watch as the bats swarm out to feed on the local insect population. Capitol Cruises, behind the Hyatt Hotel, offers bat-watching cruises on Town Lake below the bridge.
Locals are proud of this, the largest urban bat colony in North America. The colony, which is made up entirely of female and young animals, is at its most active when swarming out for the nightly feed. Such is the bat-density that bat-radars have detected bat-columns up to 10,000 bat-feet (3,050m) high. In June, each female give…
reviewed
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Blanton Museum of Art
A big university with a big endowment is bound to have a big art collection, and now, finally, it has a suitable building to show it off properly. Ranking among the best university art collections in the USA, the Blanton showcases a variety of styles. It doesn’t go very in-depth into any of them, but then again you’re bound to find something of interest. Especially striking is the installment of Missao/Missoes [How to Build Cathedrals] – which involves 600,000 pennies, 800 communion wafers and 2000 cattle bones.
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Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum
Wander along the hoof-marked ground of a cattle drive, look through a rough-hewn slave cabin or duck into a 1930s-era movie. High-tech interactive exhibits and fun theatrics characterize the superb (and superbly humongous) Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. While you're downtown, you should wander by Austin's own piece of living history:
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University of Texas Museums & Galleries
The University of Texas, if not quite in the Ivy League, is a rich and prestigious school boasting several impressive museums and galleries. The Lyndon Baines Johnson, Archer Huntington and Texas Memorial museums are particularly worthwhile.
The LBJ Library, named for the 36th President, is a highlight of any visit to Austin. It much propaganda, but also offers a candid look at the social and political climate of the 1960s.
Also on campus, the Texas Memorial Museum packs a huge art deco building with displays of Texas' natural and social history. Exhibits focus on geology, paleontology, anthropology and natural history. Don't miss the impressive pterodactyl skeleton.
The …
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Sixth Floor Museum
President John F Kennedy’s downtown assassination sent the city reeling in November 1963. The shooting was followed by a chaotic manhunt and gunman Lee Harvey Oswald’s eventual assassination. The fascinating and highly audiovisual Sixth Floor Museum narrates in excruciating, minute-by-minute detail what happened and where. Eyewitness photos, video and audio clips add a vivid depth to the experience. Even the myriad twisted assassin conspiracy theories are succinctly summarized. From Dealey Plaza, walk along Elm St beside the infamous grassy knoll, and look for the white ‘X’ in the road that marks the exact spot where the president was shot. Turn around and look up at …
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University of Texas
Whatever you do, don’t call it ‘Texas University’ – them are fightin’ words, usually used derisively by Texas Agriculture & Mining students and alum to take their rivals down a notch. Sorry, A&M, but the main campus of the University of Texas is kind of a big deal. Established in 1883, UT (and no, don’t call it ‘TU, ’ either) has the largest enrollment in the state – about 50,000 students hailing not just from around Texas, but from all over the USA and more than 100 foreign countries.
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Kimbell Art Museum
Some art aficionados say this is the country’s best ‘small’ art museum while some say it’s one of the unqualified best. Take your time perusing: the stunning architecture lets in natural light that allows visitors to see paintings from antiquity to the 20th century the way the artists originally intended. European masterpieces include works by Caravaggio, El Greco and Cézanne, and Michelangelo’s first painting, The Torment of St Anthony.
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Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Library & Museum
History buffs aren’t the only ones who can find something of interest at the LBJ Library & Museum. There are some fascinating mementos from the 36th US president, including his presidential limo, a moon rock, and gifts from heads of state (‘Why, thank you Chiang Kai-shek, for this lovely Chinese tomb sculpture!’).
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Texas State Capitol
The 1888, stunning, pink-granite Texas State Capitol is really 15ft taller than the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
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Johnson Space Center
While manned US space missions such as the Apollo and shuttle programs have their high-profile launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the planning and most of the training happens at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), just outside of Houston.
The glory, guts and cigarette butts of the NASA experience have been theme-park packaged as Space Center Houston, the tourist gateway to the JSC. Heavy commercial sponsorship has led to exhibits featuring Saturn automobiles with 'space age plastic components' and a collection of Lego rockets (with kits for making them available at the giftstore).
Despite all the hype, however, you can find some actual evidence that the sp…
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Space Center Houston
Dream of a landing on the moon? You can’t get any closer (without years of training) than at Space Center Houston, the official visitor center and museum of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. When the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) opened in 1961 it practically put Houston on the map. Despite exuding a theme-park vibe, interactive exhibits nonetheless entertain. Hope that on your NASA Tram tour you get to see astronauts training for future missions; if not, you still get to peek into several actual working areas of the Space Center, such as both the current and the historic Mission Control Center (you know, the ‘Houston’ of the famous Apollo 13 line ‘Houston, we have a …
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Rangerette Museum
And we don’t mean just for oil. Twenty miles east of Tyler, Kilgore is not only home to the World’s Richest Acre, but claims bragging rights as the home of the world’s oldest women’s precision drill team, the Kilgore Rangerettes. These ladies have performed at several presidential inaugurations and every Cotton Bowl since 1950. Yet what is a Rangerette, you ask, and what exactly do they drill? Thankfully, the Rangerette Museum explains everything. If you’re lucky, one of the original Rangerettes (no, not still in uniform) will be on hand to answer questions. Don’t skip the film: it’s full of fascinating footage, and there’s no substitute for seeing the fringe-span…
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Conspiracy Museum
Do you want more proof that Oswald didn't act alone? The Conspiracy Museum looks a bit like a student's history project, but raises enough questions to make you think. Across N Market St is the Kennedy Memorial, a simple but profound sculpture by architect Phillip Johnson.
Through its amateurish displays, the Conspiracy Museum posits that Kennedy's assassination was a coup d'état to shore up the military-industrial complex that had been gaining strength in the US since WWII. It also suggests that the same people and forces that killed Kennedy were later responsible for the deaths of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr, Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick friend Mary Jo Kopechn…
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Buckhorn Saloon and Museum
The Buckhorn Hall of Horns, Fins & Feathers is one of the best kitsch spots around. The halls of mounted stuffed animals are as disgusting as any such collection, but this one features extra oddities such as a two-headed cow and a nine-legged goat.
Schlockier still are the maps of Texas formed with rattlesnake rattles, a wonderful collection of Lone Star Beer paraphernalia (like a guitar made from pull-tabs) and the pièce de résistance, the wax museum.
The wax museum was clearly assembled by buying figures from other museums and changing the costumes. In one diorama, Teddy Roosevelt consults with what's got to be Alan Ladd, and in another, it's Tom Selleck (Magnum PI) …
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Padre Island National Seashore
The 60 southern miles of 'North' Padre Island that lie outside Corpus Christi city limits are all a protected part of the Padre Island National Seashore. Four-wheel drive is necessary to see the extent of the park, but if you hike even a short distance from the visitor center, you'll be free of the crowds. The constant wind not only creates and moves dunes, it also attracts kite- and windsurfers to the inland-side Bird Island Basin area. Watch for the endangered Kemp Ridley sea turtles that nest in the park, and are closely protected. If you're visiting in late summer, you might be able to take part in a turtle release. Camping is available at the semideveloped, paved Mal…
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Lost Maples State Natural Area
The foliage spectacle in October and November at Lost Maples State Natural Area is as colorful as any you’d see in New England. In autumn, big-tooth maple trees turn shocking golds, reds, yellows and oranges. In the summertime there’s good swimming in the Sabinal River. At any time of the year, campers will find back-country primitive areas where they can pitch a tent, as well as more convenient sites supplied with water, electricity and nearby showers. Hiking trails will take visitors into rugged limestone canyons and prairie-like grasslands populated by bobcat, javelina and gray fox. Bird-watching is another popular attraction at Lost Maples due to the green kingfisher,…
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Museo Alameda
This museum opened in downtown’s Market Square in 2007, but had yet to find its financial footing at time of research so, well, call before you go. But do go if you can. Despite San Antonio’s predominantly Hispanic population, this is the city’s first art museum to showcase Mexican art and culture, as well as the largest Hispanic museum in the US. It’s also the first official affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum outside of Washington, DC, which means the Museo gets to draw on the Smithsonian’s extensive collections for its rotating displays. Plus, the building is just crazy-cool: the surprisingly modern exterior (no adobe here) has hot-pink walls accented with metal panels…
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Southfork Ranch
Who shot JR? Locals certainly no longer care (the TV drama Dallas was cancelled in 1992), but that doesn't stop interstate and international visitors from driving 20 miles north from Dallas to Southfork Ranch. If you are expecting to see Miss Ellie's kitchen or JR's bedroom, don't. The ranch was used for exterior filming only; interior shots were filmed on a Hollywood set. The family who owned the ranch during the TV-show era lived there fulltime - until the show became so popular that they woke up to fans camped around their pool. The house is now an event center. You have to take a tour to see it and the tiny museum, including props like Lucy's wedding dress.
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Bureau of Engraving and Printing
- Fort Worth, USA
- Sights › Other
No, those billions of dollars being printed in front of your very eyes are not the work of counterfeiters living on the lam, Bonnie-and-Clyde style, in Texas. You’ve just stumbled upon one of two places in the nation where ‘In God We Trust’ and Ben Franklin’s face are legally printed on oh-so-hard-to-find paper: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This US Treasury facility produces that notorious green stuff over which wars are fought, with which engagement rings purchased, narcotics snorted, bets wagered, waiters tipped and babysitters paid. The bureau suggests allowing 30 minutes to clear security, which lets you know this place is the real deal.
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San Antonio Zoo & Aquarium
Established in 1914, the San Antonio Zoo & Aquarium is famous for its animal breeding conservation programs, which have given it one of the largest endangered-animal collections in the country. But parts of the zoo still need renovation and expansion, so don’t be surprised to find some of the exhibits looking cramped. There are more than 3500 animals here, representing some 750 species. Things to see include enormous free-flight tropical aviaries and a petting zoo and playground. A recent addition is the Conservation Research Center, which has a number of endangered species on show, including the wonderfully creepy Goliath bird-eating spider.
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Modern Museum of Fort Worth
Entering this museum, you round a corner from womblike, concrete galleries to be confronted by a two-story wall of glass looking out at the city skyline. One of the largest gallery spaces for modern art in the world, it houses an incredible number of provocative and mind-expanding works by luminaries such as Mark Rothko and Picasso. Can’t-miss pieces include Anselm Kiefer’s Book with Wings, Martin Puryear’s Ladder for Booker T Washington and Andy Warhol’s eponymous Twenty-Five Colored Marilyns. The museum restaurant, Café Modern, is drop-dead gorgeous, seeming to float on the water of the surrounding reflecting pools.
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Orange Show Center for Visionary Art
Beer cans, welded-steel oranges and plastic flowers as folk art? Conservative Houston has a wacky art streak. The late Jeff McKissack molded his house into a junk-art tribute to his favorite fruit until his passing. Today it's the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, off I-45 S, which fosters the folk-art vision by offering tours and keeping up the 50,000-can exterior of the Beer Can House (222 Malone St), off Memorial Dr. The center can give directions to other arty houses around town.
The Foundation also keeps up the Beer Can House (222 Malone St, off Memorial Dr), a house, or is it a sculpture, covered with more than 50,000 aluminum cans.
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Natural Bridge Caverns
About halfway between San Antonio and New Braunfels, this national landmark cave is one of the state’s largest underground formations. Its name comes from the 60ft natural limestone bridge that spans the entrance, but inside (where it’s always 70°F) are simply phenomenal formations, including the Watchtower, a 50ft pedestal that looks like a crystallized flower. You can only see the caverns as part of a guided tour, which includes the family-friendly Discovery Tour, the Hidden Passages Illuminations Tour, or the more challenging Adventure Tours. Attached is the Natural Caverns Wildlife Park, a small zoo with rare animals.
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Sunset Station
If you happen to be in the vicinity of the Alamodome, check out the former rail depot Sunset Station. Originally the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot and the city’s Amtrak station (which moved next door), and a stop along the Sunset Limited line between San Francisco and New Orleans, the station has been fully restored to its old glory, complete with stained-glass windows and a colorful, bold interior. Don’t overlook the vintage 1916 steam engine either. The station is usually hired out in the evening for private events, but it’s open to visitors during the day. Look on its website for a historical walking tour.
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San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
Spain's missionary presence can best be felt at the ruins of the four missions south of town. Together, Missions Concepción (1731), San José (1720), San Juan (1731) and Espada (1745-56) make up San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Stop first at San José, which is the most beautiful, and host to the national park visitor center, where you can learn what life was like here from an informative film and a few exhibits. Free tours are offered at each mission. From the Alamo, take S St Marys St to Mission Rd. Bus 42 serves some of the Mission Trail from downtown (Navarro and Villita Sts).
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