The Texas State Capitol building is beautiful this time of year with all of the lights, so I would agree with other posts that it is a must see.

For barbecue, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the following places:

County Line (2 locations: Bee Caves Road just past Loop 360 & FM 2222 just before Loop 360)

Iron Works (100 Red River, between 1st and 3rd streets)

Stubb's (801 Red River, between 8th and 9th streets)

Stubb's also has pretty good live music. The schedule can be found here:http://www.stubbsaustin.com/music_home.html

These are a couple of my favorite 24 hour eateries:

Katz's (618 West 6th Street, between Rio Grande and Nueces)

Magnolia Cafe (2 locations: 2304 Lake Austin Boulevard, just past loop 1 & 1920 South Congress Avenue, between Mary and Johanna Streets)

Both have good food and are reasonably priced.

I think another post mentioned the Texas Rollergirls; they will be in action on Saturday at 7 PM (don't know if you'll be on your way to California by then). Here are the details:
http://www.txrollergirls.com/

Here's the information on the Fun Fun Fun Fest:
http://www.funfunfunfest.com/

In addition to picking up a copy of the Austin Chronicle, here is a site that lists a wide variety of upcoming events:
http://www.austin360.com/

Have a great time in Austin, and enjoy the rest of your trip.

Another thing you may be interested in doing on Thursday night is to go to First Thursday on South Congress (SoCo). They have it on the first Thursday of every month. There are vendors, musicians, street performers and so on. Check out the website at:
http://www.firstthursday.info/

Nevermind that last post, it is not December yet so it is not the first Thursday of the month. I had my dates mixed up, sorry.

quote:

Originally posted by mr2z0:

quote:

Originally posted by mr2z0:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by leachykeen:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by mr2z0eople in TX are lucky! the tempuratures here in western maryland are Frezzing!

I’ll trade you this winter for our past summer. You can always put on a hat or a blanket, there’s only so much gin & air conditioning one can afford when it’s all the triple digits!

To come to think of it, I love that it's frezzing! It's already snowed once and I can't wait for more. winter is so cozzy in a blanket

Where ever it is ya'll end up eating, ask for a Shiner.

ACL.....ROCKS....

ACL ROCKS......

It's so funny how people in Austin are so quick to differentiate Austin from the rest of Texas, yet the activities they suggest doing are so stereotypical Texas! Eating BBQ, Tex Mex, watching football, etc.

People talk about all the great culture. Yeah, there's some, but it definitely lacks the bigger city, international feel of the other larger Texas cities. Austin to me has a small town college atmosphere to it. It's nice if you like that sort of thing, but I wasn't impressed. I think it wants to be a San Fran or Seattle, but it's nowhere near.