Saturday, July 05, 2008

City of Austin Fireworks?

= AWESOME

My folks came into town today for a little family cookout. Susan joined us, as did Jason + Cassidy and one Heather Wagner.

I was wary of the heat of the day and the lack of shade in my backyard, and so had planned to cook inside. Jason, believing this to be unpatriotic, took control of the charcoal and flame. He is GrillMaster '08. And he did, I might say, a superior job.

Mom brought in some really good asiago and spinach sausages. Susan brought a nice pasta salad. Heather brought some vegetarian sausages. And I picked up some burgers.

Anyway, we had too much food and drink, but that's a good problem to have.

Afterwad, we headed to the Hyatt at Town Lake, where my folks had rented a room. We picked a nice spot, met up with some family friends, and enjoyed the sun going down and waited for the fireworks.

I haven't seen a fireworks show in Austin for several years. Last year was our first Fourth back, and we wound up shooting off bottle rockets with Mangum out in Buda. Prior to that, we'd either been in Phoenix or visiting Houston. Prior to that... I don't really recall. But Austin's fireworks were really, really good this year.

Much better than the usual Chandler, AZ fireowrks, anyway. The company and lakeside view didn't hurt, either.

So a tip of the hat to my folks for landing us a nice spot for fireworks. It was a very nice Fourth.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The last time I saw fireworks in Austin would have been 1999, if memory serves. I remember we walked up to the top of one of those large parking structures with throngs of others in that part of town where Liberty Lunch and the Austin Music Hall are/were.

The League said...

Ah, how times change. Austin Music Hall has been completely renovated since then and Liberty Lunch has been replaced by large, squat buildings hosting software companies.

I am unsure if there are parking structures with views now that condos are what dominate the shoreline, but the folks in the condos must have had an amazing view.


Next year I may wish to actually brave Auditorium Shores, just so we can be within earshot of the Symphony. We couldn't really hear them from our spot.

But, we had margaritas, so it all pans out.