Starling Travel

This postcard was really cool because it has a big hole in the middle of it. I’m surprised it got to me in one piece. I would have thought the post office machinery would have eaten it up, but it looks like it’s in pristine condition.

Thanks for another postcard, Henry!

Please send me a postcard from your travels or your hometown. If you do and it’s interesting, I will publish your postcard on Starling Travel.

Send your postcards to:

Starling Travel
Attention: Laura Moncur
P.O. Box 522032
Salt Lake City, Utah 84152

It’s like sending a postcard to the whole world when you go on vacation. It’s like bragging about your hometown to the everyone on the planet.

A couple of weeks ago, Mike and I spent a week in San Antonio, Texas. While Salt Lake City had already moved on to Autumn, coming off the plane into Texas felt like August all over again. Because I’m usually cold all the time, the warm and humid heat felt like a welcoming blanket.

This week, we are going to tell you all about our trip: where we stayed, the fun things we did and the fun things that we could have done that we missed out on. Even the unique and interesting places that people don’t normally visit.

Stay tuned for a week in San Antonio!

While Mike and I were in Austin, we were able to get this video of the bats coming out of the Congress Avenue Bridge. March is early in the season for the bats, so the sky wasn’t black with them, but there were still a lot of them to be seen. We saw three waves of bats leave the bridge. This was the second one. The video is 1:11 minutes long.

There was a crowd of people under the bridge waiting for the bats to come out. A lady was jogging along the trail and asked us what was going on. We told her about the bats and she just shrugged and kept on jogging. I wonder if she thought there was a mugging or something. We were all there waiting with our cameras. I’m shocked I was able to get anything at all.

What didn’t show up on the video was the sound the bats made and the smell of the area under the bridge. It took me a while to recognize the smell, but I realized that it smelled like a hamster cage. The sound was just like the movies. I thought the movies made up that sound and bats only made ultrasonic noises, but they don’t. There is a high pitched sqeak, kind of like a mouse, that we could hear everywhere under the bridge.

It was amazing.

Since we just got back from Austin, Texas, I have been researching the area for interesting things to do. Here is a great article about San Antonio.

• Fodor’s Travel Wire | Just Back from San Antonio

She has great advice for people who are visiting the city:

What advice do you have for someone going to San Antonio? If you can, avoid the Alamo and the River Walk on weekends, when crowds of tourists converge on places like Ripley’s Believe it or Not and the Hard Rock Cafe. On Saturday and Sunday, do the art museums and the Mission Trail, or take a drive out to Hill Country, and save the more popular sights for Friday or Monday. Better still, come during the week. You also might want to check with your hotel to see when the big conventions will be in town, and consider scheduling your visit for a time when room rates are lower and restaurants are quieter.

That advice holds true of wherever you travel. Avoid the most popular tourist sites during the weekend and visit them during the week. Choose the less popular sites on the weekend and find out when the big conventions are in town so you can avoid travelling at that time.

Since we are going to Austin for a convention, we don’t have that luxury, but that won’t stop us from enjoying what that city has to offer and hopefully we’ll be able to make a quick stop in San Antonio while we’re down there.

The Colorado River snakes its way through Austin, creating Town Lake and many other waterways. Along that river floats the Lonestar Riverboat.

• Welcome to LonestarRiverboat.com

If you have ever had fantasies about taking a riverboat ride, you can have them fulfilled in Austin. Take a sunset cruise and watch the sky turn red over the water while resting on the deck. The evening cruise is a great way to see the bats of Austin as they come out of the Congress Bridge.

Interestingly, Google Maps captured the Lonestar Riverboat when it was at dock. If you zoom in by the water on 1st Street, you can see the dock and the riverboat on the water.

Where: Lonestar Riverboat 1st Street & Riverside Drive, Austin, Texas Google Map Phone: (512) 327-1388

Every spring, the bats migrate to Austin from Mexico. They have found the cracks and creavices of the Congress Bridge a hospitable place to nest during the day. Every evening, they swarm out of the bridge and into the city to eat between 10,000 and 30,000 pounds of insects. The bats have become a beloved fixture of the city nightscape.

• This is Austin – Bats

• Welcome to Bat Conservation International – Congress Bridge in Austin, TX

• Night Wings – The Bats of Austin

Although they go back to Mexico during the winter, the bats have become a permanent fixture in Austin, Texas. The tourists and locals alike await for their return every year and enjoy their silent flight across the sky at twilight.

Where: The Bats at Congress Bridge: Congress Ave & Cesar Chavez St W, Austin, TX 78701 Google Maps Bat Hotline: 512-416-5700 (ext. 3636) for the latest flight times

Austin seems to be burgeoning with museums. When I compare it to my hometown, I feel a little ashamed of the plethora of pioneer museums when Austin has so much art and WORLD history at their disposal.

• The Harry Ransom Center

The Harry Ransom Center has a wide variety of exhibits to enjoy while you are there and if you are stuck at home or work right now, you can take a virtual vacation with their online exhibits.

• The Gutenberg Bible at the Ransom Center Online Exhibit

• The Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers Online Exhibit

• David Douglas Duncan Online Exhibit

• Gone With The Wind Online Exhibit

Take a break from your day and enjoy the art and history from the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas.

Where: 21st and Guadalupe, Austin, Texas 78713 Google Map Telephone: 512-471-8944

Lonely Planet is the guide book that you should carry around if you are backpacking across Europe. That’s the feeling that I get when I read their books. I feel like if I was a hippie and I just picked up and decided to hitch-hike across the states, I should have a Lonely Planet guidebook in my backpack.

Their review of Austin, Texas is a must-read if you have never been to the city.

• Austin Travel Information | Lonely Planet Destination Guide

I love travelling to a new city. It gives me the chance to obsess about new history, museums and restaurants. Lonely Planet helps me along the way.

In a small Queen Anne home in Texas, William Sidney Porter rested from his wide array of jobs. He would later be known as O. Henry, penning one of the most famous American Christmas stories, “The Gift of the Magi.”

Imprisoned on embezzlement charges, he wrote some of his stories in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Instead of moving the prison and turning it into a museum, they have made a museum of the modest home he lived in while he worked odd jobs in Austin.

• City of Austin – Parks and Recreation: O. Henry Museum

The museum is a quick glimpse into Porter’s life in Austin, Texas.

“Porter lived in this 1886 Queen Anne-style cottage from 1893 to 1895. His home has since been restored and now contains artifacts and memorabilia from Porter’s life in Austin. The O. Henry Museum is a National Register Property and a National Literary Landmark of the City of Austin.”

This museum is a chance to see where Porter lived while he gathered the experience he needed to write some of the masterpieces of the American short story.

Where: 409 East Fifth Street Austin, Texas 78701 Google Map Phone: (512)472-1903

Austin has a strong connection with art, whether its music, film or the visual arts. There are two museums of art in Austin, each housing different exhibits.

• Austin Museum of Art

I find that every art museum has its own unique treasures to show me. A small museum in Boise is very different from the larger museums in San Francisco, but each one has its own personality and beauty.

Where – Two Locations:

AMOA-Downtown – 823 Congress Avenue at 9th Street Austin, Texas Google Map Phone: 512-495-9224

AMOA-Laguna Gloria – 3809 West 35th Street (west of Mopac) Austin, Texas Google Map Phone: 512-458-8191