Starling Travel

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

No trip to Texas would be complete without eating real barbeque. Not that stuff that you mix in with your ground beef for sloppy joes, I’m talking REAL Texas Barbeque. Stubb’s is the restaurant to indoctrinate you.

• Welcome to Stubb’s!

At true Texas man, Christopher B. Stubblefield had many wild adventures before he opened the current restaurant in Austin, Texas. From learning to cook in Lubbock, Texas, to serving 10,000 soldiers in the Korean War, Stubbs has kept the eating experience a beautiful fusion of food and music. Stubb’s restaurant has been the home to many famous live musicians who have played for their supper.

The BBQ sauce is such a legend that you can probably purchase it in your local grocery store. Imagine Mike’s surprise when he saw Stubb’s now-familiar face beaming down at him from the shelf in Salt Lake City, Utah. A little piece of Texas was waiting in our grocery store all along and he had to travel all the way to Austin to find it.

No trip to Austin is complete without a visit to Stubb’s Restaurant.

Where: 801 Red River Austin, Texas Google Map Phone: 512-480-8341

I remember as a child, my parents would watch Austin City Limits every week. This was before there were several music stations on television. If you wanted to see music on television, you had a choice between Lawrence Welk, Hee Haw and Austin City Limits. Strangely, my parents watched all three.

• Austin City Limits

Until I started researching Austin Texas, I never made the connection between the television show of my childhood and the city. Every year they have a festival. This year it’s September 15-17, 2006, so I won’t be there to see it. They still show Austin City Limits on PBS every week, which makes me smile. They outlasted Lawrence AND Hee Haw.

I love this image that I found on Flickr the other day. It’s called, “Camping Has Beautiful Rewards” by Gem E Piper.

Gem is right! Camping not only has beautiful rewards in the form of sunsets, forests, mountains and deserts, but it has beautiful rewards in the form of family memories and exciting venues. The next time you’re feeling like life is ugly, plan a weekend trip camping and enjoy it. You’ll come back feeling as if at least one thing in the world is beautiful.

After seeing this video, I immediately wanted to hop on a plane to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Throughout the entire video, I was trying to figure out which city it was. I had pretty much decided that it must be Austin, Texas, because they were the coolest city I knew with bridges and a population willing to participate in a video like this.

This is a LONG video (over ten minutes), but it is totally worth it right to the very last minute. Give it a watch:

Video via: I’m Not Working Hard Enough – Amazing Video | Nice Photography Magazine – The “Why To” Magazine about Creative Photography and Film Making

Megan Wallent visited Paris, France last month and shared her experience with us all:

• Paris – Getting Here « M( )

• A Day in Paris, but no Good Food? (Almost!) « M( )

• Paris Day 2 or “Look, That Kid Has No Head!” « M( )

• Paris Travel Summary (Details to Follow!) « M( )

My favorite entry, A Day in Paris, but no Good Food? (Almost!) talked about how exhausting traveling and getting fed can be:

At this point, Anh and I, in our tiredness, broke one of our rules – always eat good food. We settled for a crappy café, and while edible, was not great. Oh well.

I don’t have a rule like that: “Always eat good food.” Most of the time, I am so absorbed in what I am experiencing when I’m traveling that I delay eating until I’m starving. Then I will eat anything that is nearby. Sometimes, we end up finding wonderfully delicious food from a street vendor, other times… well, you know.

I know the food of a place is just as important as the architecture, museums or amusements, but sometimes I let it fall by the wayside.

Looks like Megan and Anh had a wonderful visit to France and I wish them much happiness.

These are from the pile of hotel SWAG that I have collected over the last couple of years. I photographed them at home, not at the hotel.

We got these at the Town Lake Raddison Hotel in Austin, Texas while we were at SXSW in March 2007. They are labeled with the brand ASiRA, and if you like them, you can buy more from their website here: ASiRA Body Care

Our last stay at Ramada Inn was not pleasant, so I have no good feelings about the SWAG. Isn’t that strange?

The only piece of SWAG remaining from The Casablanca Hotel and Casino in Mesquite, Nevada.

I know there was more, but this was all I could find from The Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

I don’t remember ever staying at a Howard Johnson. COOL SWAG, though.

This guy is OLD. I have no recollection of staying at Fairfield Inn, so it must be at least two years old.

I like the design of the Hilton SWAG, but it’s hard to get the stuff out of those bottles. Pretty, but not very useful. These are from the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This soap is from the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. I know they gave us more SWAG than just the soap, but all that was left was this.

I enjoyed going through the pile of SWAG. There is a certain joy in bottles and bars of soap that are the wrong size. When I was a child, I used to think that the small soaps and shampoos that my grandpa brought home from his business trips were for me because they were small. While I was looking through the pile, I found some of the items that I had photographed in the hotel. Tune in on Monday for Hotel SWAG for those photographs!

We went to San Antonio for a World War II Reunion of the 303rd Bomb Group. The highlight of the evening for the final banquet was an Andrew Sisters Revue performed by Destination. I went to the banquet expecting a typical faire of WWII era music sung poorly by a local band. They were a local band from Wimberley, Texas, but they sang beautifully. See for yourself here:

Destination performs regularly with a full orchestra in Wimberley, but they are also available if you have an event in Austin, San Marcos, Mustang Island or San Antonio. They’ll do right by you. Can’t say they’ll do the same for their “fellas” overseas…

Where: Destination:

MySpace Page – Destination Trio

She also performs with Gypsy Moon:

MySpace Page – Gypsy Moon Music

For Booking Information: Phone: 512-396-7171

Scattered across San Antonio, are the humble Bill Miller BBQ restaurants. They are a casual oasis of BBQ that beckons to me at every few street corners. We finally stopped at Bill Miller to see if it was all that Texas BBQ was supposed to be.

I was told long ago that the hallmark of good Texas BBQ is that they cook the meat without sauce and let you add the sauce to your liking. That’s exactly how they did it at Bill Miller. I had a piece of brisket and some chicken. Both were tender and moist before we used any of the sauce on it.

For me, though, it’s all about the sides. I can’t eat too much meat, but I can enjoy good bread, potato salad and coleslaw all day long. Fortunately, Bill Miller BBQ had enough of those as well.

Bill Miller has a bakery where fresh pies are baked every day and brought to the stores. We had a choice of at least three different pies. When there is that much variety, it’s hard to choose just one. We had two and stole bites from one another’s.

After I had loaded up on food, the service was efficient and friendly. They served us up what we wanted and checked us out quickly so we could eat it. I really liked that I could just go through the line, get my food quickly and immediately go to my table to eat. It smelled so good, I don’t think I could have waited for traditional sit-down service. Luckily, they served cafeteria-style, so I didn’t have to wait any longer than it took me to get through the line.

In fact, I couldn’t wait. I forgot to take a picture of my food until it was all gone.

Want to know the best part? It was cheap. For both Mike and I to eat, it was around ten bucks. We had more food than the two of us could eat plus dessert and we only spent around ten dollars. They have locations in San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi. If you find yourself in Texas, make sure you try out Bill Miller’s BBQ. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be surprised how much food you get for your buck.

Where: Bill Miller BBQ
P.O. Box 839925
San Antonio, Texas 78283-3925
Phone: (210) 225-4461
Fax: (210) 302-1533
E-mail: hq@billmillerbbq.com

Restaurants all over San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi:

San Antonio: Google Map

Austin: Google Map

Corpus Christi: Google Map