Hard not to Love Austin
The Austin Kite Festival was today, at the end of a divine spring weekend with strong winds, temperatures in the upper 70s, and blue, blue skies. The nation's longest-running kite festival is held in Zilker Park, a mile from my front door. I'd like to tell you that I spent all day watching the kite contests and ducking as kids and adults tangled their kites in practically everything over 3 feet tall. Well, I didn't, but I still enjoyed the day outdoors with friends and managed to show up late to take a few pictures of this year's event. Keep watching this site as I am going to go multimedia and bring you pictures of the great event, from this year and last year. It was a great Sunday.
Now, lest you random readers from other continents get any ideas, I am NOT encouraging you to move to Austin. Austin is nice, but so is Chapel Hill or San Francisco, for example. And the climate may be heavenly in the spring, but the summer is like the inside of an oven from the beginning of May to the end of October. That's six months of 90-100+ HEAT, folks--enough to send even Californians back home (though, heaven knows, not enough of them :)). So, having said that, I will say that Austin, on days like today, is hard not to love. It is a city of the young at heart.
I think everyone should be a kid all of their lives. People should be playing freeze tag and hide-and-go-seek in the parks till they get bad knees, flying kites every time the weather is nice, and jumping in the stream with all their clothes on every time they get too warm. Throwing pies should be commonplace, sand castles and forts should dot the landscape, and rope swings and deep forests should shoulder the banks of every river. When I am older and I decide to have children, it probably won't be because I feel ready--it will probably be because I have just run out of fun people to play with.
While my city isn't that place where everyone is a kid (I don't think there is any place like that--if you know of one please let me know), it is a place where behaving like a kid is okay. And that's a big reason why, today, there were more adults flying kites than kids.
Now, lest you random readers from other continents get any ideas, I am NOT encouraging you to move to Austin. Austin is nice, but so is Chapel Hill or San Francisco, for example. And the climate may be heavenly in the spring, but the summer is like the inside of an oven from the beginning of May to the end of October. That's six months of 90-100+ HEAT, folks--enough to send even Californians back home (though, heaven knows, not enough of them :)). So, having said that, I will say that Austin, on days like today, is hard not to love. It is a city of the young at heart.
I think everyone should be a kid all of their lives. People should be playing freeze tag and hide-and-go-seek in the parks till they get bad knees, flying kites every time the weather is nice, and jumping in the stream with all their clothes on every time they get too warm. Throwing pies should be commonplace, sand castles and forts should dot the landscape, and rope swings and deep forests should shoulder the banks of every river. When I am older and I decide to have children, it probably won't be because I feel ready--it will probably be because I have just run out of fun people to play with.
While my city isn't that place where everyone is a kid (I don't think there is any place like that--if you know of one please let me know), it is a place where behaving like a kid is okay. And that's a big reason why, today, there were more adults flying kites than kids.
posted by Tree Texan at 6:14 PM
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