Austin's Love Affair With the Airstream

A mini trailer is parked atop Tax Trailer's drop box. This tiny trailer was once sold by Pottery Barn.

One of Tax Trailer's offices is a vintage Airstream that sits on the roof of the Kimber Modern B&B in Austin, Texas.

Vicki Faust's Tax Trailer

Austinites are in love with the Airstream trailer. They have morphed Airstreams into boutiques, cupcake shops, crepe shops and so on. Now we discover that a CPA with a creative soul has a Tax Trailer which is tucked away in the SoCo district of Austin. The only street-side clue to the trailer's existence is a tiny replica, parked atop the drop box at the bottom of an obscure trail that leads up through a stand of four-leaf clover, to the rooftop Airstream. Somehow, tromping through all that four-leaf clover makes one feel fiscally fit!

Links:

• Kimber Modern B&B, Austin, Texas
• Tax Trailer
• SoCo District
• Flip Happy Crepes Trailer
• Crepes Mille Trailer
• Hey Cupcake
• www.Yelp.com lists 46 Airstream Trailer businesses in Austin but there are more!
• Airstream, Inc
• Adelante Boutique's Curb Service Airstream
• LD Design: Botanical Design in an Airstream

Walk on the Weird Side

Weird: A strolling Black Bird was seen on South Congress Avenue in Austin's SoCo District.

You can spot signs and posters around Houston with the imperative, "Keep Austin Weird." Are the signs and posters warnings, or for recruitment of weird people?  I guess Austinites just like to think of themselves and their town as weird. Well, Tall Husband and I went to check it out. Here's what we discovered on a recent trip to Austin's SoCo District.

The patio at Hotel San Jose... looks pretty non-weird to us; however, these people are probably visitors from out of town.  So let's move on:

Jo's next door to Hotel San Jose is starting to look weird...is that Grandma Death out front there? (When my pillow decides that my hair needs to stand up and look wild, Tall Husband says, "Well, good morning, Grandma Death, " referring to a character in the psychothriller, Donnie Darko.)

At Luther's we found unique (translation: wild and weird) clothing for men and women and unique store props, like this car engine in the window, which Tall Husband immediately identified as a vintage Buick engine, then started talking cars with Luther's owner, Cory Moore who, as it turns out, owns a speed shop. Tall Husband, you're getting weird; how else would you have known all that stuff about old engines?

Blackmail, a boutique that sells black and more black, is definitely wonderfully weird. Uh-oh, I'm starting to think I would look good in that black leather strappy thing, playing that vintage Stratocaster...sort of Grandma Death goes heavy metal.

Crepes Mille

Crepes out of an Airstream...is that weird?

We ate here at Guero's Taco Bar and had great Tex Mex food and got in some people watching and we did see some weird ones there.

Kimber Modern, a boutique hotel is uber chic and modern. Not weird...until your spot that little silver trailer attached to their mailbox. Are they selling crepes too? Weird!

A wonderful bungalow in the Travis Heights neighborhood, just off Congress Avenue. My bunnies could be happy here. There is nothing weird here, except there isn't a bunny in sight.

Hotel Saint Cecilia is also in the SoCo area. Ditto: nothing weird here...

...until you see that albino peacock staring at you from the bar (and why do his feathers look like my hair?)

O.K. guys, you're weird. But Tall Husband and I love walking on the weird side with you!

Note: If you want to check out Austin's SoCo area for yourself, the first Thursday of each month is a good time to do so; just go to www.FirstThursday.info for details.

San José...Do You Know the Way?

Don't you just love the simplicity of a single, fresh flower in a water glass?

We were in room 20 at Hotel San José in Austin.

Cleaver, cleaver!

Their continental breakfast in a box.

The rooms are minimalist...pure and simple.

Last week when Tall Husband and I were in Austin, Texas to cover a design event, we stayed at Hotel San José. This famous hotel is in the popular SoCo (South Congress) district with lots of nearby funky shops and great places to eat. We loved their continental breakfast in a box and the wonderful landscaping by designer Mark Word. See Mark's landscape design for Hotel San José at My Ranchburger blog.

The Secret Stairs

The Elizabet Ney Museum, Austin, Texas

I spent the best part of my girlhood in this magical, limestone, castle-like structure. Thanks to a woman with whom I shared a deep love of this old place, I was the princess of this castle. There was no nook or cranny that was off limits to me or unknown to me...or so I believed until a recent visit.

My castle was then and is now a museum, and as it is the former studio of Elizabeth Ney, a 19th century, German-born sculptor, it is named for her. Tall Husband I and visited this small Austin Museum last week. He was again subjected to my stories of Elizabet: how she wore men's pants while she worked; how she ate raw eggs for lunch so as not to waste time cooking; how she napped in a hammock. Tall Husband asked me the name of the woman who gave me the run of the place. I have no idea why, but I never knew her name. I had spent hours listening to her stories about Elizabet, reading books she suggested but I had never asked her name.

I told a museum employee about my relationship with the museum and this woman. He asked for a description. I described her so well that he was able to look through some museum books and papers and find her name. She was Willie Rutland,* the first curator of the museum. There was a small photograph of a young Willie, standing in front of the museum, holding her dark hair in place, against the wind, letting her skirts fly. I smiled at the memory of her and said, "Nice to meet your again, Willie."

To reach a small room in the tower, Tall Husband and I climbed a tiny spiral staircase. I'm terrified of heights, just as I was back when I first made this climb. But the room with its corner fireplace and view is worth the fear. As a girl, I spent hours in that room, reading and daydreaming. We stood silently for a moment, feeling my girlhood around us, then we spotted the museum sign describing a sky door. Tall Husband reached out and pulled on a handle on the built-in bookcase. The bookcase swung toward us to reveal a hidden stairwell. The stairs obviously led to the roof of the tower. "Why didn't Willie ever tell me about these secret stairs?" I felt betrayed. First they tell me I was not allowed to take photos inside my castle, now I learn Willie had apparently kept a secret from me.

Tall Husband said, "Maybe she didn't want you to fall. Or perhaps she didn't know the stairs were hidden behind the bookcase."

We didn't climb those secret stairs. I felt that Willie didn't want us to.


*The street that runs alongside The Bunny Bungalow is Rutland.

In Praise of Towers and Time

When I was an Austin Teenager, this six-story tower was a drill tower for firemen, now it is Buford Tower.

When I was a kid, towers fascinated me. They still hold a place in my heart. As Tall Husband and I sat eating dinner in Austin, earlier this month, I glanced out the window and saw a familiar sturdy, brick tower and suddenly remembered it as "the fireman's tower." I had been a teenager in Austin with a student bus pass which allowed me to explore the city as I chose. This had been one of my favorite destinations, as unusual but functional architecture has always been a passion of mine.

I left Tall Husband in the restaurant and aimed my camera at the tower. I asked a young passerby if he knew anything about the tower and he answered that it wasn't anything special, it was just an old tower that rang out the hour. It surely wasn't worth a photograph.

Via Google, I since learned that the tower is no longer used to train firemen. As Austin grew, it became impractical to train firemen in the center of a city and in 1974 a new drill tower was built in a more convenient location. In 1978 Effie R. Kitchens, whose late husband had built the tower, provided funds for the restoration of the old tower and a carillon was added. The old tower is now the Buford Tower, named in 1978 for a Captain James L. Buford, a fireman who died in the line of duty in 1972, in an attempt to rescue a 15-year old boy during a Shoal Creek Flood.

Today the old 1930 tower has a new purpose: its carillon, called the Kitchens Memorial Chimes, rings out the time. As I stood there listening to its chimes, I thought about what the young passerby had said, then decided that the tower is something special; it's still standing after all this time...and so am I.

Austin's Hotel Saint Cecilia

This over-the-top Victorian bed, sitting casually on a porch and piled with inviting pillows, so says Hotel Saint Cecilia.

My Old Bemer at Hotel Saint Cecilia, snuggled up to the hotel's wonderful classic Citroen.

Click on photos to enlarge.

When Tall Husband and I were invited to Austin, Texas to cover the Design Within Reach Austin Studio's M+D+F 2009 juried exhibition, we decided to stay at Hotel Saint Cecilia. This seemed fitting, as the famous developer and owner of this hotel, Liz Lambert, was a juror for the M+D+F competition, and my youngest grandchild is the famous Cecilia who holds forth in either English, French, Russian or Spanish.

Hotel Saint Cecilia, named for the patron saint of music and poetry and not my polyglot Cecilia, opened last December after a year-and-a-half renovation of its historic Miller-Crockett Mansion and the addition of studios, bungalows and lap pool. The gardens are exquisite and at night the entire place turns magical when the night lights come on.

The staff at Hotel Saint Cecilia are the best I've seen the world over. They are knowledgeable about the hotel and city. They knew all the designers and architect of the hotel by name and website. Also, when Tall Husband asked about the name of a plant he had seen on the grounds, a staff member found the specimen in question in the hotel's photographic catalog which contained all the plants used in the landscaping.

Here's the part I love: You can shop right in your room! In the bathroom there is a tray of personal products from all over the world, including Austin. And the bar in your room contains all sorts of gourmet items you can purchase to consume there or take home as gifts. In the closet there are spa robes and funky French slippers to purchase. Below, see the French item I could not resist.

If you're travelling to Austin, I recommend Hotel Saint Cecilia. Whether you stay in a suite, studio or one of the bungalows, the experience will be magical.

Seen from our private balcony in Studio 7.

Unique details are everywhere.

The old refurbished mansion as dusk descends.

The pool and bungalows as seen in the distance.

The studios are in the structure on the right, next to the mansion. We were in Studio 7, second floor, left in the photo above.

A view from Studio 7's private balcony at dusk.

The pool at dusk.

Hotel Saint Cecilia at deep dusk. Landscape lighting was installed by Quentin Hughes.

The entrance to Hotel Saint Cecilia in the glow of its neon sign.

The sign says it all.


Hotel Saint Cecilia's bar where you can have a night cap or breakfast the next morning. We loved their continental breakfast with coffee and fresh juice.

And I came away with that bottle of French Cote Bastide's Tilleul Bain.

Links

Emily Little, Architect
Mark Word Design, Landscape
Hotel Saint Cecilia, Austin, Texas, USA
Posting and photos of Hotel Saint Cecilia's Studio 7 on My Ranchburger Blog
My Ranchburger's coverage of DWR Austin Studio's M+D+F 2009

All Things Bunny

Chez Zee in Austin, Texas

While we were in Austin, visiting Children and Grandchildren last weekend, they took Tall Husband and me out for a combined birthday dinner (Tall Husband's birthday is nine days after mine, so we often celebrate on the same day.) Who do you think chose the restaurant? That's right...I did! How did you guess? Chez Zee is a bistro that has about as many bunnies as there are at The Bunny Bungalow.

Note: Come back later to see more Texas Hill Country treats.