Bike Ride

I'm taking ya'll on a bike ride today but don't worry, there's some knitting at the end. For my siblings and friends in the midwest, this is just a taste of my home away from home. Austin has a wonderful system of Hike & Bike trails. One of the main areas is in the heart of the city on what the locals call Town Lake. This is really a part of the Lower Colorado river, but they call it that anyway. We live south of the river in what is simply called South Austin. That Guy and I currently live in the 78704 zip code which according to the many bumper stickers you see around, it's not just a zip code, it's a way of life. This is the view from the pedestrian sidewalk crossing the South First Street bridge heading north and looking to the west.
As you complete the trek across the bridge you have in your view the whole time the new City Hall. Some people scoff at it's architecture - personally I like it. On Friday all summer long they have a concert at noon in the plaza and you often see what are likely press conferences outside when the temperature is milder.
After heading west on the north side of Town Lake for a while you can continue on or cross the Lamar pedestrian bridge. As you can see here, there's plenty of room for bikes and people running or walking, and there's benches lining the sides - a modern promenade. I'm facing south as I take this picture.
This is the view from the pedestrian bridge if you look to the east. From here I continued across the bridge and headed east on the bike trail back towards the S. 1st St. bridge. On both sides of the bridge the trail runs right along the river's edge and allows you to feel like sometimes you aren't in a big city.
Here I'm a little further along the trail. To the left is Town Lake, and to the right is the dog park. On the weekends it's pretty busy because it's one place downtown where the owners are allowed to let them off their leashes. There's plenty of open space for them to run around, catch frisbees, and swim in the river. Can you imagine a cat park? How funny would that be, they'd all be hissing at each other, slinking around with their bellies low to the ground, or climbing trees. And they surely wouldn't be swimming! (MOM, the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue is just to the left of where I'm standing).
Before turning off the trail and heading for home I decided to stop and knit a few rows on what I'm calling the Neopolitan warshrag. I get a hankering for ice cream just looking at this thing. However, I only made it a few rows because it felt much hotter once I got off the bike. Also, I was feeling a little gritty by this point and wanted to hit the pool!
Tschuss!