Austin Texas - Fit and Fun

After leaving Lafayette I spent three days in Lake Charles to just relax; and     as title of the my blog implied "Make Amends."  I - almost, just about, kinda sorta, succeeded - but not quite.  When I left Lake Charles there was still one more blog to be completed - whoa is me!

This past week I was in Austin, Texas visiting my son and daughter and staying as a guest of her and her family (that was the reason for my eagerness to leave Lake Charles); and I had a great time.

While there Jeremy and I went golfing for my birthday and I got Spanked brutally; but what a great time!

Two days later, Jamie, Guillermo, little Mateo and I met Jeremy for still more birthday celebration (there is no shortage of places to celebrate in Austin).

Austin (as I've said before in previous blogs) is a great city and nothing has changed to curb my enthusiasm.

While Austin is admittedly heavily tilted in favor of the younger set (76.2% of the populace is under the age of 44); a fact that is reflected by the number of  that there are in the city, they seem to be everywhere.

Jeremy has a fitness center where he works and he puts it to good use with frequent work outs.  Jamie and Guillermo, for their part, have a family membership at the Life Time Fitness Club, and it is just a  great facility.  While I didn't see the entire facility, I can speak for the size, quality and number of both the indoor and outdoor pools.

On all three occasions that I went there, the parking lot was nearly full (with an estimated 500 cars) - this facility is huge, two stories and the size of a city block!  There are two Life Time Fitness Clubs in Austin, as well as scores of other Gyms and Fitness Centers of one type or another.  They are the major reason that Austin is ranked among the top 25 (actually 17th) "fittest cities in the nation" by Men's Fitness magazine.


During my stay in Austin, Jamie, Mateo and I took an afternoon side trips to the Japanese Gardens, to the Austin mansions and to see the Falkenstein Castle.
 
The Falkenstein Castle is the creation of Texas businessman Terry Young and his wife Kim; and was built from the actual plans of Bavarian King Ludwig II, who died before completing his own Falkenstein Castle.


The 20,000 square foot castle is located on a 4 acre estate that appears to be in the middle of nowhere.  Unfortunately, the castle (which is the Young's personal residence which, also, doubles as a wedding chapel) is not open to the public and we were only able to capture photos from the distance.

Not to be outdone, we were able to save the day by making a visit and tour of the Sonora Caverns.  The 1 1/2 tour was well worth the experience.


To finish the week, Guillermo took me to the road course track where he runs his Dukati; and what an unexpected treat it was.  Guillermo was just dropping off his cycle far a week-end run and so I, unfortunately, did not get a chance to see him run.

However, while at the track, I got an unexpected surprise treat; I got to run the course myself in a BMW-M3 (SUV).

In addition, they gave me a ride in a BMW sports car to show me how it was really done - what a blast.


Thanks to Jeremy, Jamie, Guillermo and Mateo for showing Dad a great time.