Austin Trip – Zilker Park
Austin’s Zilker Botanical Garden Tour
The second week while I was in Austin, my grandparents returned home, so I went on excursions with my grandma. Our first planned stop was Zilker Botanical Garden (ZBG)in Austin’s Zilker Park!
My grandma took my adopted cousin there a few weeks beforehand to see the Woodland Faerie Trail, a seasonal feature built by residents and children along some of the garden paths, so grandma didn’t get to see the entire garden grounds and was excited to go with another one of her grandkids!
Below is a picture of the main offices, event space and visitor’s center for the garden grounds.
Austin Trip – Austin Central Library Talk & Tour
Austin Central Library – Library Design Talk and Full Tour
I returned to the Austin Central Library for another “Talk Green to Me” seminar about the sustainable design and features of the library, only this time I brought my grandma who wanted to see the new library and and city hall.
The seminar we attended was called, “A Deep Green Building Within a Green Neighborhood: presented by Lucia Athens, Chief Sustainability Officer for the City of Austin; Jonathan Smith, Associate Partner at Lake|Flato Architects; and Kathy Zarsky, the LEED Consultant for the new Austin Central Library.” — Austin Public Library Webpage
Austin Trip – Several Sustainable Stops
Sustainable Stops: (1) Agave Community, (2) Chestnut Plaza, and (3) Chestnut Commons Community
After my scheduled stops, I drove around east Austin and came across a couple of other note-worthy sites. The first was a modern housing community development called, Agave, which consisted of eclectic, pastel colored houses of various shapes and sizes in this planned community!
Below is the Agave housing development sign at the bottom of the hill as you drive up into the community!
Austin Trip – Green Gate Farm & Village Farm
Green Gate Farm and Village Farm Tiny House Community
After my time at Community First! Village that morning, I went less than a few miles down the road to Green Gate Farm, across the street from an up-and-coming tiny house community, Village Farm. I had no idea about the Village Farm tiny house community, so that was a nice surprise I stumbled across! Unfortunately, I didn’t read the entire website for Green Gate Farm, only the tour page, which hadn’t been updated to reflect the tour connection to the farm stand seasonal hours.
Austin Trip – Community First Village
Community First! Village Tour
I came across Community First! Village a couple of years ago while researching online, so I was really looking forward to visiting it in person! Knowing that this planned community for the chronically homeless sprouted from Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a christian-based mobile food service for the homeless, was very inspiring – so I made sure this was a pillar stop on my trip. And yet again, I had my mind and expectations blown sky high!
Austin Trip – Horn Winery
Horn Winery and Tasting Room Visit
Since I was in the Austin area for some time, I made it a point to visit my former fraternity brother, Brandon Bownds – who has a love for making all sorts of alcohol, even when I lived with him in college – at the winery he now manages, Horn Winery and Tasting Room in Hye, Texas!
While I was aware central Texas is a big producer of wine and craft beer, it was really the drive over to Horn Winery that put this vast volume into context as I drove past dozens of wineries!
