Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hibitions and the center's busy events calendar of author readings, live music, lectures and
more.
Texas Memorial Museum
MAP
MUSEUM
( 512-471-1604;
www.utexas.edu/tmm
; 2400 Trinity St; 9am-5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat, 1-5pm Sun)
We all know how kids feel about dinosaurs, and this natural-history museum is the
perfect place for them to indulge their fascination. Look up to see the swooping skeleton
of the Texas pterosaur - one of the most famous dino finds ever. This impressively hu-
mongous Cretaceous-era flying reptile has a wingspan of 40ft and was recovered at Big
Bend in 1971.
There are other exhibits too, focusing on anthropology, natural history, geology and
biodiversity. Upstairs, you can glimpse taxidermic examples of a Texas soft-shell turtle, a
Mexican beaded lizard and other critters, but most of the exhibits are like something
you'd find in the dusty attic of an eccentric great aunt.
Elisabet Ney Museum
MAP
MUSEUM
( 512-458-2255;
www.austintexas.gov/department/elisabet-ney-museum
; 304 E 44th St; donations welcome;
noon-5pm Wed-Sun)
A German-born sculptor and spirited trailblazer, Elisabet Ney lived in
Austin in the early 1880s, and her former studio is now one of the oldest museums in
Texas. Filled with more than 100 works of art, including busts and statues of political fig-
ures, the castlelike building made from rough-hewn stone is reason enough to visit.
Three of Ney's better-known works reside in the state capitol, but the artist considered
her greatest legacy to be a sculpture of Lady Macbeth. The Smithsonian owns the original,
but you can see a replica of it here.
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South Austin
South of downtown and Lady Bird Lake, South Congress is an offbeat and oh-so-Austin
neighborhood that was pretty marginal just 25 or so years ago. Tourism types nicknamed
it SoCo, which has somewhat stuck, but the locals mostly still call it South Congress. S
