I have been to Austin a number of times over the past couple of years. This past ApacheCon was the first time I actually stayed downtown rather than in one of the hotel gettoes on the perimeter. Hence, this was the first time I got a real taste of the absolutely crazy party scene on 4th and 6th streets… bar after bar after bar, every single one with a live band, each one louder than the one before. I guess this is why they call it the Live Music Capital of the World…
One of Austin’s many attractions is the bat colony at Congress Avenue bridge. This is a colony of Mexican Free-tailed Bats that comes north every year to give birth, and settles under the Congress Avenue bridge over Lake Austin through the end of summer. Around sunset, they wake up and fly out to feed on insects. Bat-watching is a popular activity and you can call the Bat Hotline (on the Batphone?) to find out when they are epxected to appear. We hear that the sky turns black with bats as up to 1.5 million of them take to the air.
We went to see them with a bunch of people on the last evening of the conference, but unfortunately the bats did not appear. We only saw four or five or so… perhaps they had taken the night off.
