do cry for me, austintina

A few Friday mornings a year I manage to take a solo walk around the Lady Bird Lake, formerly known as Town Lake, or, in the case of most longtime Austinites, stubbornly referred to as Town Lake.

This morning I walked (highlighted in yellow, above) from the south side of the pedestrian bridge at Lamar Boulevard (PFLUGER Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge), crossing onto Congress Avenue Bridge (aka Bat Bridge), up into the Shoal Creek Trail and back down across the pedestrian bridge. A little over two miles total.

Best thing about today's walk, I remembered to take my camera.

First stop, the Women in Construction Pavilion, located on the south shore of the lake, right next to the South 1st Street Bridge. I didn't know it was called WiCP until I Googled it just now.

By the way, the Google blogger's spell check doesn't recognize "Googled" as a word. You'd think blogger would have corrected this glitch by now.

The pavilion is usually one of my favorite stops. But this morning? It made me cry.

Below is what the pavilion looked like when I walked with my girls in summer of 2009:

Political graffiti under the pedestrian bridge, Texas' latest, but far from greatest, presidential contender:

I thought it was important to post both vantage points of Governor Perry Goodhair (so dubbed by Austin's own Molly Ivins).

More graffiti under the pedestrian bridge, this time with a romantic twist:

On the trail that runs on the north side of the lake, along Cesar Chavez Street, a longhorn that even an Aggie can appreciate:

Artist: Nichelle Notabartolo.

It's part of the Cow Parade Austin 2011. This is probably one of the least creative of the cows located all around town. I saw this one too, at the south entrance of the pedestrian bridge, but was too lazy to walk up to get a decent picture (pathetic blogger, yes):

Artist: Angi Gahler

I did not see this, the cleverest cow, below. I'm pretty pissed off that I missed it because I'm sure I walked almost directly under it. (If it's hanging on the Austin Statesman side of the bridge. Anyone know?) Had I known it was there I think I could have found the effort to look up and snap a picture of Bat Cow hanging from Congress Avenue Bridge:

Artist: D.J. Stout and Faith Schexnnayder

Back to my walk and pictures:

Written on these steps that take you from the ground on Cesar Chavez up to the pedestrian bridge, "100 Year Flood Plain June 2001." I don't think water reached that high in 2001 but it sure makes me wish Mother Nature would see this and cry her rain tears.

Last stop, atop the pedestrian bridge at Lamar Boulevard, one of Austin's Ghost Bikes:

I did not take the above photograph. Thank you Jon Pratt for taking a picture the way it's meant to be taken, i.e., where the subject is visible. As opposed to the picture I took this morning:

I do think, however, my picture captures the "ghost" aspect of this Ghost Bike.