The Pennybacker Bridge, also known as 360 Bridge, is one of Austin's most notable landmarks and a…read morerequired stop for anyone visiting or living in Austin, TX. The bridge is located at Lake Austin along Loop 360 (the Capital of Texas Highway), the bridge combines a unique structure with sweeping Hill Country views. It is simple in structure yet spectacular when combined with the Lake Austin water views, which never gets old. Today we simply wanted to be one with nature. What a fanatstic starting point! No matter what you call the bridge, one thing that is certain is that you will likely admire the architecture of the rust-colored steel arch design. That weathered looks allows the bridge to easily blend in with the rolling hills and Lake Austin. It is an equally visually appealing structure whether you are driving across it or admiring it from afar. Parking is very limited along Capitol of Texas highway. What spectacular way to start your morning or end your evening!

A quintessential barely-a-hike excursion that is a must-see if in Austin, especially if its your…read morefirst time in the city. Despite it not being my first time here, I always enjoy coming here and taking friends who haven't been. Hiked up here in chanclas and a maxi skirt, so anyone can do this as its only a 0.5 mi hike, super chill. The view is gorgeous, you have the Pennybacker overlooking the river. Not quite as spacious on the trail or as shaded as Mt. Bonnell, but still very much worth a visit as it doesn't take much time at all to take in the views and then descend. There's limited parking at the bottom but there's a stoplight prior to this area so it wasn't hard to enter or exit prior to oncoming traffic.

The staff is incredibly friendly, and the check-in process couldn't be easier. The train cars are…read moreimpressively clean and well-kept, and we really enjoyed learning about the history behind the ride. It's a unique and nostalgic experience that takes you back in time. While I do wish the views along the route were a bit more scenic, the overall experience was still absolutely worth it and I would gladly do it again. If you're looking for something different to do around Austin, please support this train. It's a special kind of adventure you don't find every day.

The wedding oak wine train sells out pretty quickly. I have been waiting almost a year to get a…read morebooking. I finally was able to book a ticket for eight of us. The train leaves out of Cedar Park depot. You do have assigned seating. At the Cedar Park depot, they do have bathrooms. I suggest using them because the bathrooms in the train do not open for at least 30 minutes after you leave the station. In the train, we were provided with some snacks and drinks. The drinks include a coffee, hot tea, cold, tea, juice. The snack was a Chex mix. They do have a cart when you can buy some more snacks, but not anything hardy. We did take charcuterie, boards and snacks with us. They let you take an ice chest on board as long as there is no alcohol in it. They do check your ice chest. The train ride is about two hours to Burnet, Texas. They do give you five tastings while on your way. The person delivering your tastings is from the winery and has a lot of information regarding the wines. We were in the Maurice car. In the Maurice car, they have tables with four chairs each. It can get a little cramped. The chairs are not the most comfortable but adequate. Once you arrive toBurnet, they give you two hours to go to the winery or have lunch or do both. We went on a Sunday in the majority of the shops and restaurants were closed. We did end up eating pizza and pasta at a nearby restaurant and then heading to the winery to enjoy some wines. At the winery, we bought three bottles of wine and shared between eight of us. We did get to take Wine home, but they do put it in a different cart until you arrive back to Austin because you are not allowed to drink alcohol that is not provided by the train. Once we arrived in Austin, everything went smoothly to include our pick up of wineand disembarking. Parking is available on site. The train has volunteers that help you throughout your journey. They are super sweet and know all the history of the train. They also have a car that has nice reclining seats. They told us about it on the way back and we were able to take a nap there.

Easy peasy parking and access. Not sure why folks post the MetroRail is under utilized the parking…read moreis always full. They did switch Apps for purchasing tickets and viewing schedules and to keep this review PG it sux lemons. You need to order/pay for your tickets individually. In the past one person in your group to purchase the tickets for all. Trains are always clean, on-time, and everyone is friendly. Sure beats driving downtown!

This is the dumbest business design. I think Austin has ever came up with. They have one train that…read moreholds about four people every trip and stops about 1k cars passing through 10 or more major intersections. It literally causes traffic way worse

About five or so miles out of Manor on FM-973 lies this large well tended to cemetery. The first…read morething that struck me as odd was the fact that there are no trees on the property. This appears to still be an active cemetery as there are some recent burials here from the last few years and the most recent interment was from August 20, 2022. There's still plenty of room for more. Despite being surrounded on all sides by farmland, there is a new development in the area. This is a well laid out orderly graveyard with many family plot areas. Many of the names found on these stones are of German, Austrian and Swedish descent. There is no parking lot, but there is a gravel road perimeter that runs around the property. There is a decent size covered structure on the property capable of holding funeral services. There are a few graves from the late 1800s, but the majority are from the 20th-century. Two things I did not find are a Texas historical sign, and there were no CSA designated service member graves. Nor did I find any Woodmen of the world markers which are common in this area. I also saw no graves dedicated to the Pfluger or Boatright familys. If you desire to make this your forever home, you'll most likely have to contact the New Sweden Lutheran Church located in the vicinity, but not near the cemetery. The photos included in this review give greater insight.

Christmas Day was perfect here and I'm sure this is a go to place for any kind of festivities in…read moretown. It's beautiful and peaceful here! The sidewalk decks with benches were a nice touch. It was a quiet beautiful walk with Christmas lights and decorations! The Korean restaurant was open and the 3 candy store it was a nice surprise on a holiday!

Drive up here from Austin and get donuts. That's what we did and they were great, fresh and hot.read more

I am a cemetery junkie, often walking cemeteries performing Find A Grave work and genealogy. Since…read moreI was in the area, I wanted to check out the grave of Sam Bass. He was a notorious outlaw in the area. Thankfully someone had attached GPS coordinates to his grave. I didn't know where his grave was, so I simply punched up the GPS coordinates and took a leisurely walk to where he is interred. Of course I took pictures and added updated GPS coordinates. There were a few other memorials I "worked" while I was out there. There is a slave portion of the cemetery. My mother and I paid our respects to one and all. Please check out this cemetery.

We mainly stopped by this cemetery because of the infamous Sam Bass gravesite. For those looking…read morefor it if you're standing out front of it...it's on the far left side near the chainlink fence. We weren't able to find AW Grimes here or at least Google didn't want to cooperate. There are many old gravestones dating back to the 1800s for those looking to see the carvings. This cemetery is pretty clean and the newer graves are closer to the front entrance. There sadly are some graves where the headstones have fallen down and broken and I wish some folks would come here to do cleanings of the stones but it is what it is. There's not much else to see here other than the historical area I mentioned before. Parking is a bit limited toward the front. It's all gravel, nothing is paved.

They've completely renovated the playground and the splash pad at Brushy Creek Lake Park! The new…read moreequipment is of such high quality, with separate playgrounds for older and younger kids. The splash pad has a dedicated fenced in area for the water fun, and a nice grassy area with tables and seating. Perfect for a picnic! I love taking walks with my daughters along the lake, admiring the views and enjoying the wildlife. If you're adventurous you can rent a canoe or kayak from the boathouse and take it out onto the lake as well. This park is a beautiful place to spend time on a weekend!

Nice park, especially if you've got kids in a stroller and want to go for a short hike. The trail…read morethat runs over the dam is all paved (not sure how far it continues being paved since we turned around). Lots of pedestrians, bikers, dog walkers. You can also walk on the unpaved trail along the water (it's very smooth and stroller-friendly). There is a playground. It's split into two areas for different ages. It's great in theory but I found it a bit lacking. There's a rudimentary playground that's labeled as 2-5. And a crunk playground (3-tiered, with gnarly slides) labeled as 5-12. Don't get me wrong -- this big playground is awesome for older kids. But it's a bit too advanced/scary for a 3-year-old. Meanwhile, the little playground was too simple/easy for her. So there's a middle age that isn't really catered to. But, great for 2-year-olds and 5+. There are also multiple parks with playgrounds within a short driving distance (Champion, Olson Meadows) so you can easily park hop.

This place popped up on Google maps, but had no information so I thought I'd add a review and…read morephotos for the site. This columbarium is located directly next to the first United Methodist Church in Round Rock on Mays St. This columbarium appears to be fairly recent, as there are only a few interment of ashes at this site. This quiet introspective space consists of a nice labyrinth, benches and sculpture, although the noise of Mays Street keeps it from being the perfect quiet space. This space is tastefully designed to be the eventual home for some of the church members here.