Austin

Two Things for Travelers

Hawaiian Airlines hosts a ‘window activation’ in Austin

Hawaiian Airlines operates thrice-weekly flights between Austin and Honolulu and to promote the service the airline is hosting a contest with a grand prize of enough HawaiianMiles to fly First Class roundtrip between Austin and Honolulu. Plus a five-night stay at The Prince Waikiki Hotel.

The contest runs September 30 and October 1. To participate, entrants must visit Austin outdoor shopping center The Domain, peer into a series of virtual airplane windows that will give the illusion of landing in Honolulu, and then complete a scavenger hunt to find other airplane windows.

One grand prize winner of The Window Seat activation will win the equivalent miles for two First Class roundtrip tickets and a stay at The Prince Waikiki Hotel. Other prizes include fresh flower lei, Hawaiian Airlines travel swag, and 120,000 HawaiianMiles. And everyone giving the scavenger hunt a try will be offered complimentary shave ice. See contest details here.

Make an Origami Maple Leaf

Courtesy National Archives

Getting ready for some leaf peeping? Get in the mood with this 39-step maple leaf origami project from the pages of Origami Odyssey, by Peter Engel.

SXSW-bound? Start with music at Austin’s airport

If you’re headed to Austin for this year’s SXSW festival – lucky you!

If you’re flying to Austin for this year’s SXSW festival you’ll be able to get started on hearing great live, local music right away.

In addition to the 21 regularly-scheduled live music performances offered weekly in various spots in the terminal, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport has added some extra shows to welcome arriving fans on March 13 and 14 and send them off on March 20.

Here are the extra shows:

Mon., March 13:
Akina Adderley (Classic-Soul) – 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Jeff Plankenhorn (Blues/Soul/Rock/Roots) – 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Tues., March 14:
Miss Lavelle White (Austin Queen of the Blues) – 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Barbara Nesbitt (Folk/Rock/Americana/Country) – 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Mon., March 20:
Jackie Venson (Soulful Indie Blues) – 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Cornerstone (Reggae/Soul/Jazz) – 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

And here’s the link to the full music schedule at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. 

(Photo above courtesy: Sandy Stevens; Austin-Bergstrom International Airport)

Austin airport revs up for US Formula 1 Grand Prix

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, United States of America. Sunday 18th November 2012. World Copyright:Andrew Ferraro/LAT Photographic  ref: Digital Image _79P7324

Austin is hosting the United States Formula 1 Grand Prix again this year and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is revved up and ready to deal with the crowds that will begin arriving on Wednesday, November 13.

On deck: everything from extra customer service representatives in “Feel the Rush” t-shirts to special post-race live music send-offs and a race-specific website.

Oval Office audio tapes highlight of re-designed LBJ Presidential Library

AnimatronicLBJ

A storytelling, life-size, animatronic LBJ is back on duty at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas. Photo courtesy LBJ library.

 

When the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas reopens to the public this Saturday – on what would have been Lady Bird Johnson’s 100th birthday – visitors will be able to listen to more than sixty history-making, poignant and amusing oval office phone calls and get reacquainted with an animatronic, life-size version of one of the country’s most colorful presidents.

The library has undergone a year-long, $10 million renovation and now has “a completely new look and feel,” Mark Updegrove, LBJ Library director told NBC News, “We’re using state of the art technology to not only tell the story of what LBJ was doing during his presidency but also the story of the kind of things that come across a president’s desk and what a president does day to day.”

Updegrove considers the 643 recorded hours of the 36th president’s phone conversations to be the crown jewel of the collection and said selections playing on eleven stations in the library museum allow visitors to hear the president doing everything from persuading members of Congress to pass laws to placing a very specific order for casual pants to wear after work and both seeking – and getting – advice from his wife, Lady Bird Johnson.

Here’s a link to LBJ ordering pants

Johnson, who hailed from Stonewall, Texas and served as president from November 22, 1963 until January 20, 1969, was known for using very colorful language. But the audio selections in the new exhibit are neither beeped-out nor censored. “There’s a perception that LBJ used worse profanity and did it more often than he actually did,” said Updegrove. “Yes, he used scatological references and barnyard language, but he was not profane in the way some might think. He never used particularly graphic language.”

In addition to the audio recordings, other new features at the LBJ Presidential Library feature a downloadable app giving visitors the choice of five themed tours, including one in Spanish and one featuring Lady Bird Johnson chatting about various aspects of the White House, and several interactive exhibits that look at how legislation passed under LBJ, including those involving Medicare, voting rights, gun control and seat belts, have an impact on visitors’ lives today. And, in keeping with Johnson’s wish that the library tell the story of his presidency “with the bark off” and share facts that reflect “not just the joy and triumphs, but the sorrow and failures too,” historians and consultants such as de Michael Beschloss, Robert Dallek, Robert Caro, Doris Kearns Goodwin and former Johnson Administration officials weighed in on the content of the new exhibits.

“We’re not trying to direct history,” said library director Updegrove, “We’re just laying out the facts. We think people will be surprised to learn how much this president did and how it has impacted their lives; whether they think it was right or wrong,” he said.

Not everything in the re-designed LBJ Presidential Library is brand new. The replica of the Oval Office, which duplicates President Johnson’s office in the White House at 7/8th scale, is unchanged.  And the very popular storytelling, animatronic LBJ is still here, but in new clothes and in a new location. “He used to be in ranching clothes with a Stetson,” leaning on a fence, said LBJ library spokeswoman Anne Wheeler, “But he also told those stories at dinners, so we have put him behind a podium, in a suit in an exhibit on LBJ Humor which incorporates political cartoons and caricatures from his presidential period.”

There’s one other thing that will be a bit different at the library after the re-opening: until now, the LBJ Library has been the only one of the thirteen presidential libraries administered the National Archives and Records Administration to offer free admission. Admission to the library will be free on December 22, but after that the admission price will be $8 for adults, $5 for seniors and $3 for children 13-17. For more information see: www.LBJLibrary.org.

(My story about the re-opening of the LBJ Library first appeared on NBC News Travel)