Texas wildflowers are celebrated throughout the state of Texas thanks to the efforts of the late former first lady Lady Bird Johnson, and Austin is home to the institution she helped created, named in her honor. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a unique attraction, paying homage to the woman who helped elevate and preserve the native plants and the natural beauty of Texas.

The Wildflower Center works daily to educate the public on sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes. With beautiful gardens, expansive meadows, and woodland trails to explore, visitors can experience the plentiful offerings of Texas’s native plants up close. Tours are available, but visitors can enjoy the grounds at their own pace with the available printed information or with an audio podcast to guide them.

In addition to the gardens, the Center curates rotating exhibits, many of which include art. Whether viewing oversized bronze insects throughout the grounds, or viewing sculpture and paintings on display indoors, the beauty of nature is enhanced by its pairing with visual arts. Many exhibits are mounted in their McDermott Learning Center, which also holds a permanent exhibit, and features a large picture window from which to view the natural surroundings. A docent is often available in the learning center to answer questions, and to help visitors identify the plethora of different flowers and plants they will see on the grounds.

Children will find a world of fun and education designed especially for them. A tiny door indicates that the room within is dedicated to the wee ones, with puppets, books, arts and crafts that help illustrate the wealth of nature that exists at the center and throughout the state. This is also a great place to take a break and beat the heat while discussing the different plants located on the trails and in the gardens. A popular destination for school field trips, the Wildflower Center also offers teacher resources to maximize a class visit. They also offer summer camps – a perfect way to engage school-age youngsters in nature and science during their summer break.

The Wildflower Center is home to a delightful café. Featuring fresh and inventive sandwiches, salads, baked treats and thirst-quenchers such as hibiscus mint tea, the café is almost a destination in itself. Soups are made from scratch, and vegetarian including the sensational Wildflower Wrap (Roasted Poblano & Portabella Mushroom wrapped in a tomato basil flour tortilla with lettuce and tomatoes,sun dried tomato spread) are available.

Events including fundraising galas, artisan nights, plant sales, and nature nights are held throughout the year, in addition to guided tours. Their website is an extensive resource both for planning a trip, and for learning more about the myriad of things encountered on a trip. They publish a newsletter and magazine in Austin, in addition to the materials available at the main office.

The last stop of the visit should be to their gift shop – featuring clothing, books, gifts and educational toys that will commemorate and unforgettable visit.

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With almost two decades under its belt, the Austin Hot Sauce Festival is a time-honored tradition featuring some of the most defining characteristics of life in Austin: hot sauce, hot weather, live music, great food and a fantastic way to give back to the community.

A major fundraiser for the Capital Area Food Bank, the festival boasts free admission, with a donation of three healthy, non-perishable food items or a cash donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas. Always held in late summer, the weather is guaranteed to rival the sauces in hotness, but this popular event consistently draws more than 15,000 spectators to Waterloo Park in downtown Austin - this amounts to a sizeable donation to one of the most community-centric and necessary non-profits in town.

The heart of the festival is the hot sauce competition. The contest, with separate judging for individuals, restaurants, and commercial bottlers, is divided into three categories: red, green, and specialty variety. The festival attracts as many as 350 entries, who each provide a quart of their entered hot sauce – that makes over 100 gallons of hot sauce being consumed annually at the festival itself, let alone all the jars available for purchase. Combined with over 650 lbs of tortilla chips, the sauces are available to be sampled by all participants. The sauces are judged, however, by respected area chefs, and as this festival’s reputation has grown, so has the competition, which is as fierce as the heat.

In addition to sampling the finest hot sauce in the area, spectators can partake of food from many local restaurants, many of whom have entered, and won, the hot sauce competition. The food provided often highlights or incorporates the salsas, and although weighted towards Austin’s renowned Tex-Mex, interior Mexican and BBQ, other ethnicities are often represented. Restaurants that have participated in the past include Curra’s, Dona Emilia’s, Matt’s El Rancho, Ruby’s BBQ, Santa Rita and Suun Garden Shaved Ice.

What would an Austin festival be without live music? Again focusing on our local talent, the festival boasts quite a cross-section of musical genres, with kid-friendly bands, country, jazz, conjunto, and many others. Bands who have played at past hot sauce festivals include, Loose Cannons, the South Austin Jug Band, Los Jazz Vatos and the Gourds.

Getting to try the cream of the salsa crop, eat the best food Austin has to offer, dance to the grooviest bands in town and make a contribution to a worthy cause is one of the highlights of an Austin summer. The Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival is an institution, and one that will face its next two decades in the same spicy fashion.

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This is truly a museum for the casual and creative Austinite. With two locations and loads of interesting exhibits and programs, AMOA is a great cultural destination for students, adults, and even parents and caregivers of young children.

The downtown location is a sleek and modern space, while the Laguna Gloria campus, AMOA’s original home, is housed within a 1916 Italiante villa. The primary home of the AMOA Art School, Laguna Gloria is located on property once owned by Stephen F. Austin, and was the residence of the legendary Clara Driscoll. Overlooking Lake Austin, and with 12 acres of beautiful grounds and gardens, Laguna Gloria is worth a visit purely on historical merit. Both locations have permanent and changing exhibits, and both have space available for private functions.

One of the hallmarks of both AMOA locations is the informal structure and feel. No stuffy, hallowed grounds here – instead you find welcoming, easy to navigate floor plans full of surprising and interesting exhibits. You can tour at your own speed, reading the descriptions that are mounted next to each exhibit, or you can book a gallery tour, which are available with different age groups in mind. The compact size of the exhibit space adds to the experience – the visitor can spend time with each exhibit, getting more from the experience than one where you rush through to make sure you see it all. The exhibits are right out there – something to keep in mind when you bring kids – there are no barriers between fast little critters and the actual exhibit.

Still, the AMOA makes a point to be accessible and interesting to children as well. In addition to offering a number of free events for families, the museum has a permanent FamilyLab. The FamilyLab is a fantastic experience for kids of all ages. It is a hands-on, interactive place to make art with creative and colorful items supplied by the museum. They also have children’s books on hand, along with bean bag chairs, in case your little one just needs a cuddle. The mirror tunnel is endlessly fascinating, and all activities in the FamilyLab are offered at no additional cost to museum admission. The second Saturday of every month AMOA offers a reduced admission for families, with art instructors leading families in creating art projects to take home.

AMOA offers art classes for children and adults, with a limited number of scholarships available. Class themes include ArtPlay, ArtABCs, Life Drawing, Watercolor, Children’s Book Illustration, and many, many more. They have for the Art School. They offer periodical education programs for teachers, docents, adults, children, and groups. They offer a myriad of interesting events, sometimes pairing visual arts with music, both for their valued members and for the public. Events include their annual fundraisers, the Art Ball in June, and their fantastically popular international food and wine tasting event, La Dolce Vita. Their museum store offers cups, shirts and other items with their distinctive logo, as well as art-inspired gifts.

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