Austin I

Austin, Texas - Cowboys, dust and horses - or so I thought.

Texas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population. The name, meaning "friends" or "allies" in Caddo, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas.

Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify Texas as an independent republic and as a reminder of the state's struggle for independence from Mexico.
Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, Texas contains diverse landscapes. Although Texas is popularly associated with the Southwestern deserts, less than 10% of the land area is desert. Most of the population centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests, and the coastline. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, and finally the desert and mountains of the Big Bend.

Austin

The area was settled in the 1830s on the banks of the Colorado River by pioneers who named the village Waterloo. In 1839, Waterloo was chosen to become the capital of the newly independent Republic of Texas. The city was renamed after Stephen F. Austin, known as the father of Texas.Austin is home to many companies, high-tech and otherwise, including the headquarters of Dell, Whole Foods Market, and Freescale Semiconductor. On March 12th, 2010, Facebook accepted a grant to build an office that could bring as many as 200 jobs to the city.

Residents of Austin are known as "Austinites".

The main campus of the University of Texas is located in Austin. The city is home to development centers for many technology corporations and has adopted the nickname "Silicon Hills". Additionally the city's official slogan promotes it as "The Live Music Capital of the World", a reference to the many musicians and live music venues within the area. In recent years, many Austinites have also adopted the unofficial slogan "Keep Austin Weird"; this refers partly to the eclectic and liberal lifestyle of many Austin residents but is also the slogan for a campaign to preserve smaller local businesses and resist excessive corporatization.

Not very well done shots of the large of the two Chambers in the Texas State Capitol Building. Went on a short and uneventful free tour there.


The Texas State Capitol
It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas.
A $75 million underground extension was completed in 1993.




This is like the 'tower' of the capitol - under our feet were pictures of the six flags over Texas.
The term "six flags over Texas" came from the several nations that had rule over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas. France held a short-lived colony in Texas. Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845 it joined the United States as the 28th state. The state's annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state, Texas declared its secession from the United States in early 1861, joining the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.