Austin, Texas

 Today we again attended Peace Lutheran Church. During the service the youth reported on their experiences the last two days with a 30 hour hunger fast. During the time of the fast different participants experienced a night of living outside in cardboard boxes (to experience homelessness), assembled layette kits, and worked for Habitat for Humanity as well as the local food pantry. They also raised enough money to sponsor some hungry children through World Vision. Way to go, Peace Lutheran! Yesterday we were in Austin and spent most of our time at the Texas State History Museum. The capitol of Texas can be seen down the road from the museum. I was wondering who the figure was on top of the capitol and found out soon during my tour of the museum. In the museum I saw the original Goddess of Liberty, who once sat on top of the capitol. She holds the Lone Star of Texas in her hand.

While driving around Austin I noticed the sculpture pictured below, and wondered what I had missed after learning so much of Texas history in the past month.

The lady was Angelina Eberly a local hotel keeper in the mid 1800s. Sam Houston did not want the capitol in Austin. In late 1842 he sent a contingent of Texas Rangers to retrieve government documents, housed in Austin, to bring them to Houston- where he wanted the capitol to be located. Angelina fired the cannon and alerted the townspeople who caught up with Houston's men and took back the papers without bloodshed. Way to go Angelina!  After touring the museum we drove to to an area on South Congress street which  reminded us of the Loop in University City, Missouri. Many people were milling about on the streets there last evening. In this area are numerous eclectic shops, restaurants, bars and various music venues. There are also food trailers along the streets offering a variety of foods including cupcakes ( that place had a long line of customers all evening, John had to give up any hope of getting that sweet and found some ice cream instead).