Live tall and Proper

The Proper is the name of a new hotel/condo building a block south of us, more or less. The windows on this tower are pretty cool.

Another Hotel Rises on Cesar Chavez

I believe this building at Trinity and Cesar Chavez which is getting way up there is going to be a Marriott property.

Oklahoma Hackelback Caviar

Served with Ruffles! It was very good, to be honest. This was at Carpenter's Hall, a new restaurant that we love. It is in a boutique hotel.

Merry Christmas from Austin! (Stephen F. that is!)

I thought that this photo would be appropriate for today -- these portraits of our town's namesake have a holiday glow.

Lotta lights!

The big tree at the SF Austin Hotel is full of lights this year. That took some work!

Steer cheer here!

We liked this pretty holiday display on the mantel at the Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental.

Christmas at the Driskill

FFP poses in the lobby of the historic Driskill, done up for Christmas.

All just and Proper

This is the new Proper Hotel going up at a rapid clip near our home. What a town we have.

The old and the new.

This old house that our Heritage Society has been promising to fix up for many years sits in the shadow of the new Fairmont Hotel.

They're not dummies!

These mannequins have a bird's eye view of Lavaca Street from the balcony outside the Hampton Inn. Kind of an arresting sight!

New crane in the hood!

This one is for the Hotel Zaza that will spring up in the new year or 2018 or whenever!

New Hotels Rising

Congress Avenue is getting two new hotel properties in one footprint: the Aloft and Element are going up at Seventh Street.

ZaZa on the way?

This half of a city block visible from our balcony has been touted as the site for the new ZaZa Hotel for years. It looks like they are finally doing some excavation on it.

Hotel Rooms Coming

Caught the state of the Fairmount Hotel Construction on Cesar Chavez about a month ago.

Form over function

The trash cans in out room at a local hotel got full in a hurry with the small opening at the top.

Manhattan -- or the ATX?

We stayed for a couple of nights in the new Van Zandt Hotel in the Rainey Street district. This photo I shot with my iPhone shows the fancy crowd in the bar at Geraldine's, their restaurant. We were impressed with the hipness factor.

Sweet spot!

We always like to see the gingerbread town at the Four Seasons. They took on a western theme this year!

A natural touch

This piece of wall art in the new Westin hotel brings the outdoors in, as they say.

Caught in the act.

This is an interesting piece of wall art in the new Westin hotel in downtown Austin. I managed to catch a reflection of my partner in life shooting a photo of her own in the mirrored part of it.

There are places I remember . . .

We saw this sign outside the Carpenters Union Hall today. My dad spent a lot of time there. Wow.