Keeping Austin weird.

After two summers of big cross-country road trips, plus one action-packed week in January at the Rose Parade, we decided to stay closer to home for this year's family vacation. Our plan was to do all the Austin things we don't normally have the time or opportunity to do, plus go a little farther south to tube the Guadalupe.

First stop: SIXTH STREET!

You know, Sixth Street is rarely on our Austin itinerary (much like when I lived there), but on this occasion we were there on business.

In his freelance work, Brett reviews all kinds of museums, so it wasn't all that weird that he wanted to see this one!


Behind the Lucky Lizard gift shop, we found all kinds of oddities, cleverly described in ways to make you wonder, Ripley's style, if you should believe it—or not.

Among the items:

The Fiji Mermaid

A stuffed two-headed calf (among other
two-headed creatures like pigs and chickens)

Wax figures of classic monster like the Phantom,
Frankenstein's monster and Dracula

This unbelievable wax figure
of the Hunchback of Notre Dame

(I mean, really incredible! Just look at that chest hair!)

A baby gargoyle movie prop from Tales from the Darkside

Shrunken heads

Pancho Villa's trigger finger

This massive (live) lizard
(Perhaps he's the lucky one from the gift shop's name?)

A 3,000-year-old mummy

The Museum of the Weird was a fun stop on our get-away! After lunch at Mother's Cafe and stops at Game Over Video Games and Half Price Books stores along the way, we spent the night in New Braunfels, ready for our river adventure the next day.