Health, Beauty, and the Wonders of Route #3

Source.

First things first... Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends both in person and in the interwebs. May your barbecues be tasty, your parades be perfect, your fireworks be bright, and your insect repellent be strong. And please, enjoy your fireworks in extra measure on my behalf, because the Austin fireworks for Independence Day have been cancelled due to drought.

But never mind that; you came here to read about Day 1 of our Exploring Austin Quest, didn't you? (Real name coming soon, after everyone has had enough time to finish voting on it... VOTE NOW in the poll in the sidebar! -->) For our maiden voyage, as it were, we chose Route #3-- the northern half, that is. This challenge may take longer than anticipated if we have to break all the routes in two!

Remember my rule about asking for help? Well, the first thing I did was break that rule. Oops. Route 3 is detoured by construction, but rather than call and ask customer service, I went with what the online trip planner said to do. Unfortunately, a computer is only a high-speed idiot, and it does not keep abreast of the latest road construction detours all by its onesie. So, the stop it sent us to was closed. There was a sign at the closed stop, telling us the nearest stop to use, so we went there, only to discover there is no stop at the intersection it sent us to. The long and short of it is, we walked about a mile before we ever got on the bus.

I'm sure this is a slightly irreverant
use of the prayer garden.

But, once we got going it was all good. The #3 goes through the medical district, some fun shopping areas, and aaaaaalll the way up north to a couple of adjoining shopping centers, where we got off. Our first visit was to this prayer garden at a church, where Chad decided to pose with the locals, before we headed over to see the wonders of the Great Hills Market. Two things of note here: First, I'd been intending to look for Kiss My Face brand soap as soon as I run out of my current brand, and I found it lurking in the Austin Beauty Store; second, it appears that Chad and I are incapable of walking past any frozen yogurt shop without going in. And they've been popping up all over Austin like a creamy, frozen plague. I liked mine; Chad did not like his.

These may be the strangest bedfellows
ever, but hey, after seeing the colon
and rectal doctors, who wouldn't want
to get their hair done?

And then back on the bus to get Chad to class on time (his class is on the #3 route; that's pretty much why I chose it for a day he had class). I got off with him to take pics of the fun shopping and medical districts around where he goes to massage school. Yeah, I said "fun medical district", because oddly enough, it is. Check out that picture to the left. Seriously, do it.

So, we'll have to go back for the southern half of Route #3, and I can only hope that it's as entertaining as the northern half. If you want to see more pics of our journey (and why wouldn't you?) go here.

Are you Canadian? Do you like frozen yogurt? I don't dare ask your opinion of the colon & rectal docs, but I'm sure you'll tell me if you are so moved. (Ha!)