Austin Eyeworks

The breathtaking beauty and unusual construction of the Texas Capitol are the stuff of legends in the Lone Star State. View artifacts of Texas history, including the original flag from the Battle of San Jacinto, historical paintings, and some of the original Senator desks from 1888. Take a guided tour through the Capitol Building, which has 400 rooms and more than 900 windows. Then check out the Capitol Grounds, which spans 22 acres featuring historical buildings, 17 monuments, and beautifully landscaped lawns.

Keep the laughs going at Esther's Follies, a comical tour de force, where they showcase variety shows, musical comedies, and magical performances that encompass political satire, innuendos, and vaudeville showmanship. Enjoy the must-see improvisational performances filled with singers, poets, dancers, mimes, musicians, and comics, where everyone laughs under one roof.

Take a dip into the Barton Springs pool, which measures three acres in size, and is fed from underground springs with an average temperature of 68-70 degrees, ideal for year-round swimming. Over the years, people from all walks of life, from legislators to free-spirited have been drawn to this fantastic pool where even Robert Redford learned to swim at five years old. Today, Barton Springs still attracts a diverse crowd of people and has seen record-setting numbers of visitors nearing 800,000 in recent years.

The Elisabet Ney Museum is the historic home and studio of Elisabet Ney, a wildly iconoclastic German sculptor who moved to Austin in 1882. The museum enthusiastically celebrates her art, history, and legacy through exhibitions and events for the whole family. Her commissions include notable European luminaries and those who shaped early Texas history, including well-known Texans Stephen Austin and Sam Houston, whose portraits both stand in the national and state capitals today.