TEXAS IN THE NEWS

Memorial Day weekend kicks off the official start of summer and the season when Americans pack their bags for vacation. Austin is a music lover’s dream. In addition to the summer music festival Austin City Limits, the city is full of live music events, many of them affordable. Check out the Continental Club, a 1950s-era lounge that hosts some of the best local performers.

“In this state park alone, you can see 300 kinds of butterflies and 326 species of birds,” Ranger John Yochum says into Brown’s microphone. This state park is Estero Llano Grande, in the town of Weslaco, one of many stops along the Texas Birding Trail. And in the wider Rio Grande Valley, which extends 120 miles along the Rio Grande River, “you can see 520 species of birds” — more than half of the total number of birds in all of the United States and Canada. These numbers make South Texas the most productive place for birdwatching in North America.

Boiled crabs, fried crabs, grilled crabs and soft shell crabs are the main meals for many at the Texas Crab Festival. All crabs are caught fresh from the local Galveston or East bays.  The three-day Fredericksburg Crawfish Festival features food, drinks, music and entertainment inspired by the Creole region.

Galveston has set a record for the number of tourists visiting the island for the fourth consecutive year, rising to 6.4 million in 2015 with help from a surge in cruise passengers, according to a recent study for the Galveston Tourism and Visitors Bureau.

If Austin, Texas were cologne it would smell like brisket, with an undertone of tacos and hoppy beer.I was going to write a “Top Ten Restaurants In Austin” piece, but that would be impossible, seeing as there are hundreds of “top” places to eat in my perfectly weird hometown.This is a tiny splash of Austin eateries that will leave you full, jolly and searching for more.

Beyond the SXSW festival, there’s classic barbecue, contemporary art and even a beer garden on a working ranch. The sprawling capital of Texas has welcomed over 100,000 new residents since 2010. Along with all the new Austinites, dozens of new shops, restaurants, bars and hotels have appeared, turning the formerly sleepy city into a thriving metropolis quickly approaching a million inhabitants.