Last year during the hot summer in August, a friend and I visited Austin, Texas for 5 nights.  Even with a broken front right wheel, we were still able to get out and enjoy some really cool attractions in the vicinity of our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Downtown.  Here is some of our highlights:

Yeti Flagship Experience Store

This Yeti store in Austin is the original retail location where you can get exclusive Yeti products that can be personalized.  Not only do they sell outdoor and camping stuff, there is an attached Barrr where you can get drinks and food and watch a live music event in store.  We liked the selection of products they carried and were happy to escape the extreme heat outside for a bit.

Texas Toy Museum

Texas Toy Museum is located on Congress Ave downtown and features a huge collection of toys from the 80s and 90s and other early decades too.  Entrance was $17 each and it includes unlimited plays at all the classic arcade games.  There are over 20,000 toys/pieces and over 50 video games to play.

To keep things interesting, we were given a scavenger hunt card to locate some toys throughout the museum to win a prize.  Some of the aisles were tight and had random toys all over the place which made it a bit harder to maneuver around but I still could fit.

I got to see classic toys like Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, Battle Beasts and a lot more which brought back memories of my childhood growing up.  It was a bit hard to play some of the arcade games but I watched my friend play.  They also sell drinks and light snacks.  We spent almost 2 hours at this unique toy museum.

Comedy Mothership/Sixth Street

Comedy Mothership is a comedy club owned by Joe Rogan that opened in early 2023 on Austin’s Historic Sixth Street.  This is a nine block area that has been a major entertainment district since the 1970s.  There are many bars, clubs, music venues, restaurants and shops located in this area.  Certain roads are even closed from cars during busy hours for extra pedestrian traffic and food truck vendors.

Since Comedy Mothership usually sells out within minutes when tickets are released, at 8.30pm we got 2nd in line after 1 guy to buy the 10pm show which was 1 hr a of few openers then Joe Rogan for the last hour.  We had to wait until 10.30 to see how many no shows there were for the night, then standby people can buy the regular $40 tickets. There was a 2 drink min per person too.

Museum of the Weird

Museum of the Weird is a dime museum that has a variety of oddities and unusual attractions such as mummies, monsters, freaks of nature, and other strange creatures.  This place is like a smaller version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums.  It seemed interesting enough for us to want to visit.

Museum of the Weird has 3 floors but only the main floor is wheelchair accessible so we only have to pay a discounted $5 per person instead of $12.99. It was still a good 20 minutes or so checking out some of the displays and the gift shop.

Texas State Capitol

Texas State Capitol is the capital and seat of government of Texas.  It opened in 1888 and houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas.  We started by checking out the gardens and the courtyard right outside surrounding the building.  There were a few sculptures worth looking at.

There was actually a nice accessible ramp built on the side of the building that brought us to the front main entrance.  There is no cost to visit the Texas State Capitol but there is tight security to get in complete with metal detectors and armed security guards.

There are free 30 minute tours but we decided to go on our own to explore at our own pace.  We saw the dome, cabinet rooms, court room, and even the library.  Since it is an older building, there are floors that have a few steps to get onto but luckily there are wheelchair lifts to get to them.  It took us about 90 minutes to see everything.

Rainey Street Historic District

Rainey Street is a street of historic homes, many of them Bungalow style in downtown Austin.  It has become a hot spot of bungalows that turned into bars and restaurants, fancy hotels, live music venues and food trucks galore.

It wasn’t too far from our hotel so we did wander into the Rainey Street area to get some food and to check out the vibe of the area.  The music was quite loud and there were crowds of people everywhere having a good time.

Final Thoughts

I did get to enjoy a few great accessible and 1 not so accessible things to do in Austin.  The weather was a bit too hot when I was there in mid August but am glad to still be able to do what I did.