Alumni Relations & Volunteer Engagement

Austin, Texas: LBJ and the Texas Hill Country

Back by popular demand, this four day experience is notable for the disctinctive blend of natural sights, recent history, and changing culture. Austin and the Texas Hill Country are very special destinations, and the added insights of Professor of History Jacqueline Dirks '82 make this a very special weekend.

Click here to download our sign up form (PDF).

Cost

$750 per person includes airport pick-ups, lodging (double occupancy), opening reception, breakfasts, lunches, ground transportation, and entrance fees. $400 per person price excludes lodging.

Itinerary

This itinerary is tenative and may change.

Thursday, April 16: Welcome

Afternoon arrival into Austin (AUS).

The program will kick off with a reception and happy hour that will also include members of the Austin/San Antonio Reed alumni group.  We will gather at the location where LBJ gathered to watch election results: the historic Driskill Hotel.

Dinner will be on your own.  You can choose between a host of restaurants in downtown Austin.  Whether you want a Tex-Mex or fine-dining establishment, you are sure to enjoy your dining experience in Austin.

Then there is music. If you are into music and want to check out the great selection of music on Austin’s popular 6th Street, then you will be in heaven. Lots of energy and lots of fun is in store on this first night.

Friday, April 17:  The Land

After breakfast, we will begin our exploration of the land where the nation’s 36th president was born, a spot he held so special that he spent a quarter of his presidency here. One cannot understand Johnson without understanding the land. Our first stop will be one of Ladybird Johnson’s legacies: the Wildflower Research Center. Located on the edge of Austin, this lovely site showcases how the rugged land is home to an intimate and colorful array of flora. And since April is part of the wildflower season, we will learn a little about the flowers we will see along the roadsides in the Hill Country.

Texas and barbeque go hand in hand, so we will head out to the famous Salt Lick barbeque restaurant for lunch and enjoy this gustatory experience before a scenic driving tour of the Texas Hill Country, focusing on the back roads to get a sense of the land, the topography and the small communities that comprise the region. We will then stop for a walk and ADA accessible hike through Pedernales Falls State Park.

Then it is off to Fredericksburg, where we will check into our rooms and then the evening is free for you to enjoy as you wish. Some will surely choose to dine at the Althaus, a German-style beer garden restaurant. Others may opt to check out the Friday night fish fry. And since Fredericksburg is a very popular tourist destination, there is no shortage of other eating options. 

Saturday, April 18: The people of the Hill Country and LBJ

After breakfast on your own, we will depart for our day focusing on LBJ and the people of the Hill Country.  We will drive to the Sauer-Beckman Living History farm on the edge of the LBJ park. This park interprets what life was like for the German residents of the Hill Country during the turn of the 20th Century. 

Then we will enter the LBJ Ranch and the Texas White House. The experience begins with a driving tour where with a number of stops where to get a perspective of the ranch and why it resonated so much with LBJ. It still is a working ranch, so you may see some of the livestock and there surely will be some workers driving around tending to their business.

The highlight of the tour to the LBJ Ranch is the “Texas White House.” It is now open to the general public (since Ladybird’s death in 2007) and tours are led by National Park Service guides. Each guide has a deep knowledge of the Johnson family and many knew Ladybird and know Linda and Lucy. More than any presidential site you may have visited, this is bound to have special resonance with anyone who was alive during the 1960s.

This will conclude our morning and we will head west to Johnson City for lunch and to visit where LBJ grew up. The small towns and communities bear the names of the families who settled this land, and we will visit a number of small communities and talk with the descendants of the original settlers—they all fondly remember the Johnsons, especially Ladybird.  We will visit the Stonewall peach co-op, the Hye post office, and Weinheimer’s  store. Then it is off to visit the place where “everybody’s somebody.”

Luckenbach was the name of the German family that owned this land until they sold it to Hondo Crouch.  Hondo put Luckenbach on the map. From the 1970s to today, it has been a place where you can listen to music every day of the week—be from a singer performing at the general store or on the stage on a Friday or Saturday night for the dances. We will visit the store, grab a beer and a listen, and you can choose if you want to stay or return later in the evening for a dance.

As we enjoy our Shiner Bock or other beverage of choice, we will debrief and discuss what we experienced of Johnson’s favorite place and how it shaped him (and how history was shaped because of it?).   

Sunday, April 19: LBJ and his legacy

At 9 a.m., we will depart Fredericksburg and head back to Austin and visit the LBJ Presidential Library. The library recently underwent a major renovation. The bulk of the exhibits were reopened in December, 2012, on the occasion of the centennial of Ladybird’s birth. We will spend the balance of our time visiting the library before gathering at a local restaurant for a late lunch and concluding discussion before people with mid afternoon/evening departures need to head to the airport.

Optional Sunday evening activity for those staying overnight (Sunday lodging is not included in the price):

Just south of Austin lies the world largest cave of bats (Mexican Freetail bats), and we can arrange a visit to Bracken cave to see a truly spectacular site, the bats taking flight in the evening. This takes the spectacle that occurs under Austin’s Congress Street Bridge every night and turns it up a notch! Those who visited last year thought it was a real highlight of the trip.