Sometimes the best places to visit aren't the ones most widely advertised or the most expensive. I happened to run across an allusion to The Cathedral of Junk on the internet and thought it might be an interesting place to visit. We took some visiting family to go see it this past weekend, not knowing what to expect, and it turned out to become one of my favorite places to explore of all time! (It's hard to capture the scope of it here in the pictures)
The Cathedral of Junk is not an established museum or tourist attraction- just a man here in Austin who has built an exquisite, quirky masterpiece out of several tons of junk in his backyard. The admission is free (but accepts donations); and it doesn't have set hours (just whenever the man happens to be around and available (so it's good to call ahead of time).
I was thrilled to find such an unusual, fun place to take people for free right here in our hometown.
Have any of you had similar experiences, discovering inexpensive off-the-beaten path, fun things to do with your family? I'd love to hear about them- especially so I can file them away for times when we might happen to be traveling through your part of the country!
Sometimes the best places to visit aren't the ones most widely advertised or the most expensive. I happened to run across an allusion to The Cathedral of Junk on the internet and thought it might be an interesting place to visit. We took some visiting family to go see it this past weekend, not knowing what to expect, and it turned out to become one of my favorite places to explore of all time! (It's hard to capture the scope of it here in the pictures) 
The Cathedral of Junk is not an established museum or tourist attraction- just a man here in Austin who has built an exquisite, quirky masterpiece out of several tons of junk in his backyard. The admission is free (but accepts donations); and it doesn't have set hours (just whenever the man happens to be around and available (so it's good to call ahead of time).
I was thrilled to find such an unusual, fun place to take people for free right here in our hometown.
Have any of you had similar experiences, discovering inexpensive off-the-beaten path, fun things to do with your family? I'd love to hear about them- especially so I can file them away for times when we might happen to be traveling through your part of the country!
4 comments:
I lived in Austin for a few years and visited the Cathedral of Junk a few times. I miss that about Austin--the funky, interesting places and things to do.
You're probably not likely to be traveling through Columbia, MO, but if you are, the Katy Trail is a fun, inexpensive thing to do. It's long biking/hiking trail that goes along the Missouri River. Near Columbia there is a place on the trail called Cooper's Landing, where you can hear live music and eat good Thai food (at least for the midwest anyway!) or barbecue.
I commented a little earlier on the outdoor scavenger activity that was featured on the crafty crow. Since then, I have been reading many of your other posts. I love it - so many ideas that I cannot wait to try out with my daughter. She is I think a few months older than yours. And also, thank you for sharing about this place. We moved to Austin a year back and are still exploring..
Fellow Austinite here -I keep wanting to start a list of statues and thought it would be fun for my kids to take photo so themselves next to them. Like the giant wooden fish outside of Joe's Crab Shack, the bat statue on Congress, of course the UT fountain etc.
I am hoping to do it this summer and thought we'd do it every Friday as a field trip.
Fellow Austinite here -I keep wanting to start a list of statues and thought it would be fun for my kids to take photo so themselves next to them. Like the giant wooden fish outside of Joe's Crab Shack, the bat statue on Congress, of course the UT fountain etc.
I am hoping to do it this summer and thought we'd do it every Friday as a field trip.
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