New Year's Eve at Auditorium Shores (remotely)

Last night, there was a big New Year's Eve party down at Ladybird Lake, with a fireworks finale at Auditorium Shores at 10:00 PM.

We went out for a delicious fondue dinner very early in the evening...

There used to be a Melting Pot downtown. I'm sad that we had to drive to get to this one, but it was a good meal. And we were home before 8:00, our desire to avoid crazy traffic later.

The other day, I'd noticed that a pretty nondescript parking garage near the Nuthaus probably had a really cool view of the city from the rooftop. Daphne and I had thought about checking it out, but the exterior stairwell was gated shut. We weren't motivated enough to try the interior entry, but last night, it seemed like if we managed to get up on the roof, we should be able to see the fireworks at the lake.

This is but one reason I love technology. We looked up the sight lines on Google Maps 3D.

We were intending to stand where the green "a" is. The fireworks were where the purple directions line ends, near the tall building toward the middle of the picture. It seemed like we should be able to see the fireworks, not obscured by the buildings downtown.

At 9:45, we walked over to the garage, entered through the parking gate, and went up a couple of flights of stairs. Then we walked to the exterior stairwell and went up to the roof. It was a pretty view without fireworks!

Surprisingly, at exactly 10:00, IN AUSTIN, the fireworks started. We'd picked a great vantage point!

After the fireworks had started, two other families showed up on the roof with us, all with smaller children. The fireworks lasted for a good twelve minutes or so, and when they were over, we made it back home by 10:18, never having to deal with crowds or traffic or anything like that.

It was a great way to ring in the new year! Love our neighborhood!