Without a doubt, one of the hippest areas of Austin, Texas is South Congress Avenue, affectionately 
known as "SoCo". Two nights ago, while my in-laws were visiting us, we took the whole family there to do some browsing/shopping. I knew that there were several funky shops in the area, although I must admit that I had never once been before this week.
We decided to check out Uncommon Objects, which ended up having an incredible assortment of old and unique stuff. It's a very deep store, and I don't mean "profound". Rather, it is shaped like a long rectangle with two main aisles running the entire depth of the place and little vignette areas along each one.
I was pleased that they had an old Nehi drink fridge near the front, with soft drinks for one dollar each. The lady in charge said it would be fine if my kids had their drinks as we walked around. This was a pleasant surprise.
My father-in-law found and purchased an old bread board that he is planning to use for beadwork for his jewelry business. He also makes antique maps now, which strikes me as very cool indeed.
We had the kids with us, as I indicated, and my son managed to notice several things that I probably would have preferred that he not see. At one point, he literally said this to me:
"Hey, Dad, wanna see something REALLY inappropriate?"
I cringed inwardly as I wondered what he was going to show me. It turned out to be two small wooden nude fertility idols of some sort, one male and one female. VERY female.
I was tempted to buy the old-fashioned seltzer bottle so that I could learn to spray my friends like the Three Stooges used to do in their movies, but I refrained. They also had some nice geographic maps that roll up like a window shade, just like we used to have in school. I thought they would make nice additions to our homeschooling supplies, but I didn't get them that night.
Come to think of it, I think I might return for that seltzer bottle after all.
I tried to capture the essence of the place with my photos here. It's definitely worth a visit, whether you live here or you are in town for a visit: http://uncommonobjects.com/
To learn a bit more about South Congress, you can visit my previous post about the area here:
South Congress - Hip, Eclectic, Vibrant Area Near Downtown Austin
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and I was working with some clients who were relocating from Minnesota and looking in the downtown Austin area. We were in the driveway of a home that we had just seen and eliminated.