As you may or may not know, my husband is wanting to relocate. We're looking at Austin as our first choice. He may be interviewing for a position on the 14th or 15th.

I know near to nothing about the area and thought perhaps some people on the board could help me out. This particular job is blocks away from UT. I am interested in parish information (I realize it is a liberal city)... even information on parishes that are not right in Austin but with in reasonable driving distance. Right now we drive about an hour.

Also, when looking at rentals online the city is divided into parts: North, Central, South, etc. I just need to know which sides of town we want to stay away from and which sides are desirable. I am also interested in the areas around Austin like Cedar Creek, Round Rock, etc. There are so many I don't know where to start.

roland lives in round rock...we have another board member out at lakeway (michael ?)...he doesn't come around much anymore...there is one more in austin, but she also is infrequent

my knowledge of austin from 36 years ago won't help much...i know 2 people in austin i could talk to, but not about parishes as neither is Catholic

Austin is in Texas, but not part of Texas

About that "liberal city" idea: When I was at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, one of the other students was a physician from Austin. I will always remember how he said "It's funny -- in Texas I was considered a liberal, but here in Cambridge the same opinions make me a conservative..."

There's a Latin mass downtown somewhere. I haven't been there much but traffic seems pretty bad.

I'm in Round Rock, which is just north of Austin, and it would be an easy commute to UT (real estate is much more reasonable in RR than in Austin ).

That's Cedar Park, not Cedar Creek. Cedar Park and Leander are nice communities, still more rural than Austin or even Round Rock, not as easily accessed via freeways and whatnot. There's also Pflugerville, which is between Austin and RR.

Of course, you could go south, into Kyle or Buda. I'm not familiar with them, though.

St. William is in RR, as is St. John Vianney. St. Mary Cathedral Parish downtown has Latin mass.

What is the homeschooling community like?

Texas is one of the easier states to homeschool in. Here's a couple of links to groups that might interest you.

http://www.main.org/hfh/ Catholic homeschool group of Austin.

http://www.main.org/aah/support.html A whole list of different groups in the Austin area.

There really is a Round Rock in Round Rock

I also think Austin has the best airport in the nation.

Round Rock was #7 on "Money's" top 100 "best places to live" in 2008. It's top rated in other areas, too.

And I live here, too, so there you go.

As far as I can tell, the only real requirement to homeschool in Texas is that you have children. Oh, there are some things like English and history and good citizenship (no one knows what that really is), but they are things any parent would teach, anyway, so it isn't even worth discussing it. No accountability to the government at all. Great watchdog group (Texas Home School Coalition--THSC).

I'm sure the homeschoolers there are weird just like everyone else in Austin. I left Austin once on 183 heading North and it was the darnedest thing, one minute I was driving in Austin traffic and the next I was back in Texas with open roads and pastures on either side. My mom lives in Round Rock but I've only been there once. She goes to St. John Vianney parish and it's quite contemporary. If you're going to live so that a commute to UT is fairly easy then it won't be hard to get to the cathedral downtown as they are close together. That's what I'd plan on. Round Rock to downtown looks like about 30-45 minutes in traffic.

wow...and i remember the time back in the dark ages when i made it from georgetown to where 290 intersects I35 in 15 minutes ... yes i was going fast

Austin has grown North and South making 35 pretty miserable, IMO. I always go to Austin from the East which is insufferable. The only thing to do is skirt it by 20 or 30 miles and take county and farm to market roads around the whole mess.

I love this board.

I checked out the St. William site. Confession every day and NFP as a requirement for marriage is a plus. What is the liturgy like?

Don't forget, we're Californians. We can handle some traffic.

Aren't NFP classes a requirement for marriage everywhere?

fwiw, we were married at St Louis in what was then NW austin (7601 burnet rd)...hehe...i'm sure people who know austin now will get a kick out of that

30 minute commute in traffic would be dreamy for you huh Rachael?

Why Austin? Is that only where the job is? Nothing in San Antonio area...?

No, there isn't many job in SA. There is one editor position there that he is a serious candidate for but it has no benefits at all and I am not sure they pay would be enough. If he takes that job it might be just to get us there. We'd probably move to New Braunfels or San Marcos and he would commute for a year or so until he can find something else.

He's been talking to people and he really wants to be in Austin if it is TX. We're open to anywhere but this is where the companies are that he has received contact from.

Oh and Austin's job market is pretty steady and the city hasn't taken as hard of an economic hit. It is a huge tech area.

They were pretty hard hit a few years back. Broadwing was gobbled.