After our wonderful dinner at the South Congress Café we headed back toward the Austin Motel on Congress. We came upon Uncommon Goods 1512 South Congress St which is open daily until 7pm but on Thursday they stay open until 9pm. We can never resist an antique/unusual item store. This shop has 30 dealers who offer an eclectic variety of object d’art, second hand cowboy boots, loads of stained glass windows, baskets, books, pottery, and a whole lot more. It can be a little crowded in some of the booths so be careful as you look at items. In some ways it was very flee market in the way objects are displayed. Be prepared to dig and look under tables and in cupboards. We were looking for a painting of bluebonnets and we did find a couple that were of interest. We didn’t buy but we did enjoy. There is a lot to look at allow yourself at least an hour.
Rues Antiques: 1500 South Congress. This is an interesting shop they have loads of really unique things but as to antiques, I am not quite sure how they get away with calling this an antique store. What I saw were a lot of reproductions that we not marked as reproduction. They had a very extensive collection of reproduction metal signs, quite a few Coca-Cola and others that were automobiles. The furniture seem to be authentic for the most part but don’t expect to find anything with any real age here. In the window they had a large display of stained glass but it was new glass not old an all the funky cats in the other window I just didn’t get, they obviously were new and sort of artsy crafty. Having said all that I bought a large out door thermometer here with a bass on it for our cottage. Al is a bass fisherman and we have his stuffed large mouth bass on the wall of our back porch ( it beats having it in our parlor at home) so I figured this would be a nice addition to that lake cottage feel. Joe found a couple of old art postcards so it was not a waste of time by any means.
Allens Boots 1522 South Congress, if you have always wanted to own a pair of real western boots, this is the place to stop. These beauties don’t come cheap but it’s all part of the Texas experience, this is the real thing. It doesn’t stop at just the boots either, you can get all your western wear here.