Texas is completely different than I thought it was

I've lived in California most of my life since 1952 when I was 4 years old and moved with my parents from Seattle where they mostly grew up and lived mostly until then. So, California and places like Hawaii, and Arizona and New Mexico and Oregon and Washington are the states I knew the most about from personal experiences the last 76 years of my life.

So, when I pictured Texas I picture sort of a Disney Pecos Bill kind of desert experience that resembled more the California, Arizona and New Mexico deserts and maybe they had something like Santa Fe which is at over 7000 feet in elevation like Flagstaff, Arizona?

But, in Austin and now Boerne after I flew to Austin from the SF Bay area last Thursday has mostly been a complete surprise for me on every level. I think the trees and humidity that remind me more of Hawaii than anything else is what amazed me the most. And Rivers like the Colorado River of Texas (different than the one in Colorado and the Grand Canyon) that runs through a wealthy area of Austin was surprising too. The river also runs through Austin downtown as well I believe too. I just checked on a map of Austin and I was right.

So, so far I have seen the Austin area and Ladybird Lake which is part of the Colorado River of Austin, Texas and now we drove over to Boerne (pronouced Bernie) which is a bedroom community of San Antonio Texas which is where the historical Alamo is.