Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Austin Texas, Y'all



What can I say? Austin was so much fun. This was only my third time away from Stella and our first big trip together since she was born. I was so excited to go somewhere new and do whatever I wanted to do. Like, up at night, can't sleep kinda excited.  A few days before our trip I asked Donald if he was excited. He said, "I'm excited because you are excited." Oh, what a wonderful thing to hear.

We flew out around 10 am on Wednesday, June 10.  My goal was to find the Mississippi River from the plane but I did not succeed. Not sure how we missed it. Our plane didn't have the TV screen on the back of the seat with GPS in it so I just kept looking out the window every ten minutes or so. I thought I'd found it and the mouth of it but turns out we were over Houston so obviously too far.  

The Austin airport is pretty small, especially compared to Atlanta. We just walked out the front door, across the pedestrian walk, grabbed our rental car and hit the road headed towards Bastrop.

First stop was Benny's Texas BBQ. Think road side stand, no AC, isolating fans, the smell of sweet smoke and cars & trucks buzzing by going 70 mph. We ordered brisket, beef ribs, slaw, pinto beans, potato salad and a cold corn salad and split everything. It was delicious and so, so messy. Which made it even more delicious.

We hosed off washed up and drove down the road to the JAMCO/JEMS fabrication shop in Bastrop. On the way through the industrial park I noticed fields of sunflowers. I remembered seeing them after we left the airport. They just grow wild around there I guess. So pretty.  When we got out of the car I noticed something-basically the sound of silence. Just the wind and birds. It was wonderful.  We are so used to hearing traffic, TV, music, people talking etc that it was quite surprising to just hear nothing.  

Donald showed me around the shop, then we drove across the highway to Buc-Ee's. Donald was dying to show it to me. This is a chain of gas stations the size of huge grocery stores and have really clean and nice bathrooms and everything imaginable on their shelves. 

Do you see how big this place is? I mean, they have buggies. I was told they have even larger ones in other parts of Texas and on the weekends every pump is occupied at all times pretty much.


I know it's crazy for him to want to show me a gas station, but this place was fantastic and super clean. They had separate walls of candy, popcorn, beef jerky and pretzels.  They had a deli where you could get fresh cut sandwich meats, fresh beef jerky, an area just for Buck-Ee's memorabilia.  I met an older couple talking over the deli cooler and they found out we were visiting Bastrop and the Austin area. Her name was Carol and she recommended we visit the Bastrop museum. She actually said, "Tell 'em Carol sent ya." Which made me think of Pee Wee's Big Adventure when the trucker lady says, "Tell 'em Large Marge sent ya." So I had a nice little giggle over that.  Donald did not share in my giggle. His loss. 

Wall of candy. And I mean that ENTIRE wall!

Popcorn Aisle

Pretzel aisle

We left with some fresh beef jerky (that we later on had to throw out because we forgot to refrigerate it), a tie-dyed Buc-Ee's shirt for Stella, some dried apples, peanut butter filled pretzels and a case of water.

We drove the short distance to downtown Bastrop, parked and went inside the museum. We explained that Carol sent us and turns out she's a docent for the museum. 

The museum had the Cynthia Ann and Quanah Parker exhibit. Cynthia was taken from the frontier by Comanches and later mothered Quanah. He lived in both the Comanche & American world and became quite the successful businessman. This picture below is of Cynthia breastfeeding her daughter, Prairie Flower who only lived to be a few years old. I was blown away by this picture. It's very risque for its time-1860, but very beautiful.


This firetruck was also on tour and celebrating it's 100th year.

What I found to be interesting was that Bastrop (the town) is located in Bastrop County.



We walked around and went inside a few stores. One place was selling some sort of dip mix called "Aw Shit." It made me laugh out loud. Then I saw a Hot Shit, Chicken Shit and Dip Shit version. We didn't pick up any shit in Texas.

I just love old store fronts.


Need the perfect conversation piece for your front or back yard? You can have this art below for $6000 or something ridiculous like that.






Love how an artist dressed up these utility boxes. 






We also found The Colorado River Winery and enjoyed a wine sampling. I went with the sweet wines-they were yummy. I bought a bottle as a souvenir. I cannot remember the name but it tasted and smelled like Granny Smith apples.



We drove out to view some of the fire damage from a few years ago. We also passed Electric Avenue on the way. We got a giggle out of that.

We still weren't hungry, but we decided to have a seat outside on the patio at Neighbor's Bar & Yard which overlooked the Colorado. I had the Porch Swing with rum and Donald had a Mule. This place cooks pizza and even though we supposedly weren't hungry, we couldn't resist ordering something. We split an order of meatballs and the Texas Bruschetta. 



 We took a walk down by the river. It was really hot but mostly shaded and very quiet. 




Upon walking around Bastop, we discovered we were both instantly congested with watery eyes and couldn't quit sneezing. Sitting in the sun we noticed little dandelion thingies floating around. Turns out those thingies were the blooms from a Cottonwood tree. Just like in the Luke Bryan Crash My Party song "Cottonwood falling like snow in July." Donald said he remembered being allergic to them when he got tested. Apparently I am too. As soon as we got back to hotel we were fine. Thankfully. We've never had that type of reaction before. This beauty below is a Cottonwood tree.




We drove into Austin and checked into our hotel downtown at 8th and Brazos-The Omni. One half is the hotel and the other half is an office building. This picture shows the office part.  The entire lobby is open like this. I loved this hotel. Everyone was very nice, always opening the door or offering to call a cab. It was in a very convenient location and clean.


We were up on the 18th floor. This view was to our left. Just below the cranes is the UT baseball field. To our right (not shown) is the 6th Street bar area. Donald pointed out the original Stubbs BBQ from our room too.



I was shocked to find our room had a balcony. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights.



We freshened up and hustled down to the Congress Street Bridge to try and see the bats. 
For some reason millions of bat congregate under this bridge. They sometimes come out all at once by the thousands and millions and it's like a big black cloud, but unfortunately this was not the case for us. They have boats tours you can go on to see them and they even rent these kayaks with bicycles mounted to them to pedal up and down the river.



We waited and waited for a while but only would just see a few flutter in and out at a time.
We did get to see a beautiful sky as we waited.



They even rent regular kayaks but they have clear bottoms and light up paddles.


We left the bridge and just walked around downtown Austin. We stopped at a frozen yogurt shop and spent a ridiculous amount on fro yo, but it was so hot and humid and we were on vacation. Plus, there's much less healthy options we could have chosen.

Donald took me by The Driskill Hotel. It's where Lady Bird Johnson and Lyndon had their first date. They even have a room named after them. It's old, huge and gorgeous.

Donald arranged all of his meetings to be on Thursday so I had the day to myself.  To do whatever I wanted when I wanted for as long as I wanted. For the first time in a long time. I was not upset by this at all. In fact, just being alone in a new city was one of the things I was probably most excited about.

As soon as I got off the elevator I asked concierge for a map and a recommendation on breakfast. The lady said Annie's Cafe and I took off walking. I chose their English Breakfast-scrambled eggs, roasted new potatoes, bacon, artisan bread and jam, grilled tomato and OJ. It was so satisfying and delicious and I ate every.single.thing. on my plate. I had breakfast outside on the sidewalk and just watched the world go by.


Donald's company did this building and it happened to be right across from Annie's. He had a meeting here, but I wasn't aware it was at the same time I was having breakfast.


After breakfast, I just started walking. I attempted to walk down by the river but it was so overgrown to where I couldn't really see the water. Plus the smell of bat and bird poop was overwhelming so I headed back up to the sidewalk. I made the trek down to Whole Foods headquarters and was in awe of it. I would love to work there and was told it was worth it to visit. I walked in right at 12:30 and it was slammed for lunch. People were eating everywhere at various stations all over the store. I just did one lap around, used the restroom and ordered a juice from the juice bar and walked back out. 

View of The Colorado from the Congress Street Bridge looking East.



Where the bats hang out. Ha. Sorry. It just came to me.




I loved the stars I kept finding on my walk around Austin.





Walking back from WF, I found Santa and his sleigh on top of a building. 



Then I ran across a lovely little historic area. 






This is the Millett Opera House.



I made my way down to the Capitol just as this procession of middle/high school boys was making their way up to the steps.  Not really sure what it was about but they had a marching band and people got up to speak. Then they all made their way inside. I just walked around snapping pictures. 





Dedicated to the firemen.




                                                                                                  










I realized I was way too hot and not too far from the hotel. I'd been walking for a few hours and decided to head back to the hotel. I went back, got some delicious spa water from the lobby and sat down on the bed to cool off, relax and read. I turned on a spa station on Pandora and read for a while. Then I got sleepy and just dozed in and out for an hour or so. It was fantastic. I showered after Donald returned from his meetings and got ready to meet a coworker and his wife for dinner. Donald headed down to 6th street for a drink while I got ready.  I then walked down to meet him and we walked over to Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill.  This place was fantastic. They have a modest indoor dining area but a huge covered outdoor eating area. We sat outside and they brought us buckets of popcorn. I had the Strawberry Moonshine Lemonade and we got an order of the Sweet Potato Fries with a Roasted Tomatillo Sauce as an appetizer. For dinner, I went with the Chicken and Waffles. Donald ordered the Rubbed Flat Iron Steak, Macaroni and Cheese. I had a piece of chicken leftover and half of a waffle so I got it to go. I later realized we didn't have access to the fridge because they call it their mini bar and you have to have a key in which they charge you for it. So I improvised. I wrapped the chicken strip in a Kleenex, put it inside a coffee mug and stuck the mug down in the ice bucket. 

We walked down to the water to look up at the bridge this time. The bats decided to not put on a show Thursday night either, but we had quite the show from a another flying species. And it was hilarious. 


We found a few floating docks and walked down one and had a seat. It was only a few inches above the water. There was a family at the end of ours. The dock behind us had stacked kayaks. The dock in front of us had a few other people on it-fishing, I believe. A white Aflac type duck swam up, hopped up on the dock in front of us and then hopped onto ours and walked around shaking and fluttering her feathers to dry off. Then she nestled down about 6-8 feet from us. A man on the dock in front of us decided to jump in the water for a quick swim. The duck immediately hopped up, did that half run/half fly thing over to the next dock, dove in and basically walked on water to get to this guy. She got between his legs and started pecking. Then she began pecking at his back, head, shoulders,  just full on attacking him. Eight or so people are witnessing this and we are all thinking the same thing, "WTF?!?!" The man starts swatting at the duck and started swimming back to the dock. Even as he was swimming the duck was still pecking and biting at his crotch and back. He finally pulled himself up onto the dock  and basically ran off but not before giving us all "Eat shit and die" looks. they were warranted because as he flashed us his death ray laser eyes we were gasping for air after laughing at what happened. It was truly one of the most hilarious things I'd ever seen. We guessed that the duck had a nest somewhere close by and she thought he was trying to mess with her eggs.  You could tell the duck was totally pissed. She was all comfy just taking a rest and he disturbed her. She kept walking around and would just stop and stare at everyone like "What?! You want some too?!"

The next morning my chicken was perfectly chilled and I just ate the waffle at room temp while I walked around the room packing my bag. It worked out great because I'm totally a breakfast person and wake up starving, but Donald doesn't eat it. So I had my "breakfast" and we ate lunch together a few hours later and were on the same eating schedule. 

Lunch was at Torchy's Tacos. We split the Green Chile Pork Taco-The Republican, the Barbocoa Corn Taco-The Democrat, Street Corn (off the cob) and the homemade queso and chips.  Holy cow! This was all so amazing and incredibly crave-able.  There was so much barbocoa in the taco that we actually put the chunks that fell out into the queso and created another snack. 

Austin is known for their food truck scene but unlike Atlanta, most of their food trucks are stationary. At this particular food truck "park" there was a few trucks permanently parked and they'd built a shelter for anyone dining at any of the trucks to eat at. They also had a bunch of picnic tables under some trees but this shelter ended up being lots cooler despite the fact that it wasn't air conditioned. 

Just down the road from Torchy's was South Austin Sno. I got us a pineapple and fresh lime sno cone that was yummy and just what we needed to cool down.

A visit to Zilker Park was recommended by an acquaintance.  Barton Springs is a natural feed 70-something degree spring that they made into a pool of sorts. We wanted to go swimming because it was very hot out, but there were a ton of kids around. We were honestly trying to steer clear of that scene since we kid-less ourselves. So we just peeked through the gates here and decided to find a Target to buy some towels and a cooler and head to Lake Travis instead.



You can kind of see where the pool ends and it just spills through and the river/creek continues on. That's downtown Austin in the background.




About two weeks before our trip Stella wouldn't go back to sleep without me. It was super late/very early in the morning and after being up for a while wrestling with her, I was no longer sleepy. I decided to start researching our trip-places to go, things to see, restaurants to eat at, etc. I ran across something called Hippie Hollow. It's a state park at Lake Travis that allows nudity. I immediately knew we had to go there. I mean Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird" and we were without Stella so "When in Rome" right?!  We found a Target on our drive through Hill County (I would have thought I was in the Hills in Cali or something. Totally beautiful and unexpected.) We grabbed some towels, a cooler and some beer/wine and headed to Hippie Hollow


This is the only clothing optional public park in Texas. It was $15 for a day pass but they offer an annual pass too. Ha! We truly went at the perfect time because two weeks prior to our trip parts of Texas received a ton of rain. There was even flooding in Austin. The good thing about all of the rain was that it brought the water level of Lake Travis up 30 feet! You can imagine how treacherous it would have been climbing down all of the rocks for another 30 feet just by looking at the pictures.  



We walked up to the lake just as a storm was passing by. We were on the end of it so we just got some wind and really big raindrops. It only lasted a few minutes and we didn't get soaked thankfully. 




This little decorated area was over in the nudest area.


The water was the perfect temperature and almost clear. We kept commenting on how it felt like we were in Greece or Italy on the Mediterranean rather than a lake. It's definitely not like most of the Georgia Lakes.



Boats would cruise by really slow just past these orange buoys trying to check out the scene.

They do "allow" alcohol as long it's not obvious what it actually is. I was approached by a Ranger-let's call him Ranger Dick (he was closed but it's an inside joke between a friend) questioning what I was drinking and if I was of age. Everything was fine, I just needed to be a little more conspicuous with my booze. After Ranger Dick left, a guy who was down in another cove swam up to ask what was going on. We explained the situation and then he introduced himself to us. Naked. While we were naked. Like we shook hands and stood there continuing to talk for about 45 minutes. Ha!  We told him we were visiting from Atlanta and he asked, "Is this your first nudest experience?" I looked at Donald, he looked at me and we both said, "Yeah." He replied with a laugh as he looked at both of us, "Well, you seem to be handling it quite well."  It was actually not very awkward for us and quite liberating.  Even though a lot of people are nude, you do not have to participate to go to HH, but you cannot "lurk or gawk" or you will be kicked out or run off. They do NOT allow really any type of PDA. Supposedly you will get kicked out.  So you can talk, flirt and plan the rest of your night out, but nothing beyond a quick smooch is permitted. 

We were told by our nudie friend (who does, in fact own an annual pass) that there are sections at the Hollow-a swinger section, a gay section and a nudest section.  We made our home for a few hours in between the nudest and gay section and were told we'd made a fine selection.




This monstrosity is The Oasis. We had drinks here the following night.



I found a coozie for Donald at HEB and it came with it's own beer salt and beer salt holder. 



Yes, we participated. Donald got a sunburn on the right side of his leg because he had it propped up. At least it was just his leg!




One of the funniest things for me was how carefree everyone was about being naked. Like there was one guy just walking around completely nude with the exception of his backpack and sandals. I giggled a few times and Donald said, "I don't think you're supposed to giggle here." I just explained it wasn't that they were naked, it was as though they didn't realize they were naked. Then another guy walked a certain distance in, stopped, looked around and then took off his clothes and continued walking.  Donald said it was as though he thought "Guess I've walked far enough in clothes." Another man who was on a cliff above us and had no tan lines bent over many times to pick up trash. You can imagine my view!

I mean, seriously. This view!

We drove over to meet up with Matt and Marnie in Cedar Park. We stood around their apartment for a while just chatting as it had been two years since we'd seen them. Then we got in the car and drove to The Salt Lick BBQ. We ordered a bunch of food to share and it was all amazing. Even the coleslaw and potato salad. I typically don't eat it because they both usually contain mayonnaise, but these were both made with vinegar. And they put a little of their BBQ sauce in their potato salad. I seriously could not stop eating it. We sat outside since the weather was perfect. We were there for a while I think. Just talking and reminiscing and catching up. It was a good night.

The next morning, I re-lit the flame on an old romance-Tang! I found it at HEB the day before and was thrilled. It happen to be perfect purchase since there wasn't any juice at Casa de Howell and I have to have juice first thing when I wake.


We drove down the road to a Rudy's Country Store and BBQ for their breakfast tacos and bbq sandwiches. Then we headed to a few breweries: Jester King Brewery and Last Stand.   Donald would be so happy if he could do this every weekend. It was almost painfully hot directly in the sun, but I found us a shady spot under a tree and it wasn't too bad.  This place seemed to be out in the middle of nowhere but was packed with youngun's our age. 




We should have brought our swimsuits so we could go swimming back at Hippie Hollow but we forgot. We obviously would have been ok without them, but we weren't sure how Matt and Marnie would feel about that. So instead, we drove up to The Oasis and peered off the patio down at Lake Travis and Hippie Hallow, green with envy. I had a spectacular strawberry mojito or two while Donald drank margaritas. I found the cutest little gold/brass star earrings at a gift shop next door. Perfect for me to remember my trip to Texas. 


We went to Z Tejas for supper. We had the chips trio and the cornbread skillet for apps. I actually enjoyed the guac which was a nice change. I had a delicious green chile barbacoa enchilada with black beans and rice (delish) and the blackberry sangria (ehh).  Donald had the whole fried snapper. I had a bite and it was crispy and salty and moist. All good qualities for fried fish.  Our waiter was the biggest idiot and we were there FOR-EV-ER!!  Food=great, service=crappy.

The next morning I realized I had eaten every single meal outside while we were in Austin. I wanted to continue the tradition for breakfast but it didn't happen. It rained and the little breakfast place down the street didn't have outside seating. It was a nice run and one I'd like to try for again on our next visit. 

We dined at The Egg & I for breakfast. I had amazing pineapple and coconut pancakes with a vanilla coconut cream sauce-a diabetic coma essentially. And I also had scrambled eggs and bacon. You know, to get a little saltiness and some protein in with all the sugar and carbs. At least it was balanced somehow.  Donald had French toast, eggs and bacon. 

On the flight back I did see the mighty Mississippi. We had the GPS screen up and it was really cool. I want to actually view it from the ground one day. Maybe this Spring I'll be blogging about a trip to Mississippi and New Orleans like we wanted to do this past Spring.

My Teva sandals were one of the best purchases I've ever made. They go with so much and are so freaking comfortable. I did a lot of walking and my feet barely hurt. Plus they stayed cool which is a necessity for me in the Summer. 

We didn't make it to Hamilton Pool and we didn't get to cross a Steakhouse off of our food checklist (Tex Mex, BBQ and food trucks were the other three). But that just gives us the perfect excuse to come back.  Besides, Matt and Marnie's house in Pflugerville will be finished soon so we'll have somewhere to stay for free. Maybe the bats will participate then. I really want to spend the day at Zilker Park since we couldn't enjoy it due to the heat. There are so many things to do there. I have a list of many things to keep us busy on our next visit.

The whole week was just amazing. Our first night we sat up to the wee hours of the morning just talking-about everything it seemed. It was really, really nice. After I picked up Stella and everything returned to normal. one of the mom's at MMO (who's from Dallas and went to school at UT in Austin) asked what my favorite part of the trip was. I told her "Just being with my husband-alone." I was so nice to reconnect, fall in love even more and do what we wanted, when we wanted. I love my sweet, beautiful girl and did miss her (although not as much as I thought I would), but just us being us again was so welcome and perfect.



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