Austin

I have lived in the Dallas area my entire life. I have been to about half of the U.S. states, been to the nation's capital, sang in Times Square, took a canal tour in Amsterdam, hell I've even spent half a day at the freakin' Taj Mahal, but I have never been to my state's capital! When we were growing up my mom always wanted to take a trip to Austin, but it just never happened. I have heard just great things about the food, the arts, the nature, and the overall atmosphere that Austin has to offer, yet have never ventured the few hours down the highway to capital. SO, over spring break I went for the first time...and I'm officially in love!
I went with a travel buddy that I've been on two previous trips out of the country with. He lived in Austin for fifteen years, so he knows the city like the back of his hand. His younger sister is at school at UT Law, so we spent some time with her and her amazing little poodle, Mocha. We arrived late Thursday night to a rainy, wet, and very cold Austin. We stayed right downtown, so at 3am we went to little joint called Katz. It was great. We shared a great sandwich and sat back to watch all the drunkards stumble by and snickered at their "funnies"- (I definitely thought there were more than what you would find in Dallas for that time of the night and attributed it to the ever famous South by Southwest that was taking place, but apparently it was normal.
The next morning we woke up and visited a small custom guitar shop that David's uncle owns, then a small (but delicious, well minus the hair in my food I found- but I would have to say the guy behind the counter handled it with grace I have never seen in Dallas)pastry shop, before heading to Fredrickburg- a quaint German town. After being awkwardly bombarded in an Amish shop by signs of Jesus' coming we went to German restaurant, partook in some good ole German beer and then were off to Enchanted Rock. Enchanted Rock is a huge granite, well, rock. There are hiking trails and camp grounds. Our original plans were to camp, but due to the weather, ya right! So, we just hiked, got muddy, and left. As you can see from the not-so-good pictures, it was pretty darn cool.
While driving I saw some really neat art deco type chairs I could use for my porch so we pulled over to inquire how much the were, oh boy did we get some laughs! We were in the "countriest" town and the accent was so thick I could hardly understand it! They recommended we go to a BBQ place for dinner, so we did. Well needless to say, we ate on a piece of paper, with our hands, in a tin barn, at a community table with about 40 stranger- all of whom I'm sure have never left the state! We then drove some back roads to David's grandparents house in Sunrise Beach. After hearing his grandpa tell him "I don't think I know you," we delivered some fresh homemade cookies and jetted.
Muddy, tired, and wet we stopped at Lost Creek winery, partook in a wine tasting and headed to Horseshoe Bay were we spent the night- needless to say we were exhausted and went to bed pretty early, but not before ordering chocolate cake and milk! The next morning I got the grand tour of Austin including Lake Travis, The Oasis, David's old house, the oldest school in Texas, The Capitol building, Whole Foods, the UT campus, a few parks, and much much more! We ate dinner with his sister and then headed back to Dallas.
I tell you ALL of that (Well really it was only about 50 hours worth of story, but we did a hell of a a lot in those 50 hours!) to say that Austin was AMAZING. I loved all of the green space and the evidence of forward thinking. I was amazed by the public artwork and the "organic" factor that I felt. I don't know if I could ever see myself living in Austin for a long period of time, but I would love to go back a visit again. My first Austin experience was definitely a great one!!