Austin, TX. 28 Sep – 1 Oct 2012

We left Woodville for Austin Friday morning. We arrived at our friend, Anthony’s house late afternoon. We chilled out (literally) from the long, hot drive for a while catching up with Anthony. After resting for a bit we headed out for dinner and in search of any sports bar showing the AFL (Australia Football League) Grand Final, basically the Australian version of the Super Bowl. Jeremy found out the Hyatt Hotel was going to be playing the game at the bar, so after dinner we headed to the hotel. Since the game was being played in Australia it didn’t even start until 11pm in Austin so needless to say we had a long night ahead of us. It was the first time Anthony and I were experiencing an AFL game. We were both into it from the very beginning, mainly because of the very short shorts! After a late night we headed back to Anthony’s place to rest up for the next day.

We had a slow start to the day because of our late night. Eventually we were able to pull ourselves together and head out to explore a little bit of Austin. We went to a local diner featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives called Magnolia Cafe. We chowed down on some of the restaurant’s best dishes. We left totally satisfied and ready to do some more exploring. Later that afternoon we headed back to Anthony’s place for nap time to rest up for another night out. After an afternoon siesta we headed out to 6th Street in downtown Austin which has some of the biggest bars and nightclubs in the city. It’s a pretty happening area. We met up with a good friend from NYC, Rene and her boyfriend Charlie at the Cedar Door. We enjoyed a few drinks then headed to another bar called Handle Bar. After a good night of catching up with good friends we headed home.

Sunday we got up and headed out early to take advantage of our last full day in Austin. We went to downtown Austin to the Pecan Street Festival which is a big street festival with tons of vendors from clothing to art to local restaurants. We strolled through the festival taking in all the different sorts of businesses before getting lunch. We went to lunch at a popular restaurant in downtown Austin called the Easy Tiger. They specialize in German style sausages and their beer variety. Everything we ordered was delicious.

After a relaxing day we moved out of Anthony’s house and moved into Rene’s place for a night. Rene and Charlie took us to a bar on South Congress Sunday night for dinner and to watch Sunday Night Football. After football ended we made our way to another bar and played an intense game of life size Jenga before calling it a night.

Monday morning we woke up and Rene took us to the Taco Deli, a small, delicious restaurant in their neighborhood for lunch. After lunch we walked down to one of the entrances to the Greenbelt which is a nature trail that runs through Austin. After some exercise after an indulgent weekend we left Austin on our way to Big Bend National Park.

Mary