Austin for visitors

I've been thinking about collaborating some of my ideas for entertaining out-of-towners to share with whoever may be interested, and also to serve as a reminder to me so I'm not re-creating this list every time someone new comes to town. Here is what I've come up with so far:

Places to see / Things to do:

1. Texas State Capitol - Beautiful grounds, knowledgeable docents, and a building taller than the national capitol because that's how we do things in Texas.

2. Downtown Austin - Have a look at 6th Street (by night if you like to drink, by day if you just want to check it out), or take a silly tour ... or a really silly tour. Definitely get out of your car.

3. Lady Bird Lake and Zilker Park - Take a hike on the trail circling the river, see what's happening at Auditorium Shores, take a ride with the kids on the Zilker Zephyr, go for a swim in Barton Springs Pool, or check out the small, but pretty botanical garden. All of this is right next to downtown.

4. Texas State History Museum

5. University of Texas - A beautiful campus to visit (not that I'm biased at all)

6. Alamo Drafthouse - See a first-run movie or one of the many imaginative special events. Super tasty food and drinks are served in the theatre. Downtown location is on 6th and has a liquor license for the dedicated boozing.

7. Barton Creek Greenbelt - Strap on your hiking boots and prepare yourself to experience how quickly it can feel as though you're far from town. Eight miles of hiking and swimming spots.

8. Wildflower Center - Best in springtime, this is a whole park dedicated to flowers. Lots of people seem to enjoy it, but it's my inner romantic that most definitely approves.

9. Lake Travis - Make friends with someone that owns a boat. There are also numerous parks with water access for swimming and such.

10. Hamilton Pool - The most beautiful place I've ever been. Seriously.

11. McKinney Falls State Park - More great hiking and swimming when the water level is up. Be sure to check out the old homestead if you're a history buff.

12. Mount Bonnell - Some of the best views in Austin are just a few stairs away. This is a great place to picnic and has been the site of many marriage proposals.

13. South Congress shopping - Eclectic shops and eateries line S. Congress just south of the river. The first Thursday of every month is celebrated with late store hours, street vendors, and parties.

14. 2nd Street shopping - Trendy boutiques. This is for the downtown fashionable crowd.

15. The Domain - I'm really not a fan of this place, but if you feel the need to pretend you're in Southern California, this is the way to do it.

Ok, I'll be back with some close to town trip ideas, and my very favorite - places to eat. Hope you enjoy!

Holiday Rewind

This may have been the longest Christmas ever. Not that good times weren't had by all, but good times were spread out over an inordinately long period of time. First, Rob's parents and grandmother came into town before Christmas for a week of visiting. This led to a lot of my favorite pastime - touring around Austin. It's always nice to have out-of-towners giving me an excuse to check out the touristy stuff I don't get to often, and sharing a few of my favorite hideouts. I tried to spend more time visiting than photographing this trip, but below are some shots from our trip down to Gruene. If you've never been to Gruene (sounds like Green), it's a beautiful old hill country town near San Marcos. It's quite touristy, but a great place to spend an afternoon shopping and taking in some riverfront scenery. Definitely eat at the Gristmill, and check out the Gruene Dance Hall - the oldest continuously running dance hall in Texas.

I had time off from work during the week of Christmas, but unfortunately Rob had to work - even on Christmas day (boo!). I spent the day baking an inordinate number of cookies and really giving my KitchenAid's motor a run through its paces. I made peanut butter blossoms, sugar cookies from a recipe I stole, and chocolate chip cookies with M&M's. Here's the thing about chocolate chip cookies - make them from the standard Toll House recipe, but replace the vanilla extract with almond extract. You will thank me.

After Rob got off work, Althea and Sunil came over to share Christmas dinner. I use the term "share" loosely as we essentially had two separate meals, but ate together. I am now referring to these friends as "The Vegans". Luckily, they did not have a problem with sharing a table with flesh eaters, so holiday happiness prevailed. Plus, they brought a really yummy salad to share so we did have some overlap. 

The weekend after Christmas, we hit the road to Houston for a second (third? fourth? where are we and who are you people?!) celebration. As per my usual routine at my parents' house, I did a lot of nothing and it was wonderful. I did get to see more recent sonogram pics of the nieces and/or nephews to be, which was good since there's nothing so much as a fuzzy picture that actually looks like a tiny foot to make me believe this isn't all some giant ploy of Nathan's to get more toys. He may have been ridiculously naive when we were kids, but somewhere along the way he's turned into a master schemer. I take some credit for this turnaround, for better or worse, since his early years were fraught with the often dangerous ideas I had for him to try out - to make sure they were safe for me, of course.

Ok, so where was I? Right, so New Year's Eve came 'round and we were once again without plans. Our wedding anniversary is in mid-January, so the idea of paying a premium to class it up on New Year's has always seemed a little dumb to me. I'm also a bit past any desire to start my new year with my head in a toilet. So what to do? Luckily, Austin has an annual celebration called "First Night" that is basically a giant street art festival on New Year's Eve. This year fit all of my requirements for a good time: it's free, it's guaranteed good people watching, and it's just far enough away from 6th Street to make me think no one will puke on my shoes. Oh, and they were planning to burn down a very large and very beautiful clock that people had stuffed with New Year resolutions. Excellent. Now, sadly my camera battery died right after we arrived due to what some people might call poor planning. Luckily, I have located a much better prepared photographer's documentation of the main event:

BURN BABY BURN! Oh pardon me... just had a small relapse there. Anyhoo, the clock burned around 8:30, but we stayed downtown to check out the other displays and listen to some music. We only caught the tail end of the aerial dancers in City Hall, but we were present for the child-genius who stepped up to the speak-your-mind-ish mic set up and simply said "Marco". An appropriate response was gained. We also added paper butterflies to the thousands already hanging from the oak trees outside City Hall. A side note on why I love this celebration, and Austin in general: We were watching a band around 10:30pm, downtown, and found ourselves in a crowd that included families with kids, people on their way to a club, and a guy dressed as Batman for reasons clear only to him.

We celebrated New Year's Day by joining the Vegans for lunch at Mother's Cafe. I've wanted to try out Mother's for some time, but wasn't sure if Rob could handle the meat-free menu. Well, it was super tasty and even Rob enjoyed himself. Add it to the list of restaurants I enjoy in a city meant for eating.

Now it's back to business as usual, with the exception of planning an anniversary trip soon. Hope you are all looking forward to great things in 2009!

The Season for Announcements

There is something about the holiday season that lends itself very well to Big News, and I've definitely been on the receiving end this year. First, one of my very favorite people in this world got engaged over Thanksgiving to a guy that I very much approve of. The only down side to that news is my guess that wedding plans could postpone their already overdue visit to see me. You get a pass for now guys, but I'll drag you here eventually!

The second bit of news went down something like this: A picture is placed in my hands. My mom asks if I know what I'm looking at. Well, I'm too highly educated (and I've watched wayyyy too many chick flicks) to not recognize a sonogram when I see one. I may not know the difference between a sonogram of, say a watermelon, and a human baby, but I know what black and white fuzzy pictures mean, thank you very much. Well, this sonogram had Kelly's name on it. We'd been talking about the many stupid things Nathan and I accomplished as children, so I assumed we were looking at a sonogram of Kelly as a baby. But.... this sonogram said 2008... and that definitely appeared to be two babies in there. Kelly is not a twin... Wow! I am going to be an aunt! Times two! I get to buy all that cute baby stuff, and my brother may never sleep again. Best - News - Ever! Congratulations guys! I can't wait to spoil your children.

Wow...

...crazy weatherman was right.

I swear it was warm this morning

When I got ready for work this morning, I was thinking we must be in a warming trend. It felt like low 70's, and I happily set out in jeans and a T-shirt. I went for a walk around 3:30pm. It was crazy windy (that should have been the clue) but still pretty nice out. When I left work to go home just before 6:00pm, it was no longer entertaining to be outside without a coat. It's now a quarter til 10:00pm and I just finished taking these pictures:

For the record, that's ice, not snow. The weather guy on the radio said we're expecting snow after midnight, but that's got to be crazy talk. However, if it ices up enough, maybe the city will do its wonderful "we're not equipped for this" thing and shut down. Then I'll get out of that conference call I'm dreading tomorrow. A girl can hope.

They'll take your ass out

So I've been able to determine that Twilight is a good movie, finally! Even more importantly, I love, love, LOVE the Alamo Drafthouse. Good to be back in town.

Heading North

Well, to North Carolina anyway. We took a trip to Asheville, NC to see relatives and test my ability to deal with temperatures below 70F.

First things first, we roadtripped it to Houston so my Dad could babysit the pups. (Ha ha, sucker!)

Cora took the time to chill...

while Luna took in the sights.
After a night at Hotel Mom and Dad, we picked up Nathan and Kelly and flew away from flat old Houston, to a place where the topography looks more like this.
Have I mentioned that my Aunt has never been someone you'd call a "city girl"? Welcome to her front yard.
Spending some time with family was the best part of this trip. We don't get together nearly as often as we should since we're generally at least a few states apart.

This is my super awesome grandma.

I've always known my Aunt to have a plethora of animals - Horses, dogs, and cats always. I kind of miss the chickens whose eggs I'd help collect when I was a kid on visit, but I hear she's thinking of getting goats, which cheers me immensely since Rob still won't let me put one in our backyard. The real mainstay, though, are the Great Danes. She has 5 currently. They're all giants, and they're all big sweethearts.

Maverick isn't always big on the picture taking.

Me and Maverick hanging out. Yes, his head is at least as big as mine.

Bella (or maybe Fancy, they look a lot alike), Maverick, and Hanauma.

Me and Hanauma, who I'd like to rename "Snuggle Pig". I'm sure she won't mind since it turns out her Hawaiian name means something like "Stinky".
Nathan wades through dogs.
Meanwhile, Kelly gets the mellow version.

Rob is too cool for dog accompaniment.

Mom, Kelly, Nathan, and Rob out for a walk on the property.

The tobacco barn. Apparently, this was once used to smoke tobacco leaves. Now it leads a much less controversial life by storing hay and feeding horses.

Free car with purchase of property!

No horseback riding on this trip, but that doesn't mean I can't go make some friends.
Baby stretch.
It's hard to tell from the picture, but I was actually showing Rob the ginormous sticker burr that I pulled out of the horse's mane with, wait for it, knit gloves. My brilliance is astounding sometimes.
Sunset from the back deck. Thanks to my Uncle Ted for snagging my camera and reminding me that, duh, sunsets are pretty.

After leaving North Carolina, we headed to Houston for Turkey day and more of the good life that comes from staying at my parents' house and doing a lot of nothing in particular. 

My one remarkable adventure in Houston was going to see "Twilight" with Kelly. Wow, was that horrible. I don't mean the movie. I can't accurately tell whether that was any good. I can tell you that if someone had offered to tie my tubes as I walked out of the theatre, my response would have been something like "Oh please yes!". There were many many many many teenage girls at the movie. I saw that coming, but I failed to recall just how awful teenage girls can be. The first time the audience screamed and yelled "He's so hot!" as Edward walked onscreen was kind of cute. The eighteenth time was a lot less so. I told some girls next to us to shut the F up. Yes, I'm going to hell. It was an effective strategy, but only worked on the small number of girls I'd managed to traumatize. The rest of the crowd continued in obnoxiousness. Anyway, going to see "Twilight" at the drafthouse this weekend. 18 and over. Sounds perfect.