Don't Mess with Texas

They mean it. It's big. It's slower pace than other places I've lived. The weather was nice for the time of year. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? Well, my arrival at the Austin airport suggested so:

I went to visit some friends and their baby. Such a good choice! We hit the ground running with awesomeness – I was greeted by a gorgeous night that was not too hot or humid followed by a stop at a gourmet doughnut truck (Austin has all sorts of food trucks everywhere…). It was so delicious!

Apparently Austin built their overpasses to be bat habitats. So we went to watch thousands of bats head out to hunt at dusk. It was the strangest thing to go from hearing cicadas to hearing bats. And then to see them. First a few were flying around, then suddenly it was like waves and waves upon waves that seemed to never end. Dixie said this was the closest to seeing what the shape of wind was that someone might have – seems like an accurate assessment to me!

The walking tour of Hyde Park (yes, it was based on Hyde Park, London…) was one of the highlights of the trip. Dixie and I printed out a self guided tour and wandered around looking at awesome houses, finding gems like a window hanging in a tree and the Formosa – the studio of one of Austin’s most famous sculptures – and the oldest continually operating grocery store in Austin.

Food played a significant role in this trip. I failed to take a picture of the gourmet doughnut truck (which is a shame, it was so fun!). But I did get a picture at Tourchy’s where we had breakfast tacos:

And Chewy’s where we had Tex-Mex, including phenomenal jalapeño ranch sauce.

 

And Amy’s where we got ice cream to cool down after our hot walk around Hyde Park.

Okay, so it is a picture of a CRAZY sticker I saw in the bathroom, but still, from Amy's :) Seriously - a pug dog with Troll hair? Who thinks of these things...

Austin’s Capital building was also very interesting. Most capitals that I’ve been to or seen are made of white stone. Not this one. The stone is a cool pink toned stone. And the statues of Austin and Houston inside were made by the sculpture who lived in the Formasca, INSERT NAME. They also have an agricultural museum in one of the rooms showing locally grown items and this history of agriculture in Texas, which was pretty neat. 

I also really enjoyed some of the statues that were on the grounds:

 

Good thing we explored the grounds first – it started raining as we entered the Capital and didn’t let up for about 24 hours. The rain kept me from getting an iconic picture next to a famous wall painting – but couldn’t stop me from getting a picture through the window!

 

Luckily I had already gotten a picture with another awesome wall painting:

We got some good time in outside before the rain came. This “hike” was really more a climb up some stairs, but the views were beautiful:

We also just enjoyed hanging out. We spent a rainy night in playing Ticket to Ride and some lazy mornings playing with baby Joanie. She was so cute – quick to smile, slow to cry, very ticklish…how does it get better than that?

 

I was sad when this trip came to an end. So much fun, over too fast…Dixie and Matt did a great job of helping me fall in love with Austin/ Texas. So much fun to slow life down a little bit - to enjoy the scenery. Go play with a baby. To chat with old friends. To play games. To visit a capital. To eat delicious Tex-Mex. To make pumpkin treats (inspired by a random visit to a local bakery for pumpkin cake balls and pumpkin truffles). To do a self-guided walking tour of a neighborhood modeled after Hyde Park in England. To see a museum of a famous sculptor, Elisabet Ney. And so much more!

Maybe I’ll just have to go back soon...