Eating My Way Through Austin, TX

When I went to Austin I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew there would be music and I expected to have a taco or 12. What I didn’t know was that I would end up wanting to eat my way through the city and not have enough time to do it.

THURSDAY

The feasting began the first night we were there. Andrew decided to cookout for everyone at his house. I had just arrived around five in the evening, so I had a lot of catching up to do with the rest of the crew. Everyone else had already been tubing and drinking all day, so some needed to nap, some needed to shower, and some were ready to start all over again.

I got to hang out with my boys. All that was missing was my husband. 

Drew, B-ry & Matt

This photo is of Andrew, Bryan, and Matt hanging out in Drew’s backyard and chowing down on some fresh mango slices. There is a walking path just outside Andrew & Holly’s fence in the backyard. I think we saw at least two dozen dogs taking their owners for their evening walks.

Andrew was our grill master for the night. He prepared beer can chicken, mangos, corn on the cob, and ribs. I did manage to get him to let me help marinate the ribs and prepare the corn. I was feeling the need to help out with the feast.

It was a beautiful night (aside from a couple rain drops) so we were all sitting out on the deck enjoying our time together, and the smell of the food grilling. 

At some point Shannon said, “Is something on fire?” We all responded with casual “No” answers. Not five minutes later, someone realized that something was, indeed, on fire. It was the beer can chicken. Not too worry, there were several ex-lifeguards on duty, and Matt’s quick thinking had him running into the kitchen to grab a towel and taking the chicken off the grill. Don't worry, the skin was charred, but the meat ended up still tasting great later.

Even with the small disaster, our dinner ended up being really nice. We stuffed ourselves and had a great time. Andrew gets major points for his grilling skills. And Holly made some kicking potatoes!

B-ry, Shannon, Rob, Drew, Elliot, Mike, Lisa & Holly (Clockwise)

FRIDAY

The next day, I spent the afternoon exploring the city with Shannon and Rob. Rob and I were newbies, but Shannon had been there a few times, so she took over as tour guide. We had a list of places to check out. And we did! If only we could have squeezed several meals in! My stomach just couldn't fit any more!

Our first stop was lunch at Hopdoddy Burger Bar. I absolutely love a good quality burger, so I was really excited to try out the local fare. Hopdoddy prides themselves on fresh/all-natural products. They grind their own meat, bake their own bread, and cut their own fries. They also have craft sodas instead of the traditional Pepsi or Coke products. We made our orders and waited at our table for our burger experience to begin.

Self portrait in our booth while waiting for our food

I ordered the Terlingua Burger and drank the Doppelganger soda. 

My burger was Angus beef, Chile con carne, Fritos, Tillamook Cheddar, and Sassy Sauce (Yes, you read that right. There were Fritos on my burger). They serve your food on a metal tray so it can catch all the delicious grease that runs down your fingers. The fries were great too - I dipped mine in chipotle ketchup. Yum!

Up the street from Hopdoddy was a parking lot full of food trucks. I was so stuffed from my epic burger that I couldn't even think about purchasing anything from the trucks...not even the cupcake truck. How disappointing?

Shannon, however, wanted to sample Home Slice Pizza. She only tasted our burgers so she could save room for some pizza by the slice. She ordered two slices to sample. She stuck with the basics and got one slice of cheese and one slice of pepperoni. They came out hot and tasty! (I snagged a quick bite off hers) It was pretty good NY style. Although, it wasn't really better than other by-the-slice places I've had in the past.

But, if you know anything about my husband, it's that he has an obsession with pizza by the slice. He has a radar for these joints when we travel anywhere. So, I had to take a photo of myself in Home Slice, just for him. I also had one of the pizza guys tell me about all the flavors in the window. I was very interested in the sausage + garlic pizza, but still way too full to even think about getting a slice. (They cut the sausage like pepperoni and sprinkled garlic all over the top! YUM!)

Later that night, we were off to the rehearsal dinner. (More about the party part later - right now it's all about the food!) It was a buffet style set-up with a long table of great smelling food. 

My two favorite items were the tilapia (you can see two pieces on the top right corner of my plate) and the ranch dressing. I know that sounds weird, but I like a really good quality ranch (not as much as Brittany does, but she wasn't there to critique it, so I had to take over as the resident ranch expert). I can't believe I had enough room after my huge burger earlier to eat the whole plate. But when it's good, it's good!

Bryan and Matt were ready to dig in!

               

The dessert bar had two kinds of cheesecake and an English Trifle with strawberries. Shannon was super excited about the Trifle.

               

SATURDAY

It was wedding day! But not until late in the evening, so we had all day to hang out with the groom and have some fun. He decided to lead us to a taco Food Truck for lunch. There was a huge group of us and we were hungry!

Waiting in line to order our tacos

Andrew gave us some advice on which ones were his favorites and how we go about ordering. Brittany and I decided to each order one of our own and then to order one more that we could share.

Matt, Britt, Me & Drew ready for tacos!

My tacos were AWESOME!

Fried Avocado on top, The Democrat on bottom

I ordered "The Democrat" for myself and the "Fried Avocado" taco to share with Britt. I actually liked the Avocado taco better, but they were both very good. I'm sure I could have stuffed another one in if it was on the plate. Food is dangerous when it tastes so amazing!

That night we enjoyed a dinner of Hors D'Oeuvres at the Wedding Reception. I took a photo of my and Brittany's plates before we dug in. There were lamb balls, southwest eggrolls, spicy hummus, au gratin potatoes (with an amazing cheese in them), and several dips. 

Photos don't do all these meals justice. But know that if you plan a trip to Austin,  you will be eating well! Now if you don't mind, I need to go fast for a few days to make up for the ridiculous amount of food I consumed last weekend. Thank you, Austin, for making my belly happy!

Reunion in Austin, TX

Last Thursday (June 7th), I got left my little angel with my parents and got on a plane to Texas. I had only been to Texas once before. I went with my mom to San Antonio when I was in High School. Even though Andrew had been trying forever to convince Josh and I to make a trip to Austin, we hadn't yet. Apparently, all he had to do was get married for me to make the trip.

I got off the plane in Austin and was greeted by the sound of live music at the airport taco bar. That was reason number one that I loved that airport. Reason number two was the glass etchings of fancy hairdos on the bathroom mirrors so you could wash your hands and laugh at yourself at the same time.

I felt so loved when a whole carload of people came to pick me up. Holly, Matt, Shannon, and Rob all came along to get me! I have some amazing friends. Even though I am really sad that Josh couldn't be there to spend time with his friends, I was so happy that I had something to look forward to right after his deployment. This group of friends always has a good time and I knew they'd be the perfect distraction from missing my husband.

B-ry, Me & Matt

Me & The Bride

Me & My Shannon

As always, they were awesome and so much fun.

And the perfect reason for our Texas reunion was the Bride and Groom.

They are so cute together and are the perfect fit for each other. I always thought that statement was true, but didn't realize how true until that weekend. They are a perfect match and I couldn't be more thrilled that they found each other. Holly is definitely the kind of girl you want your guy friends to find. I'm so glad that I can now call her my friend as well.

If you don't already know, Andrew is a Production Manager, Camera Operator and/or Director of Photography (and more - I don't know what he likes to be called, but I know he's always doing a bunch of different things) for a huge variety of projects. Weather it be one of his own productions or for shows that have aired on VH1, MTV, A&E, Nat Geo, Discovery, and more. He has also filmed a bunch of music videos for Granger Smith and Drew Kennedy. Check out some of his work Here. Okay I'm done bragging about my friend now.

Enjoying the show

While we were at their house on Thursday, he gave us a preview of the wedding video we were all going to watch at the rehearsal  dinner and a few other projects he had been working on. We loved it! I'm so proud of him for finding an exciting career that he loves doing...and he seems to be REALLY good at it! (In my amateur opinion)!

And it would be totally uncharacteristic of our group to not play a few rounds of "Stop the Boat."

Stop the Boat

It was a great start to the Wedding Weekend Extravaganza!

Fantastic Flights & Park Adventures

I talked to Josh! He arrived in Bahrain safely and called me at about 11pm his time from his hotel. He told me that his extremely long flight from D.C to Kuwait was the best flight he's ever had.

Having watched the flight tracker, I already knew that he flew up through the North Eastern part of America and then continued North through Canada before crossing the water. He told me that he could clearly see New York City (which he had never seen before) all lit up at night. He could see Boston's lights off in the distance, but wasn't close enough to see anything. Then, once above Canada, he said he saw an amazing display of the Northern Lights. I was, of course, very jealous because I've never seen them. It's one of the things on my bucket list! He's seen them before, but he said this one was really awesome. After sunrise, they crossed the Southern border of Greenland (which he said looked nothing but white). He finally got about 5 hours a sleep and woke up around Germany.

Where is Bahrain?

His flight landed in Kuwait and then made the short trip over the water to Bahrain. Okay, are you asking yourself, "Where is Bahrain?" I sure did when Josh first talked about going overseas. You don't hear about Bahrain the way you do about it's surrounding countries (like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen). So, here's the map. Now you can get the idea. It's the little country in the Persian Gulf.

By the time I talked to Josh he had checked into his hotel, met with his sponsor (the guy who is about to leave and Josh is taking his spot), and grabbed something to eat. Funny side note: Josh's first meal in Bahrain was at a Bennigan's.

He was about to get ready for bed and his first day on the job. He'll be going to his first morning of work at just about the time I'm going to bed tonight. This is going to take some getting used to!

But before he called, I was trying to keep my mind occupied. My mom suggested a walk around the pond at Prospect Park. So Dylan and I went with Grandma Linda before naptime today.

Dylan & Grandma Linda at Prospect Park

Dylan is an absolute boy and just loves being outside. I swear, he could stay outside all day long. When he's been cooped up in the house for too long, he'll take my hand and go to the front door saying, "alk. alk." Yes, Dylan, I know you want to go outside for a walk. Please don't compare my son to a dog...even though that's what that story would be if dogs could speak English.

Anyway...My boy is all nature, all the time. He loves to lead the way on a hike, pick up sticks and make a drum out of anything.

He climbed a pretty steep incline to reach a tree stump so he could play a drum solo. Once the drumming was over, he picked up some sticks, pretended like he was biting them, and then set them on the stump while saying, "Eat! Eat!" Who needs toys when you have an awesome imagination and nature all around?

We walked around the lake twice and climbed the hill so Dylan could play at the playground for a while. He loved every minute. 

Dylan and Mommy

I have to share this photo because Dylan makes this face at me all the time. I swear I'm getting glimpse of my  son during his teenage years.

A glimpse into the future

Some of the minor highlights of my day (All highlights are minor after getting to talk to Josh this afternoon): 

~Dylan seeing a frog on tv which made him point and say "Grog! Grog!" over and over. When I looked at him and said, "Did you see a frog?" He smiled, laughed, said yes and then proceeded to start hopping like a frog on all fours around the livingroom. One hop was so intense that it was followed by a somersault!

~My daily "Kiss" from my Kiss Jar had caramel in it! Thanks to my hubby for little, sweet, unexpected surprises.

~Nice calls from Connie and Andrew today.

~A quick chat online with Josh while writing this blog. By the way, he says it is HOT there!