staycation

I had several days of vacation that had to be used or I would lose them, yet we neither had the time nor the money to take an actual trip. So, when my friend offered us the use of her condo in downtown Austin, we took her up on it.

We packed up our swimsuits, clothes, beer and the wiener dog and hopped in the car.


We got there late in the evening, so we just went to a local bar around the corner to eat, then visited "The Tiniest Bar in Texas," which is right next to the condo. We went there because they allow dogs and we wanted Blossom to be a part of the downtown experience.The bar had a cabinet full of board games, which really excited me. However, Larry refused, as he doesn't like germs and didn't feel comfortable handling the Connect Four or Battleship pieces. When we saw 90's edition Trivial Pursuit, he agreed to answer some trivia questions. However, when we opened it, it was clear that some knuckle-heads had stolen the cards. We told the manager, who promptly took care of the problem....
Here is our family picture, complete with the manager running drinks to some people outside.
The next morning, we walked over and ate at Counter Cafe, then headed to the Farmer's Market. You can see Larry in front of the tents listening to some music.
Did you know that the Farmer's Market sells giant fish? And goat cheese? And Chipotle Cherry jelly? Well, they do.

After the Farmer's Market, we went to Mello Johnny's, since Larry is a cyclist and a Lance Armstrong fan. He was quite impressed with this bike hanging on the wall. Apparently it is an awfully sweet ride.


After that, we went and had pizza at Frank and Angies, then spent several hours at the pool. We met friends for dinner at TNT (Tacos and Tequila) then decided to go to West 6th for a couple drinks. I tried to take our picture before we headed out, but only discovered that Larry is, in fact, quite a bit taller than me.But you know how I know we are not the rock-star partiers that we once were? We left downtown by 11pm and promptly headed back to the apartment to watch 4 HOURS of the Food Network. (See, when you don't have cable, being somewhere that does have it is a special treat! AND it was in HD!)

Since we stayed up much later than usual watching Cupcake Wars and Iron Chef and my blackberry was dead (therefore no alarm), we unfortunately missed church. We walked over to Whole Foods and had breakfast and bought several bags of Pirate Booty. Then we spent more time at the pool before packing up and heading back north.

On the way home, we discussed the perks of living downtown - as it really is fun and super convenient to do just about anything. However, I really missed our backyard. I also missed being able to open the back door and let Blossom out rather than having to take her down the elevator several times a day. Nothing sounded better than a real beef burger grilled by the Magical White Guy.

Check out those home grown tomatoes. They were pretty much amazing if I do say so myself. On Monday, we went down and floated the San Marcos river... closer and cheaper than New Braunfels but just as much fun. Tuesday we went to Fort Worth and back for a retirement party - where Larry reverted to his ghetto voice and said, "Hey Tommy, I want to introduce you to my girl." Imagine him saying it and you might chuckle.

All in all, a very fun and relaxing weekend. It really felt like we were out of town even though we were only 15 miles from home. (I highly recommend accidentally forgetting to bring your blackberry charger on your next trip.)