Austin!!

After being spit back into the real world tornado...I finally have a few moments to post about Austin!

Time in Austin with my mom, Staci and Dani was absolutely a blast! We got to do so much...Esther's Follies (comedy club on 6th), The Oasis on Lake Travis, Barton Springs Pool/Zlyker Park, Chuy's, live music (Bob Schneider @ The Saxon Pub).

Our first day of the trip (Friday) was quite an adventure. All of us, minus my mom got in to Austin around 3...and my cousin picked us up from the airport. After finding out my mom's flight was delayed for 2 hrs, we decided to hit the grocery store to get some essentials and take advantage of our mini kitchen in our hotel room. Here, Brian taught us that in Austin, it is your, the shoppers job to bag and tag your grocery items. We found this out with our second item in the cart- bananas( 1st in the cart was the homemade margarita mix). Because we were cutting it close time wise- for our 8pm show at Esther's Follies, we told Brian to drop my mom off at this restaurant on 6th near Esther's after he picked her up from the airport. Little did I know what type of place this was. :) It was the darkest, most run-down looking place on 6th...so Dani, Staci and I walked in only to find my mom sitting in a pitch-black bar, waving to us wearing her pink sweater. The place was only lit by a single small red candle on each table...we could barely see one another. Because we had only 25 min before we had to claim our tickets for the show, we decided to scarf down a (surprisingly tasty) sandwich in complete darkness. Esther's Follies was absolutely hilarious and kept us laughing a good 2 hours.

On the way back to our hotel...we had other classic moments on 6th. First of all, we randomly ran into Gordo and Rich...right after we saw a woman holding a boa constrictor and a baby. Then a few blocks down, a drunk man was shouting to my mom "YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN". Overall, this day/eve was a classic way to start the trip. :)










Day 2 of the trip started by hitting the race expo early...to pick up bibs/shirts and do a bit of shopping. We also hit up Barton Springs Pool/Zlyker Park before having an early dinner at Chuy's (yummy!)










































































Day 3- Race Day! Staci and I walked Dani down to the start line and saw her off on her way...it was total darkness...but so pretty due to the lit up city. Dani had a great finish- 2nd in her age group...we were so proud of her. For dinner Julie and the boys took us to The Oasis on Lake Travis...how beautiful and relaxing after a long day (and very stressful day for Staci and I-haha Dani). After dinner, I got in trouble as I hid my mom's brand new camera from her- in Dani's bag (she left it on our table). My punishment was being at my mom's expense photo-wise, seen here in the bull-riding pictures.





Day 4 of our adventure consisted of lots of walking...shopping...sight-seeing...and just being together. We rode the train at Zlyker Park (like I did when I was little), saw Stevie Ray...then in the eve we had a fantastic fajita dinner at aunt Julie's, followed by Bob Schneider at the Saxon Pub. We were packed in there like pickles, but it was SO worth it...Bob and his band was awesome! :)
The Final day of the trip, we took a short walk down to the coolest store...LuLuLemon! It's like a yoga/running clothing store...such cute stuff! We said goodbye to Julie and Brian, then it was off to the airport:(. Driving back to c springs from DIA, there was complete silence in the car...we were experiencing the post vacation lull...back to reality for us all. Dani says the silence was because we were going through margarita withdrawls...as we, at that time of night throughout the trip, were usually drinking them:). Ha.


What an amazing trip...I SO enjoyed my time with women so dear to me. We laughed the entire time and just had a blast...true memories I will have forever:).