austin

In the morning we headed to Austin, what I knew would be my favorite city on the route. It’s definitely noteworthy how terrible the roads were the entire time we were in Louisiana. Driving around New Orleans was similar to driving in Mexico. Once we got to Texas it was smooooth sailing. Which was important since the car was so loaded down that every time we hit any sort of bump I would let out a shriek, certain that we were about to scrape bottom. Shawn loved that. But there were no car mishaps during the whole trip and we actually still managed to get pretty good gas mileage, considering. 

With no success lining up a couch in Austin, we headed to the luxurious accommodations of the local Super 8. It was actually not too shabby and located close enough that we were able to take a quick bus ride to get dinner. Of course that quick ride did involve one drunk bum who proceeded to ask Shawn “why his lady look so mad”. Reeaal original, guy. Luckily he got booted off without incident. For dinner we had the amazing luck of randomly choosing Second Bar + Kitchen which had a superb cocktail selection and delicious food. We had the Buffalo Fried Pickles, Veal Meatballs, and Brandy Balsamic Glazed Pearl Onions. After we struck up a conversation with the bartender, one of the owners on duty gave us an impromptu tour of the place and was apparently in such a great mood (or maybe it was Shawn’s dimples) that he sent us out a dessert sampler on the house. Basically a trio of my favorite things: dessert, sampling, and free! And the desserts were not only tasty but inventive.. Goat Cheese Cheesecake, Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches with Foie Gras Buttercream, and Brownies with Campari Pop Rocks. And there was shortbread, which, while not very inventive, was di-vine. 

We strolled the main strip for a bit and stopped in for a beer and to hear some live music (Austin is after all the Live Music Capital of the World) then called it a night. The next day we had only a short 4 hour drive to Sami’s just north of Dallas so we hung out in Austin for a while, browsing antique shops and discovering the quirkier side of the city. It was during this shopping trip that I popped into Kendra Scott for a little window shopping and fell in love with this guy:

A total splurge for my normal penny-pinching self, but something I had been looking for and basically my only souvenir from the trip. So there ya go, purchase justified. Plus Shawn was happy to see me actually spend some money for once so there’s that :) I’m actually making it sound a lot less stressful than it was.. I first spotted it at the beginning of the day and himmed and hawed over whether or not I should get it all through lunch, up and down the shopping strip, and through an espresso/bathroom break until finally I decided to just get over it and go back and buy it. So that’s the truth.