Austin Weekend

Saturday started with an early wake up time so I could get showered and packed and ready to hit the road for Austin. Went to LaBrett’s house to pick her up, headed out to get gas and coffee and then we were on our way.

Arrived Austin and made our way to the South Congress Café where we were meeting a high school friend of LaBrett’s. They have not seen each other in over 20 years and when they learned that they could meet up this past weekend, it was a squeal fest waiting to happen. Not that I minded because I KNOW I would have been the same way if I had gone that long without seeing a dear friend that I went to school with. So, we met up with her friend and enjoyed a very lovely lunch at this café that has made an appearance on the food network. How cool is that! The restaurant was charming and really really busy! I had blackened tuna tacos on corn tortillas, with black beans on the side and this very refreshing adult beverage, cucumber pear lemonade. This little delight had grey goose le poire, st. germain, muddled cucumbers, lemons and fresh squeezed lemonade. We also ordered a slice of heaven called carrot cake french toast, which is the main reason the place was on the food network to begin with. Let me tell you, if you are ever in Austin, you must go to the South Congress Café and try a slice of this carrot cake french toast. Absolutely wonderful.

After lunch, we made our way to the hotel so we could check in. LaBrett found this fabulous hotel on the North side of Austin which was off the beaten path just and was really fantastic. The décor was very modern and staff was extremely warm and friendly. After we got checked in, we headed up to the room so we could get changed into our running gear. Let me tell you, we were pleasantly surprised at our room. You know how you see pictures of hotel rooms and they naturally post their nicest rooms on the website to draw you in? Well, I am thinking all of their rooms are super awesome. After oohing and ahhing, we got changed and made our way back down to the Keep Austin Weird festival where we could pick up our packets and get ready for the race.

*side note: I won’t mention in the two times I put the wrong address into the GPS and we ended up kind of in the wrong area of town. We won’t talk about that…or when we both were so hungry and borderline cranky that it made it difficult for me to focus and find a parking spot. We won’t mention those mishaps.

So, this race was billed to be the slowest 5K race you will ever participate in. And it was! I walked this one with LaBrett because we both understood that there were stops along the way. And there were. There was an ice cream spot where they handed you an empty cup and slung the ice cream in the air…whoever caught it in their cup was the lucky winner. Nice! The other stop was a limbo that was passing out freeze pops which were not frozen because it was so blasted hot out there. The other stop was Deep Eddy’s where they were serving sweet tea vodka. Wow. Talk about a kick to the gut in the heat. There were several water stops along the way which is pretty normal in any race. The vendors along the way made this race unconventional and just dam fun. The theme, Keep Austin Weird, is really intended for people to come out in their quirkiest costumes and run/walk/trot/skip the 5K. There were some very interesting costumes indeed. I could not get my phone out of my arm band fast enough to take the pictures. I was only able to get a couple shots. So, we crossed the finish line, chilled out for a bit and headed back to the hotel to get cleaned so we could feed our face.

Headed back to downtown Austin so we could eat. We wanted to go to 6th Street just to say we did. Wow. The people watching is awesome if nothing else! Anyhow, we found this restaurant called The Sun and The Mood (only it was written in Spanish which I don’t speak and I am too lazy at this moment look it up online!) This was really cool little place, with incredibly large windows which we had the pleasure of being seated at for some great people watching. Not to mention, we got there just in time to catch the last 3 or 4 songs of the live band. We ordered our food, which was fantastic by the way. I was pleasantly surprised when my smoked salmon enchiladas arrived. They were awesome, as was the salsa, guacamole, chips, etc. I don’t know if I was just really hungry or what, but this was some good Mexican food. Another place I would recommend, for sure. Got done eating, had a couple of drinks and took a “stroll” down 6th Street. I use the word stroll very very loosely. There is no strolling on the street. There is only drinking and partying. It was entertaining, engaging, packed, young and just plain fun. I felt really old. I mean, really old. Not only was the average age about 22, but dam near all the girls shopped at the same store. I think it was called “Hoochies R Us” or something like that. The only size they carried was ‘too small for anyone that walks through the door but go ahead and buy way too small of a size anyway’. That just made me laugh, shake my head and wonder if any of these girls had mirrors at home. Dang, I must really be getting old. All in all, 6th Street was enjoyable for a variety of reasons.

Sunday morning rolls around, LaBrett and I take our time getting ready. So much so that we missed breakfast at the hotel. Ooops. That was okay though because on our way out of town we found a McDonald’s (shocking) and grabbed some breakfast and coffee. LaBrett wanted to show me the more scenic side of Texas so we took a different route home. She wanted to share with me some of her favorite places to go, where she grew up and where she spent a lot of her childhood. We stopped off at Fredricksburg and spent a couple of hours there. Nice little town with some pretty cool shops. I found some items for a family member that I am saving for the (don’t say it) Holidays. Yikes, I said it. Drove through Marble Falls, Burnet….and I can’t remember all the little towns in between. It was very beautiful and peaceful though. The drive time was a bit longer but so much less stress than fighting the horrible drivers on 35!. That was so nice and made it very pleasant coming home. In the end, we came through Granbury which is way more hilly and green than I ever remember.

I would say that my first road trip with LaBrett was a success. I don’t ‘think’ I pissed her off too much. ;) This Keep Austin Weird festival and 5K run must become an annual thing for us.