I left my heart in Austin, TX.

I have been made painfully aware of how I am the worst blogger because I did not blog about the one thing that deserves a blog post the most...

Austin, Texas.

Now, you, like I, may be thinking how Texas is a terrible state, full of governors like this d-bag:

"I'm Rick Perry, and I approve these guns!"

But there is a wonderful hipster haven in Texas, known as Austin. Austin is where I would live if it was near a beach... and my family and friends... and I had a job there. 

So my hubby and I jaunted off to Southeastern Texas to see our friend Ludwig (normally I come up with nicknames for my friends, but his name is so awesome, it is perfect on it's own) on Memorial Day Weekend 2012. Now, it's been nearly 3 months since we went and I didn't write anything, so you will have to forgive me and I will write up the highlights. 

Of course, since we were in Texas, so G had to try on a Stetson and cowboy boots. But since he works out like a crazy man, the boots were quite snug on his muscley calves.

We walked around S. Congress and went into awesome shops, and I got a very tasty chai. I love the area and the shops because it was all independent awesome stores. 

S. Congress is a street named, aptly, because it ends at the Congress building, aka the State House.  So we walked around there. And it was air conditioned. And the air condition was glorious. 

The best taco in the entire world. Don't let the word bison fool you. They mislabeled it and it was beef with spices and cheese. Oh man. I miss it so much. And I got it at a Farmer's market in the middle of downtown Austin. But this is no ordinary farmer's market. It has all kinds of different food, including BBQ, tacos, breakfast (I may have had this taco for breakfast. OK FINE! I had 3...). There was amazing fresh and fancy lemonades. (Ginger mint lemonade anyone?) Live music was playing and there were so many cute dogs!!

Ludwig, send me like 8 Taco Deli tacos nooooow!!!!

One day we went kayaking (where the worst sunburn of my life on my legs was born). It was a ton of fun, but it helped that I had muscle arms sharing a double kayak with me so I could stop paddling if I was tired. The lake was amazing and beautiful. Just like most things in Austin. 

After kayaking, we went to Barton Springs Pool where Sunburn 2012 continued in the gigantic pool that is a consistent 68 degrees year round.  I mostly floated around on a floaty that I didn't even blow up.

Nor did I have to deflate it. Thanks boys!

Mount Bonnell has beautiful views of Ladybird Lake. Why is it called a lake when it's clearly a river? Because it's Austin and why not?!

We had the most glorious BBQ at the Salt Lick, where it was BYOB. We may have had to wait for 2 hours, but 1) it was worth it and 2) they had live music and a popcorn machine. 

Here is the menu. Meat on top of meat on top of meat with BBQ sauce. End it with cobbler. Yum yum. 

Speaking of yum yum, we went to Gourdough's doughnuts another day where I had a mouthwatering donut with fudge and oreos. It is made in the truck and so tasty and HUGE. The food trucks were among my top 3 favorite thing about Austin. (Also in the top 3 was the music and the warmth).

LOOK AT THOSE AMAZING DONUTS!!!!!!

Austin kept out rolling out the punches with gems like this: The Cathedral of Junk. It's in a guy's backyard on a random side street and considered art. 

Our own little postcard.

Ludwig: The best host ever.

Bromance cannot be denied.

There is some great, heartwarming graffiti around Austin. This is on the side of the coffee shop where I got the aforementioned amazing chai. We were informed that a lot of engagement photos are taken there, which we even saw happen, later that day. 

Even the college coffee shops are adorable and hipster. This whole section is, of course, outside. 

I am making the "okay" sign with my hand in response to "Hi, How are you." You can see why the motto that often goes along with Austin is "Keep Austin Weird."

Our last food truck of the visit, but I actually didn't partake. Instead, I had Amy's Ice Cream for dinner and it was quite tasty.

A mix cd exchange. Sigh... I wish I lived here. I love new music and I make awesome mix cds. 

Things I did not get pictures of: 

The bat exodus! 

Bar hopping on Sixth.

The delicious dinners that Ludi took us too. I never ate so well anywhere else. 

Breakfast tacos.

The flagship Whole Foods. I love Whole Foods and this one was no exception. It sat across the street from Waterloo records. My now all time favorite record store where I discovered a ton of new music. 

Jazz at the Elephant Room. Great voice on that lady. 

The hat shop (I didn't know hat shops still existed, let alone one's that opened up 2 days before we got there). 

And the best part of the whole trip. The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. What could be better than combining a bar/restaurant with a movie theater? Don't worry, I will answer that for you, NOTHING!!! I laughed until I cried and choked on my food at the Master Pancake Theater. It was the highlight of my trip and just a great moment in life. Even making that place more amazing, there is NO TALKING OR TEXTING during the movie. And when they say it, they mean it. And they will kick you out. They give you fair warning though.  No movie theater could live up to it, but I am excited that they are opening one on the Upper West Side of NYC. 

A lot of the fun things we saw happened to be on a handy dandy list we found about halfway through the trip in Austin magazine of 25 things to do to be an Austinite. We accomplished a good chunk of them.  So much credit for this amazing trip goes to our host, the incomparable Mr. Salomon.