Monday, December 14, 2009
I’m becoming a real traveler. I can get to the airport on time, get checked in, and get on a plane all on my own. I have these moments where I kind of sit back and realize that just six months ago I’d been traveling either with my parents or my entire family. I never traveled anywhere (besides in my car) without a travel buddy. But I’m slowly becoming an adult. It’s a strange thing to come to realize.
I loved Austin. In the three busy days I spent there I fell in love with South Congress (locally referred to as SoCo) and the never-ending supply of music and food all around the city. My flight arrived around 3 in the afternoon. Considering the time change, it was around 1:00 my time. Dad picked me up and we immediately drove out to his new office building where I was introduced to a handful of his coworkers. All were fairly young (early to mid-thirties) and seemed to be nice. Dad was really excited about the office and the company in general. He has high hopes of becoming an owner of the company within the next year, and if things go the right way, that’s where he’ll be. That would be very good news for my family as far as finances go. From the office, we spent the next hour driving around various parts of Austin, listening to my dad explain the streets and the buildings. There was so much history about which band played where and what celebrity lived on what street I was quickly exhausted. I decided I wanted to take a nap and get a quick shower in before we picked up the rest of my family later that night. After checking into the hotel, Dad and I swung by the restaurant downstairs. Lo and behold, it was happy hour and the usual pricey appetizers were half off. This was lucky for me because I was starving and the lamb sliders sounded much too appealing to pass up. After getting those delectable burgers to-go, Dad left to give me some time to rest and freshen up. I decided to take a very hot, very long shower: Typically the most desirable thing after a day of traveling. I took my time getting myself together, donning my cowboy boots for the evening events, before letting Dad know I was ready to be picked up.
We used the next hour to further explore downtown Austin, specifically 6th Street and the stretch of clubs, bars, and restaurants. The night had hardly begun and people were already starting to fill the street. We rolled down our windows and let the various bands in bars act as our radio. Because the weather was a bit unfavorable, the floor-to-ceiling window/door pieces of each building that are typically wide open were closed, save for the few that let us listen to some good folky tunes. The nightlife was intoxicating and I got really excited thinking about future dates and girls’ nights spent walking up and down this street. After admiring various popular restaurants, we made our way to the airport to pick up the rest of the O-gang.
We ended up going to a party for this up and coming brand of tea called Sweet Leaf. The airplane hangar turned office building was filled with 30-year old business men and women, Austin-style. Boots and floral prints galore. I loved it because I got the chance to people watch. We were introduced to a few more of my dad’s coworkers who showed up and we snacked on TexMex and free tea. Music was bumpin’, Super Mario was playing on a big screen television, and an entire room was dedicated to ping pong/beer pong. Even with so much going on, it wasn’t a kid-friendly scene (although, I don’t really count as a kid anymore…). We got bored pretty quickly and left about an hour into the party. We finished the night off with dessert at this tiny little restaurant that was playing The Goonies on a brick wall. We gave the boys a quick tour of 6th street and the surrounding areas before heading back to our suite at the Four Seasons.
Bright and early we awoke the next morning. The ‘rents picked us up and we drove over to the Whole Foods headquarters. Offices adjacent to, I’m sure, the country’s largest Whole Foods grocery store. We feasted on breakfast tacos and coffee then made our rounds around the store. I enjoyed the free samples. Our next destination was South Congress. We zipped in and out of the stores there, browsing for Christmas gifts and generally taking in the good Austin vibes. We hung around the trailer area for lunch and tried our first “cone” food. The Mighty Cone. A small white trailer plastered with menus and neon signs. Chicken and avocado cones are most popular and my family played it fairly safe by sticking to that. Deep fried chicken and avocado come together in a tortilla, covered in a mild chili sauce. The whole thing is put into a paper drink cone and served. An interesting but very tasty concept. With my glass Coke bottle in hand, it was a close to perfect midday meal. Our next stop was Hey Cupcake! down the block. Another trailer, topped with a spinning pink cupcake. We got them boxed togo and continued on up SoCo. We made a stop at the famous Lucy in Disguise With Diamonds costume store. Every space was filled with a wig, hat, dress, shoe, mask, cape, pant, eyelash…Everything you could ever want for a costume could be found in this store. Costumes were stored by Genre or movie or time period. It was fantastic, but I felt incredibly overwhelmed. Our next visit was to Big Top Candy Shop. I was in love. The walls were painted with red and yellow stripes, like a circus tent. Vintage posters and instruments decorated each wall and candy spilled out of buckets in the center of the room. Practically every candy you could ever want could be found there, plus ice cream! The boys dug right in and I wandered around with my camera.
After a bit more wandering, we went to dad’s apartment. I took a quick nap on the couch while mom and dad got ready for the office party. The “kids’” plans for the night? Dinner and a movie…while watching a movie. The Alamo Drafthouse is a weekend hotspot for Austinites all around. An old movie theater, with rows of seats gutted out and replaced with bench tables. You sit, you order, you watch a movie, you eat. We ordered burgers, cokes, and shakes and watched New Moon. Afterwards, we called ourselves a taxi to get back to our hotel where we passed out and slept soundly.
The family had brunch at South Congress Café and ate some of the best breakfast food in the country. The freshly made tortillas and migas were delicious. My stomach is growling just remembering…
I’d heard that Ben Kweller was in town recording a new project. He’d posted the location on Twitter, so naturally, I looked it up to see how far away it was from downtown. Just 3 miles. Dad set up the GPS and we were off. We ended up in the middle of a neighborhood and thought we’d made a wrong turn…But then we noticed a shoulder-high iron gate revealing a dirt driveway in the middle of a field of dry yellow grass. It had the same address we’d looked up, so we drove on in. It was a dark wooded, almost cabin-like, house. Three cars were parked in the driveway with their windows open. We lingered around for a bit, trying to hear or see something…but nothing. Mom wanted to just walk right up and knock on the door, but I felt like that crossed some creepy lines. I chickened out and we continued on our Austin-adventure.
We killed time driving around neighborhoods, looking at potential houses. We made two more trips to Hey Cupcake! for more cupcakes and wandered around retails stores. Mom and the boys flew back home around 5 and dad and I went to this outdoor restaurant to eat and watch the Chargers-Cowboys game. After some good Tex-Mex, we headed back to his apartment where I, out of utter exhaustion, passed out almost immediately.
We woke up at 5:00 the next morning to get over to the airport for my very early plane flight back to Eugene. We said our goodbyes and I did my travel thing. Coming back to an abandoned and cold city was not fun. It seemed as though everything had just stopped… He was gone too, and it was almost like I could feel the difference in the air or something cheesy like that. It felt different and even though I was only back for 3 days, it seemed like much longer.
That’s my first trip to Texas. I’ll be updating with the rest of my break eventually… It’s proving to be a slow process. <3
