7 year Anniversary

We celebrated our 7 year anniversary by taking a short trip to Austin, TX. We drove down Saturday afternoon the weekend after our anniversary and checked into the Embassy Suites downtown.

Since we got to Texas and I would talk to people about what I missed in California, I frequently heard "you should go to Austin, you'll love it."

It was hot but we didn't want to be completely lame and go all the way to Austin and only see the inside of our hotel room. So we went for a walk. We walked what I thought was a river but ended up being Ladybird Lake. We didn't go the whole way around which is a 10 plus mile loop, but we did walk for a total of 3 miles. It was really nice to spend the time outside, enjoying nature, and talking. Sometimes I find that when we are home, surrounded by technology like the TV, phone, Internet, etc we talk but it just isn't the same as when we get away from everything.

After our walk (which was ill-planned only because we were both in flip flops) we recovered in the hotel room. Then we were to see the bats. Apparently in the summer, the Mexican bats migrate to Austin. There is a massive (over a million) group of them under the Congress Ave Bridge. So we gathered along with the throngs of people to watch them leave their "bed" and soar off into the night. This is a big thing for tourists to do and was suggested to me by many. We got to our spot about an hour before the sunset. Then stayed an hour after that until it was clearly night. The bats never showed. They are supposed to emerge at dusk and must have just decided to play a big joke on the hundreds of us waiting to see them.

Here's the people waiting down on the grass. This wasn't even all of them.

Here's some of the people waiting in the lake - notice the band on the raft.

When we finally gave up, we were starving. We had breakfast at home before we left but since then had only had junk food and snacks in the car. We walked to 6th Street which is known for all the bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. We went to a Mexican place that had a live band playing. It was fun.

The next morning we were still tired from the previous day so we just hung at the hotel until checkout time. It was sooo hot outside that we decided not to really do much more sightseeing. We did drive around the State Capital and the campus of the University of Texas. Then we ate at a place a co-worker suggested called the Mellow Mushroom. They had yummy pizza and we played boggle while we waited for our food. We had a lot of fun with everything we did!

Anyway, I can see why people recommended Austin because it feels a lot like California. It's in the hill country so it's not completely flat like Dallas is. It's much much much greener, and the vibe is different than Dallas. My co-workers call it a hippy town but I think it's a laid back, more environmentally conscious, college town that doesn't have the small town feel, at least to me. I LOVED IT! Plus I love live music and that's everywhere. My cousin Heather Fairbanks is moving to Austin this summer and I'm so excited because it was only a 3 hour drive and then we won't need a hotel. I'll be back!