Awe, Austin Part 1
Awe: as in I am in awe of Austin, Texas. Also, awe, I wish I were still there. Y’all this city; as most that I visit do, snagged a piece of my heart. Growing up we mostly visited beaches (no complaints) but now I have a yearning to see as many cities, states, and parks throughout the U.S. So far Nashville, Denver x2, NYC, and Boston have made me swoon. And most recently I fell in love with Austin!
I traveled to Austin with my roommate and longest friend, Sarah! We have been on handful of trips together now with our families and now a few without. In general we just travel well together. We like to plan trips that combine good food, a little bit of activeness, and relaxation all while ballin on a budget. Anyways let’s dive on in to the first few days in Texas!
We hit the road for the airport bright eyed and bushy tailed at 3:30 am on Friday morning. Arrival in Austin was around 11. We grabbed a Lyft and headed to our hotel; The Fairmont. This hotel was the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at (Without my parents, ha!). Every Time you arrive at the hotel they open/close your doors, offer you bottled water and ask if you need anything else. The lobby even smells good. They allowed us with check in at 10 as opposed to 3 with no questions asked, which was awesome. We went up to drop our bags and my jaw dropped at the floor to ceiling windows, the modern decor, the cleanliness and brightness of the room. We requested a mini fridge and headed out for lunch.
The idea of needing lunch when we arrived was kind of overlooked. We just started walking and picked somewhere random. To be honest, I can’t remember the name and it wasn’t very memorable. We needed beers on the double, and grabbed some chips and queso to split. I ordered the pork belly sandwich which was good, but nothing great to report here. Honestly we were just in a rush to grab a few six packs and head back to the pool. Which is where we spent the rest of our afternoon. We both drifted in and out of naps alternating with paging through our books. We tried to bring some of our beers down and were promptly told we couldn’t have them. Cue us Wisconsin girls saying it doesn’t say “no carry ins.” She promptly said its company policy, so we told her we would finish them and not do it again. I don’t think she liked that answer.
We were a little greedy day one, trying to soak in as much sun as possible and each got a little crisp. After some showers, laughing at our weird sunburn, and a few more beers we hit the street to walk all of two blocks to Moonshine Grill for dinner. We had a moonshine mule while we waited for our table, yum! For dinner we split the chicken and waffles and mac and cheese. Unfortunately we had to eat in a hurry to make it to our show at Esther’s Follies. We booked the show thinking it was just comedy and then found out it was magic as well, which worried us. We’re not big into magic, but ended up enjoying the entire show. It is a combination or singing, comedy, magic and performing. I liked that they mixed in a lot of pop culture references, but it could have been a little less political for me. At this point we were exhausted from our early flight and went to bed promptly after the show.
Saturday Morning we got up and headed to the Texas Rowing Center to rent some kayaks. Friendly tips: check for a Groupon, Check in on Yelp for a discount and wear something that can get wet. We were expecting standard kayaks that are enclosed on the bottom. These kayaks had a perforated seat so our butts and feet ending up getting soaked. It was an interesting walk home with dripping wet shorts. Luckily once we got half way, we grabbed a Lime Scooter which helped dry us out.
They took us to our breakfast taco destination, Veracruz. Cue me wiping the drool running down my face. This was easily my favorite meal of the entire trip. We split some chips and guacamole, Migas Poblanas, and Migas Originales with a Mango Aguas Frescas to drink. Everything was homemade, fresh to order, and amazing. The Aguas Frescas was to die for, it’s fresh juice, water, and sugar. That sounds basic but something about it was different and I will honestly dream about it until I make it back to Austin. You will see a bit of a line to order here but it is so worth the wait
We beelined it back to the pool, smuggled some more beer in, and sat with the 100s of other people filling the entire pool area. After awhile we realized via Instagram we had some friends from college in town. We reached out to them before we got ready for the afternoon. Decided we needed coffee and headed to Cenote, maybe the cutest coffee shop of all time. The patio wrapped around almost the entire building and was delightful. We had the best cold brew, played some cards, and enjoyed the warmth of Texas. From there we hopped on scooters and headed to Zilker Brewing for some beer flights and more cards. We had a group next to us ask if we were from the midwest because “the game we were playing seemed like something from the midwest.” We laughed at this and they ended up adding the game to a note in their phones to play later (we call it 313) and then Sarah and I chatted about how funny it is how simple games/trends/fashion can spread from one state to another in a seconds time.
Salty Sow was on the agenda for dinner after the brewery. Again it was good, but not my favorite from the trip. It ended up being almost fancier than I would have liked. Our dinner was crispy brussel sprouts, crispy chicken thighs, and candied pork belly. Everything was good, just nothing wow worthy to me! Can’t win em all, right? We had reservations at a Speakeasy called Midnight Cowboy, which was an awesome experience. Make sure you book it ahead of time if you want to get in. Look for the red light bulb when you get there, because there is no sign! We had some uniquely delicious drinks, and then headed down the road to meet our friends. Along the way we stopped in at a random bar, and ended up running into one of my old coworkers. Sometimes it crazy to me how small this world is. We enjoyed some bar hopping and laughing with friends the rest of the night.
Quick Touch on the outfit details, you may have seen these girlfriend jeans posted on Instagram but now here they are! They are easily a new favorite that I can’t stop grabbing. I paired it with a new body suit which you can shop here using our new ASOS hack that we talked about in this post. I tossed on some comfy Born sandals to finish it off.
You can’t really see it from the pictures, but per usual I am in straight Lululemon to kayak. We haven’t touched on Lululemon as much as I would have liked yet, but I definitely consider them to be a tall friendly brand with many tall bottoms and tops that aren’t sized as tall but definitely fit the bill. And lastly the Ray-Bans I can’t stop wearing!
Lastly I wore this olive green jumpsuit(also comes in coral), which is absolutely a tall girl win! It finally has adjustable straps (not sure why they don’t all by now?), and the front cinching is adjustable as well which is a big win for me so I can decide how much coverage I want. I tossed on some old Target sandals and it was an easy outfit! I love packing jumpsuits since it’s just one piece and involves no thinking!
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