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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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Maxi(mum) Dress Satisfaction

In case you missed the first few times we shared Amalli Talli here and here, we want to reintroduce this wonderful company, to all of you. Amalli Talli is a stylish clothing line created for tall girls by two tall sisters (emphasis on stylish), who are 5’10” and 6’4”. Sound familiar? Yeah. We think they are our Midwestern soul sisters too. They have recently rolled out some amazing Spring options, including dresses and jumpsuits that are created in multiple lengths and inseams to support all of your wildest inseam dreams. You can also join us in anxiously awaiting their romper to drop!

Before we dive too far into the looks, we want to give you a little bit of background on their sizing. Most dresses and jumpsuits come in two lengths which they will refer to as the “Amy Length” which serves those are are over 6’2 (The Jenilee’s) and the “Alli Length” which is made for those of us who are 5’10-6’1 (The Caitlin’s). And if you are ever worried about what size to get; please do not hesitate to email, direct message or comment on a piece. They will get back to you promptly, and they will be so happy to help you through your sizing questions. Another great resource is their story highlights, which feature them thoroughly talking through the fits of most pieces.

So we all know that maxi dresses are a completely touchy subject for tall women. They weren’t even in our lexicon growing up. Our Mom would rock a couple here or there, but our noses were firmly pointed in the direction of mini skirts or dresses. The irony there, of course, is that we wouldn’t be caught dead wearing those little scraps these days. Once we graduated high school, they re-entered the picture slowly. Nowadays, they are here to stay in our closets.

The maxi dress length isn’t likely to go out of style. Number one reason, everyone can look good in a full length dress. It’s all about picking a shape/style to flatter your figure. As tall women, we automatically have a leg up (haha) on other women in maxi dresses. The material doesn’t have a tendency to swamp us in the same way it does to smaller women. Lucky us!

Another reason to stick with maxi dresses, is seasonal dressing. For us, living in the Midwest, we do experience warm/hot weather. But when the sun sets, it can be downright chilly. This is the type of dress that will easily take you from day to night. It’s light and airy fabric will still keep you comfortable in the heat. At night you can throw on a jean jacket and be perfectly comfortable. The print on this dress makes it such a great summer piece. The blue is cheery, but it gives off nautical vibes as well. I can just imagine sipping on a refreshing drink out on the Lake, with a lovely breeze, and the sun warming your face.

Caitlin is wearing a size medium Alli in the Malibu Maxi. The cut of this dress is generous, and the length is absolutely perfect. The blouse-like top is very flattering, as it cinches in at the smallest part of your waist. That’s normally the most frustrating part about buying dresses not made for our height. Even if the length of the dress works, the darts and/or the waist are always in the wrong spot. The other part that is surprisingly special and worth mentioning, are the armhole cuts. Such a random part to notice, but we’ve all suffered from the little piece of chub between our boobs and our armpits. The distance is perfect on this top, and no pinching or gaping underneath the arms either! All of the details are covered with this beautiful dress. One last thing to mention on the fit is the slit in the front, it makes for much easier walking, and helps showcase your shoes. This is the first time she hasn’t had the feeling to hold the dress up while walking for fear of tripping or stepping on the fabric. They really thought about each and every detail from head to toe with this dress.

Caitlin paired it two ways to show you how versatile it can be. For the first look inspired by more of a night out she paired it with these heels, her go to purse, and added a simple cardigan as it got cooler in the night. You can shop Amalli Tallis cardigan here. Until we received this dress in the mail neither of  noticed the little yellow flower detailing. Caitlin immediately knew she would wear her yellow sandals with this dress at some point to help that color pop a little more. She also decided at the last minute she needed to borrow my favorite headband for an additional pop of yellow! This also demonstrates the versatility in length on her with heels and flats.

As a special treat to our followers you can use code THEREALTALL15 for 15% off your purchase and you can shop this dress directly here or follow along on their incredibly useful Instagram @amallitalli or check their website amallitalli.com.

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New Orleans Guide Day 3 & 4

Day 3

We were a little slow moving in the morning so again we didn’t leave enough time for sit-down breakfast. Our tour at the Whitney Plantation was at 10, and was about 40 minutes out of the city, so we hit the road, and found a donut and coffee drive through place on our way.

I don’t want to disparage the tour at the Whitney as a whole, but our tour guide had a super strange demeanor throughout. She seemed bored, or indifferent with our group, or like she was reciting it monotone from notes. We ended up leaving perplexed and disappointed. Thrillist had posted that as being the best option for a plantation tour – being that they share about the slaves perspective/lives and she did not do it justice.

Determined to salvage the day, we headed back to New Orleans. We stopped at the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden and wandered the grounds (it’s free). It was a gorgeous sunny day out, and we were glad to be outside walking around. We worked up an appetite and wanted to have a treat. To Brennan’s we headed for Bananas Foster. What a cool restaurant to stop into. It’s more fine dining, but we sat at the bar and they put on a little tableside show for you with the dessert dish. Totally worth experiencing.

We still had a couple of other bars we wanted to stop at, so first we wandered down to the Carousel Bar. It was completely packed, so we did not stick around and have a drink. We carried on to the Old Absinthe house, and tried their specialty cocktails (but no Absinthe for us).  We didn’t want the true obliterated Bourbon Street experience. To compromise, we grabbed a Grenade from Tropical Isle to sip on the way back to our hotel.

This brings me to the ultimate sandwich. Verti Marte was on our suggestion list, and this “po-boy” was EVERYTHING. It was a mess of ooey-gooey deliciousness. This was not your typical shrimp po-boy. We wolfed this sandwich down, and it was the only one we were both resentful about splitting. The men’s NCAA championship game was playing that night. We discussed finding somewhere to watch, but decided to just chill in our hotel room to finish the night. We did order pizza later on from Vieux Carre Pizza because they delivered and it was great pizza. The front desk asked where we ordered from when I came down to get it, and approved of our choice as well.

Day 4

It was good thing to lay low the night before, because we finally allotted enough time for brunch… or so we thought. We decided on Elizabeth’s, and ate like royalty. Would totally recommend, it’s a funky restaurant with amazing food. Our swamp tour was that morning and I thought we were all good on timing because it was at 10 a.m. In reality, it was actually at 9:30. So we were about 10 minutes out when I get a call asking if we’re still coming for the tour.

At that point I realized I messed up. Nick is speeding down the road, because they said they couldn’t wait for us. We are literally pulled over in FRONT OF THE tour. We’re watching our group walk down to the boats. God was watching over us, because the policeman asked what was going on and Nick said, “we’re not doing so well – we’re late for our tour.” The policeman asked, “where’s your tour?” Nick goes, “right there,” and the policeman goes, “have a nice day,” and lets us go. Then to add the cherry on top, we didn’t miss our tour – they let us get on still. All ended well, thank God!

The swamp tour itself was found through TripAdvisor, and was Cajun Encounters. We saw a wild pig, several alligators, a snake, and a disgustingly large spider. Our guide was knowledgeable and funny. I was glad we weren’t sitting back by him, because he was messing with all the people back there and scaring them. It was a beautiful morning on the boat, and worth the trip out of the city. I’m pretty sure they also do a pick up/drop off option from downtown New Orleans, so then you definitely wouldn’t be late like us.

We had to head back and checkout of our hotel. The staff were so friendly and accommodating. They definitely made sure our experience was high quality. On our way back into New Orleans, we discussed what to do with the rest of our day, because our flights weren’t until later at night. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum had been recommended and they only do one “tour” at 1 p.m. daily. The time aligned and we stopped in to experience that.

This was the only negative tall moment of the trip, thankfully. The reason tour is in quotation marks, is because it’s really just one big room. The guy basically moves around the room and grabs random things and gives context to what you’re seeing. Overall I’d recommend the tour. With that being said, it got super crowded, and there wasn’t really room to move around. So we got berated by people for being tall and in their way; instead of politely asking like a normal human being. So that ruined the tour a little bit. Plus other women who were nowhere near us, were yelling about Amazons as well. For the record, the gentlemen is just talking half the time there is nothing to “see” that you’re missing or he passed things around the room.

So we hightailed it out of the there to get away from the bad energy. Like I said, I do recommend the tour. You probably won’t find an awesome spot to stand out of everyone’s way, it’s just the nature of it. They hyped it up as being super gross and making people faint, but I think you’d have to be super sensitive to hearing about medical treatments etc to experience this.

We went back to the hotel to get our rental car. Then we decided to head back to the park area where the Sculpture Garden was and take a nap.

From there we figured we’d head to the airport because my flight was an hour or two earlier than Nick’s. It was tough to leave, but overall we really felt like we did the best possible with the time we had. We’d both come back, as there is always more to do and experience! New Orleans was too good us, and we’d recommend visiting wholeheartedly.

Quick outfit notes. I wore my favorite linen culottes on Day 3. They kept me comfortable and from overheating while we were walking around. I got this tank top from Asos as well, and it is also a tall. It’s just an easy basic to pack and remix on a trip. The slides are from Nordstrom Rack. I found them in the Winter, but you have to snatch up good sandals whenever the size and price are right. The slides impressed me with how comfortable they were for walking all day, and no blisters!

Let us know in the comments below, have you visited New Orleans? Is it on your list of places to go? Why or why not?

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You Won’t Get the Cold Shoulder From Us

Each day I look at my Timehop app, as well as Facebook memories. I enjoy reminiscing about, well, pretty much anything. I am a pretty sentimental person. So any opportunity i get to walk down memory lane is a win in my eyes. This week as I was looking through my memories, I saw the post Jenilee and I first shared to our family and friends announcing our blog. We waited a few months before we announced to our friends via social media. Not for any particular reason. Once we fell into our natural roles and got into a groove, it felt like a nice natural time to announce.

That was a big step for both of us. In general it’s hard to put yourself out there. In my opinion, even harder to do so in front of people you already know. Starting a blog is obviously a shift from what you may post on your normal social media pages, so people tend to judge easily. However, the responses we have gotten from all of our family and friends, has been nothing but supportive. I think they can genuinely tell we started this blog for the right reasons; which is primarily to help our tall fam! Everyone can even be supportive to a fault, where they tip toe around “well I didn’t love that outfit” “That look wasn’t my favorite”, but you know what, that’s fine.

Sometimes Jenile and I don’t even like what each other want to post, but that’s the fun part about sharing this page. We both have incredible similar yet vastly different styles. Hopefully between the two of us, we have all of you covered. We are so lucky with this aspect since it doubles our creativity, style, and personality. Hopefully it helps even more people relate to us. The whole reason I wrote all of that though, was to reflect on how cool it is how many DM’s (Direct Messages) we have gotten with comments, requests, funny stories and/or questions. It has blown our mind. We feel so connected to our readers now more than ever. It just makes it easier than ever to keep on writing. We want to hear from you, if we haven’t made that clear before!

So should we dive into the similarities of our styles a bit? Hint: the matching inverse outfits we wore to dinner. Sometimes Jenilee and I can just be too extra for our own good. We couldn’t love it more. I ordered both of these shirts for myself, because I thought they would be solid night out options and are like nothing else I own currently. Once I got them in, I was thrilled with the fit. Both of them fit perfectly. The black one is a bodysuit, and even had room to spare on Jenilee’s 6’4 torso. Talk about a big win! However, our normal size was a little loose on her chest where it fit mine well. So take that into consideration if you snag this one.

Anyways, after I ordered these I saw that we had a dinner party coming up. The opportunity presented itself to message Jenilee, “we’re going to wear the inverse of each other to dinner and twin so hard.” There was no convincing involved, I passed the black shirt off to her at the gym, and we owned the heck out of our matching attire.

I  tossed on my basic black Gap jeans and the heels I can’t stop talking about. The purse is my current go-to outfit completer, and I was on my way. One thing I have to add. I sent Jenilee a text after I put on my outfit. It said, “I just feel like the best version of me in this outfit.” It is just the best feeling? When you’re not tugging on tops, pulling up pants, or just feeling uncomfortable? I would chalk this entire outfit up to a tall win. I’ve linked the snakeskin peplum top here, because it isn’t available to link in the widget below. I explain why if you keep reading!

Jenilee wore some older Asos Ridley Jeans, a fun pair of tassel earrings, and her snakeskin flats from Long Tall Sally to complete the true inverse effect. I will note that my feet are a little wider than hers and I ordered and returned these flats because they weren’t quite the right fit on me. But she looks like a rockstar in them!

We both also arrived with our leather jackets to start. We both have a few different versions of leather jackets at this point and they are a true staple in our closets all year round. I am going to link a few below in case you are in the market for a real or faux leather jacket. And now this post is going to take a weird turn and I am going to share something with y’all that I might later regret. Here we go!

We have discovered a mind blowing ASOS trick. While Jenilee was in NOLA I was pretty bored at times and for some reason thought I should start browsing ASOS UK. Y’ALL. They are holding out on us majorly in the US. It was a whole new world in there. There were new items I had never seen, items available in all UK sizes that were sold out in the US months ago, and so much more. I was incessantly texting her about my discovery. First I was mad, then sent 3 links. Then I was happy, sent many more links. Followed closely by confusion and with placing an order to test it out. Then I ended back with being upset.

It was a lot of feelings and emotions to sort through. All in all, I think I am in a neutral place with it now. I have added checking the UK site into my daily ASOS browsing. My recent orders have been ordered through the UK because the options are just that much better. I just do a quick pound to dollar conversion, make sure I converted my size correctly and nothing else is different. So with all of that being said – if you use any of our links going forward and it says out of stock, etc. make sure you check the UK site too.

Just to revisit the sizing conversion, it is 2 sizes larger than your normal US size. So if we order a 10 in US then we’d buy a 14 UK. Also worth noting before you purchase through the UK site, is whether your credit card allows foreign transactions without a fee. Ours don’t, but I know a lot do!

Now I will be here questioning if it was a good idea to disclose my dirty secrets, for fear of all the clothing selling out. But you know we are about transparency over here. So there you go. Do you have any shopping tricks up your sleeves? Let us know with a comment below!

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New Orleans Trip Part 2

Let’s pick right up where we left off. If you missed Day 1 of my New Orleans trip, you can catch up here! We filled our first day to the brim! It was so good, I was worried about the rest measuring up! We had grandiose plans to have brunch on Sunday before we officially began our day. That was laughable, because we got up pretty leisurely and drank coffee in our hotel room.

By the time we left, we knew we were cutting it too close to do a sit-down breakfast spot, so we looked up some cafes and found Croissant D’Or Pâtisserie. We shared some quiche and a couple of croissants in their lovely little courtyard area. Funny side story, on our way to breakfast, an older gentleman was rolling down the street on a motorized scooter (the wrong way down a one way street). He starts yelling YASSSSS at me, because he saw my shirt. This shirt brings me nothing but joy.

We then strolled down to the meeting place of our Voodoo Tour, which was across the street from Armstrong Park. Again, this tour was through Free Tours by Foot. The recommendation was made by our French Quarter tour guide. Robi, the Voodoo Tour guide is the only Voodoo priest to be giving tours in New Orleans. Voodoo is an actual religion and has nothing to do with what the tourism industry has made it into today. It was an entertaining and fun tour, and we’d recommend that to anyone as well. Robi became a fast friend (fan?) of Nick’s per the picture below – haha.

From there we worked up an appetite and Robi had recommended another Po-boy place to try that we passed on the tour. It was just another hole in the wall place. I also realized it was literally 100 yards from the Airbnb we stayed at my last trip to New Orleans. As you can imagine, I was disgruntled when I realized I missed out on a tasty sandwich last time. I don’t think we had one good Po-Boy our last trip. To make up for it, we had like four this time haha! We took our sandwiches and walked back to Armstrong Park to sit on a bench and enjoy the beautiful day. A gathering of drummers started up right by us. By the time we left, there were probably 15+ drummers collaborating and making beautiful rhythms together. It was special and fun to experience it!

Once we pulled ourselves out of the drumming trance, we checked our list of places we wanted to hit up and headed over to Pat O’Brien’s. Are you even visiting New Orleans if you don’t go have a Hurricane at the original place of inception?! I think not. It was pretty crowded but we still found a seat in the courtyard right away. I’d say worth a stop for a drink, but we didn’t need to hang there forever.

From there we wanted to make our way over to Frenchman Street because we had a list of live music we wanted to check out. Once we arrived we found out the show was cancelled because the band had bad weather/flooding where they lived. The beauty of that, is being on a street where you’re surrounded by great music, you just go next door or across the street and find another band!

As we walked in, we caught the tail end of the show at The Spotted Cat Music Club. Once that ended, we went to Bamboulas and found they had the NCAA women’s Championship game on AND live music. What more could you need?! If you’re not a live music fan, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I don’t understand you! The Carl LeBlanc Band was jamming. Plus the basketball game was very competitive and fun to watch as well. From there, we realized we needed some food and by that time it was raining. It was then I discovered the umbrella I packed for this purpose, did not have my back. All the pins basically fell apart. Luckily most of the bars have a second floor balcony and we were able to dash across and barely get wet.

We stopped into Dat Dog, which is a bar and hot dog establishment. If you like Worcestershire sauce, this is your place. If you don’t, AVOID AVOID! We split two hot dogs and I wouldn’t do it again. Too overpowering. We realized we need more/better food than that, so we ended up looking on Yelp and finding Adolfo’s down the block. When we put our name in, they told us we wouldn’t be assured seating before they closed. We decided to wait it out and see.

In the meantime, we met another gentleman who was also waiting, and passed the time chatting with him. His table was called, and since we were fast friends at that point, he let us join him for dinner to make sure we’d get in. Random New Orleans dinner experience, for the win! The food was great there, would totally recommend. I had Flounder which was one of their specials, with their ocean sauce and we split the Mussels as a table. We left full and tired and satisfied with another great day, so we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.

Notes on the outfit quickly. Y’all know I said I wouldn’t wear this shirt unless my hair was in a ponytail. Well oops I did it again. I found this adorable polka dot headband from H&M. It has wire in it to keep its shape, and I love it. The 5 inch shorts from Gap are my go-to shorts. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be buying white shorts anymore, but the length is right for me to feel comfortable. I did buy my normal size for jeans 31 and they fit comfortably. Sometimes I do prefer to size up in jean shorts for those thick thighs. To finish it off, I always pack my Converse for traveling. They don’t let me down!

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