Austin visit

Thursday evening Jackson ran MacKenzie to Kokomo to stay with her Uncle Aaron while we were gone. She usually comes home disappointed to see us whenever she goes there so we have that to look forward to- ha!

MacKenzie making the trip to Uncle Aaron's
She looks sad. She is not sad. She LOVES Uncle Aaron.

Our flight was at 6:39 Friday morning and I again asked myself why I continue to book flights so early. Oh well. Our flight to Houston was on time and easy. Our flight from Houston to San Antonio was delayed, but they went ahead and let us sit on the plane while we waited for a flight crew. Thanks, United. I love sitting on an airplane. The seats are so roomy and comfortable. Oh wait. Anyway, we eventually made it to San Antonio. We grabbed our bags and rental car and hit to road to Austin.

We knew something must be going on in Austin because we could not get a hotel room there even after trying months in advance. It turns out it was the Austin City Limits ("ACL") musical festival. Holy cow were there a lot of music fans streaming through Austin. We knew that our beloved Chuy's was started in Austin so we wanted to see its first location. As it turns out, ACL was right outside its front door. We got to dine and people watch. It was awesome. Side note: I know some people think going to a chain when you're on vacation is odd. I get that and sometimes agree. However, I love seeing the first of a now large business chain. It is interested to see what the kept (in Chuy's case it was mainly décor) and what they changed (Chuy's certainly changed the restaurant's layout for the better) between the first and the subsequent locations. Call me a business school nerd forever if you must, but that stuff fascinates me. In good news the food tasted exactly the same and was excellent.

The original Chuy's!

We made it through the throngs of people and traffic going towards ACL and headed towards the University of Texas at Austin's campus. Holy cow. This is a HUGE campus with a ton of school spirit. I loved it.

Even the road signs on campus have school spirit

It was a Friday afternoon so there were not a ton of students around (shocking), but you could get a good feel for how busy this campus must be especially during home football games. Their stadium is right in middle of campus and it is massive.

Football is a religion here

The campus was really nice and well planned. I was impressed with their use of solar energy for everyday problems. I don't think we get enough sunshine in Indiana for charging cell phones- wah!

A solar phone charging station- genius!

We stopped at the campus store to add to our college t-shirt collection and were amazed at how much merchandise they had. They have dresses! You could wear a dress to a football game and still be rooting for the team. Amazing. My favorite part of campus was an area called "The Drag" which would be like Ball State's Village or IU's Kirkwood. They had all kinds of restaurants and cool-looking bars. Most importantly, though, they had a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I'm obsessed with the iced blended drinks from that place. I wish, wait no I do not or I'd never lose weight, that we had one on campus! Since it was a warm 90 degrees out (in October- can you imagine life without cold weather? Amazing!) this iced drink was especially refreshing. :)

Just the best coffee on the planet.

We left the campus area and headed to Mount Bonnell which was said to be a good spot for seeing the whole city. It did not disappoint.

Does that stairway ever end?

 

The view from the top

Is this kid adorable or what?!

Looks like we made it..

Not a bad view that direction, either

We hiked around that area for a bit before heading back to the San Antonio area for the evening. Austin was a cool city but that music festival overwhelmed its traffic capacity and we were ready for a break! We took a random toll road (thanks, GPS!) that likely cost us $20, but the speed limit was 80 (!!!) and it was fun. We finally made it to our hotel in the mid-evening. We cleaned up, grabbed dinner from the restaurant across the parking lot and went to bed early. It was a long day of traveling, but I am glad we got to see Austin. Today we'll be exploring the San Antonio area. Alamo here we come!