Witty Wood: i get it.

ok, ok, ok. i get it. austin is awesome.

jdoss (which was a surprise to kelly) and i visited kelly in austin this weekend. have you ever heard anyone say anything other than amazing things about austin?
no? me either. i thought - it can't be that cool....

wrong. that's what i get for thinking.

my trip to austin this weekend was one i will never forget. the only thing missing was my boo. i kept thinking - jwood would LOVE this and jwood would LOVE that and man, i wish he was here to experience this city with me.... welp. guess we'll just have to go back :)

kelly and patrick were the greatest host and hostess - they both know so much about the city.

i need to go educate myself on nashville, in case i ever have visitors. ha!

i'm going to describe the epic weekend in picture and in link form, because if you go to austin - you must go to every one of these places. the city is so laid back, yet active!

let's not even forget to mention how awesome the food is. most of the places are locally owned and use local products. there is outdoor dining, shopping - outdoor you name it.

they got it.

put your chin straps on - this is going to be a long one.

Friday Night - nashville comes to town....

jdoss and i got to town late on Friday night. we went straight to the Rainey Street neighborhood. it's a neighborhood that the city just approved for bars. (as you can imagine, there were quite a few for sale sings in the yards surround...) we went to Lustre Pearl . it was my kind of place - a big house and the seating was out in the back yard. there were picnic tables, ping pong, and hoola hooping. the dress was come-as-you-are-casual and the people were groovy.

oh yea - major bonus? $1 koozie. Boom.

(you'll quickly find a theme.... delicious food and beverages....)

let me just take a moment to pay my respects to Mexican food, Mexican food in Austin - in particular. they serve it WITH GUACAMOLE. heaven in a bowl. we hit up the 4th meal at kerby lane cafe where we enjoyed this bowl of deliciousness and jdoss ordered the best cinnamon roll known to man. other food was eaten, these are just the most notable. ha!

saturday, we woke feeling pretty spunky considering our late evening the night prior. wanting to attempt to burn some of the calories that would be ingested over the weekend, we opted for a walk to get our blood pumping. there was an awesome trail in the trail at Lady Bird Lake. it was so alive - there were people running, biking, walking by the masses. there was also a place to rent canoes and kayaks. the lake was packed. here again - JWood would love this! the trail has an outlet right in the heart of downtown Austin. we hopped off the trail and took a foot tour of downtown. all in all, I think we knocked out about 6 miles and got to experience an awesome trail and take in the sights of downtown. 3 birds - 1 stone.

after our trek around town, we decided lunch was definitely in order by way of Shady Grove Restaurant. it was all outdoors and the food was fresh and local - like most of the food in austin. jdoss and i had the hippie sandwich :) dining in our work out gear? yea... why not?

our next stop on saturday was barton springs pool. this is where the whole, "keep austin wierd" rang loud and proud. i cannot fully hash out into words the happenings here. it's a public "pool," that's not really a pool. it's a "springs," but not really a spring... it is a lake with walls, and HUGE. us, along with about ~2,000 people, paid $3 to get into this massive grassy area with a lake-like pool in the middle. we saw topless ladies, men with loin cloths sunning, pot smoking, yoga, headstands, a cello, bongo drums, lots of tattoos, etc. etc. etc.

all of this - but you can't bring your own pb&j. true story - a friend of kelly's brought his wn pb&j and someone told him he could not have it there because he didn't buy it there.

whatever.

oh, and did i mention? it was freggin' hot. i woke up and checked my phone on saturday morning to find a special weather statement - austin was going to experience heat index of 102*. it's may.

standing in line at barton springs.

we three were like the energizer bunnies on saturday.

that night, we got all gussied up and hit up the town to celebrate jdoss' birthday! what is a doss birthday without her favorite food - pizza? not a birthday at all. austin has food trailers on every corner. not nasty carney food - legit food, in a trailer. it's the thing there.

we had roppolo's pizza on wheels.

yum.

we had a drink at a really cool pub called the ginger man. if you're in austin and are a beer fan, have the firemans #4 blond ale. it's a texas brewed beer and deeeelicious.

at the ginger man, this was spotted.....

harry potter bolo.

we finally settled into Hangar Lounge where we met up with some of kelly's new friends for some dancing! there was a dancefloor inside and also one on the rooftop. we danced the night away and loved getting to know laura and obinna. jess and i pretty much had city and friend envy all weekend. there may or may not have been a dance circle....

perfect host and hostess :)

don't stop, get it get it!

laura was a blast! so thankful that kels is in good hands without us :)

love you, ladies.

view from the rooftop of hangar lounge.

after we left hangar, what does one do? oh, you know - walk 1.5 miles to another food trailer. of course. jess and i walk most of the way, hand in hand until or feet started screaming at us....

piggy back rides! laura knows what's up and packed flip flops for the late night. smarts.
not only is she cute and nice - she's street smart too.

final stop - homeslice pizza (another food trailer. and yes - there other food trailers that sell food other than pizza.... we just didn't visit those. ha!) that's obinna, laura's boyfriend. he's pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread. and - that pizza was the jam.

sunday was sunday funday. we hit up brunch at austin java with obinna and laura, kels and patrick. the 6 of us sat for several hours telling stories, laughing, and enjoying some of these.....

after austin java, we walked across the street to corrupt the W and hang out on their patio.

this is where we noticed that we all had on similar shoes... and our feet (mainly mine) were beginning to feel the effects of the salt and the heat...

fancy cocktails at the W.

Obinna, JDoss, & Patrick

Kels, Me & Laura

next up - the best mexican food joint i've ever visited. and, i'm a connoisseur of all things queso and mexican, by the way. Palvos Mexican Restaurant. they, too, had amazing queso that came with sides of guac, beef, and onions to be added in. i cannot put into words the joyous noises that came from my mouth. mmmm i had the Pastor fajitas. they were pork fajitas cooked with pineapple, so it was perfectly spicy and sweet!

i made a friend outside of palvos.... keep austin weird.

after the daytime sunday shenanigans about austin, we went back to kelly's and crashed.

we enjoyed the evening of visiting and vegging - oh, and laughing at my feet.

i guess the heat and the fun were too much for my little body.

i swelled like a pufferfish.

neat.

while out and about on sunday, i got a call from american airlines letting me know that my flight at 6:50pm on monday had been cancelled. but, no need for me to be concerned because they had rescheduled me to fly out on TUESDAY NIGHT AT 6:55pm. what? i would have LOVED to have stayed all day monday and tuesday, but sadly - folks gotta work.

since i have zero patience, patrick so kindly called and arranged for me to fly out on a different flight on monday. at 9am. :(

my trip was cut short, but i was thankful to get home to this little ball of fur - and she was pretty stoked to see me on the other side of the kennel doors too. oh, and i was pretty stoked to rediscover the bones in the tops of my feet by monday evening :)