5 Weeks in Austin!

Our first extended stop on our adventure was in Austin, Texas, where we spent 5 weeks starting in June. Some may think it is a bit silly to choose to be in Austin in the heat of the summer, but we had a great reason! Tyler had agreed to be the Director of Photography on a film our friend Caleb was producing and directing. Tyler was very excited for this opportunity, and we both had really enjoyed Austin when visiting before, so it was perfect timing for us to be in the Texas capital for an extended amount of time.

The Oracle headquarters is also in Austin, so I was able to go into the office several days a week and meet up with a couple of coworkers. It was a great change of pace after working fully remotely for the previous 2 years. I loved getting to spend some face-to-face time with my coworkers in the office, at happy hour, and going out to dinner.

Zilker Park 

One of our favorite parts of Austin is Zilker Park, a large park on the edge of downtown Austin and Ladybird lake with trails, fields, a large creek, and great hammocking trees. The park had a large open field where dogs were allowed to run off-leash. We would head down to the park many evenings after work with Bailey and let him run and chase his ball. We also borrowed our friend's paddleboards one evening and paddled out on the lake.

Anniversary

Our 3rd anniversary happened while we were in Austin, and we had a wonderful time celebrating in the city! We went out to dinner and then on a mini bar crawl the night before. At dinner, we were sat at a table that had us swinging in birdcage-like chairs. They looked very cool but were honestly super uncomfortable to sit in, worth it for the fun memory though! The most memorable bar we checked out was a tiki bar named The Cat's Meow. The bar had swings along one half of the bar, tables made out of surfboards, and a few games (not to mention one of the best Pina Colada's either of us have ever had). Below the Cat's Meow was a bar named The Bee's Knees, which was decorated like a grandmother's house. There were plastic coverings on the couches, and at the end of the night they handed your check to you in an old smutty romance novel. Austin is known for having unique and fun bars and restaurants like this; it was another one of our favorite things about the city.

The next day, we rented a cabana at a rooftop pool with a view of the city for the day. We wanted to feel like we were on a mini vacation celebrating our anniversary, and the cabana pool day did the trick. We had a dedicated server who brought us multiple free drinks, fresh fruit, and snacks throughout the day as we relaxed in the cabana or in lounge chairs in the water. To celebrate our past two anniversaries, we had gone on mini-vacation trips, so it was fun to continue the tradition with this mini staycation. We felt very spoiled by ourselves by the end of the day.

San Antonio 

San Antonio is about an hour South of Austin. I went down for a weekend to spend time with one of my best friends, and Tyler and I went for an evening with our Austin friends. When we went down with our Austin friends, we went out to dinner and had the best queso of our lives. Then we went downtown to see the Alamo and take a boat ride through the canals that make up the river walk. Downtown is fairly touristy, but the canals are so beautiful, decorated with string lights and stone bridges! I am a sucker for cheesy fun, like a boat ride through a city canal.

When I went to visit my friend Michelle, we went river tubing. We had an absolute blast catching up, making friends with other floaters, and soaking in the sunshine. We don't get to see each other very often, so face time is always precious and extra special.   

Wine Tasting in Hill Country

We also met up with Michelle in the winery-filled hill country just west of Austin and San Antonio. We weren't expecting to be too impressed with the Texas wineries because we had been spoiled with Charlottesville wineries for the past several years, but we were blown away by the variety and uniqueness of the wineries and delicious wine! The winery venues ranged from castles to farms and everything in between. Our favorite winery that we visited was Mendelbaum Cellars, serving wine exclusively from Israel.

We had so much fun exploring the unique venues. The venues offered outdoor lounge swings, friendly dogs that roamed the estates, and views of the hill country. We only went to 5 of the 60+ wineries in the area, but we would love to patronize more in the future.

Austin Cuisine 

Maybe the best perk of Austin is the fun restaurants and the delicious food offered in the city. We spent more than we should have checking out the restaurants and bars of Austin; we were just having too much fun! From tacos to coffee to barbecue to fusion restaurants, there is certainly no shortage of quality eats in Austin.

There are multiple famous barbecue restaurants in Austin. Our favorite, and probably the most famous, was Terry Black's BBQ. This restaurant was our favorite partly because the barbecue and sides are both delicious and partly because we met up with our good friend Arison who had just moved to Austin on a travel nurse assignment. We caught up on life and our future travel aspirations and made plans to meet up as our journeys overlapped.

Austin also has multiple rooftops that are a blast. My favorite was La Piscina, a tropically decorated bar overlooking a pool and a view of the city. Tyler and I went on a date here and shared a couple of cocktails while discussing our favorite parts of Austin so far. Austin also offers a lot of "speak-easies" - in quotes because most of them are not really secret, one is even just named Speak Easy. They are still a ton of fun to check out! My favorite speak-easy was Here Nor There; they offered a color-themed menu where each drink on the menu was a different color with tasting notes listed. Our friends Caleb and Janelle brought us here, and we had great fun each picking a different color. Caleb and Janelle also took us to Tyler's favorite, Tiki Tatsuya, an experiential tiki bar that is basically Rainforest Café for adults. The whole place is designed to feel like an island jungle, complete with sound effects, waterfalls, giant tiki statues - the whole nine yards. Tiki Tatsuya offers tiki-style drinks and food off a desert island map-themed menu. Some drinks can come in large, shareable vessels like pirate ships. Completely over the top and 100% a good time

There are also many unique coffee shops and more casual restaurants/bars to spend time with friends. We visited a favorite, Easy Tiger, many times during our stay. There are multiple locations throughout the city, all with unique outdoor spaces, great coffee, and delicious light food. Tyler especially loved Better Half, a coffee and cocktail bar my coworker brought us to during our first visit to Austin. We greatly enjoyed that there was no shortage of options to share a beverage together!