Anniversary in Austin

You may have noticed I've been absent from Blogland lately. I have no excuse other than to say I've been enjoying my summer...you can't fault me for that, right?

Last weekend, my husband and I headed to Austin, TX for our annual anniversary trip. Every year since we've been married (12 years!) we've gone somewhere for our anniversary. That is our gift to each other. Since having kids, we don't usually travel too far from home, but it's still nice to get away together for a couple of nights. The location isn't the important part.

This year, our anniversary happened to coincide with the Texas PTA Summer Leadership Seminar in Austin. I somehow got talked into becoming the Membership Chair this year for the Early Childhood PTA that I belong to. Since I know nothing about being a PTA Board Member, I figured the conference would be a good place to start.

So our anniversary trip became an anniversary/PTA Conference trip. My husband and I had a GREAT time in Austin and I really enjoyed the PTA conference, too (I'll share more about that later). Austin is such a cool city and we love having a chance to hang out there. We go every year to the Austin City Limits Music Festival, but this is the first time in a long time where we've had a chance to enjoy the rest of the city, too (rather than just the festival grounds).


Here's how the great city of Austin welcomed us...


A look toward downtown. It looks like the Ghostbusters movie...


But thankfully by the time we checked in to our hotel and got changed for dinner, the rain had stopped. We had a nice dinner at a little Italian place called Quatro Gatti. It was delicious! Then we headed off to the Lucky Lounge.


My husband is a music lover and Austin is called the "Music Capitol of the World." So it would only be right to catch a show while we were in town. For those of you who don't know (myself included until my husband informed me), Ian McLagan was a member of The Faces which was Rod Stewart's band before he went solo. Anyway, he plays at the Lucky Lounge every Thursday night (no cover charge!). Go check them out if you're ever in Austin.


It was a nice way to kick off our anniversary weekend...good drinks, good company and good music.

Whenever we visit Austin, it is mandatory that we eat at the Magnolia Cafe. Mmmmm.....eggs benedict.....oh how I love thee!


After we stuffed ourselves for breakfast, we took a walk along South Congress Ave. There is a strip of shops that are quirky, fun and uniquely Austin. We stopped first at Uncommon Objects.


There was lots to browse, but I didn't do much purchasing. I did by some small wooden tiles that spelled out our last name (think scrabble tiles) for $.50 each.



Across the street from the shops is what is known in Austin as "trailer food." This was a previously empty parking lot before several local restaurants set up trailers to sell their cuisine.


Our favorite is the Mighty Cone, so of course that's where we took our annual, anniversary self-portrait.


On Saturday night, we hung out at a benefit for the Gulf Coast Disaster Relief. They had music and a good ol' fashion shrimp boil.



So there you have it. We packed a lot into our 3 days in Austin...not to mention the PTA conference I attended. And on our way out of town, we had to make one very important stop...

I did pick up a few things that I had to have! I would've bought more if I could've fit it in the car ☺ I ♥ IKEA!


Now I'm trying to get back in to the swing of "normal" life around here. I've got a lot of projects that are on my to-do list, so hopefully I'll be able to share some of those with you soon!