Just a few of my fav shots from this past weekend at Pacific Beach, WA. Peeps, this is MY JAM. Screw Cannon Beach and all of those other silly Oregon coastal towns. The Washington Coast is where its at. Nuff said.
Stella is also an avid beach lover, just like her Mom.
After our first failed attempt, I was glad that we could fit a trip to Barton Springs Pool into our last day in Austin. Although it could have been a bit warmer out, the place was nearly deserted and we had a large patch of lawn to ourselves. Barton Springs is a man-made recreational swimming pool located on the grounds of Zilker. The pool sits in the channel of Barton Creek and is filled by water from Main Barton Spring, the fourth largest spring in Texas. I’ve heard that the water stays a crisp 68 degrees year round, which would feel very, very nice in the middle of summer.
We spent a few hours here relaxing and playing cards and I was the only brave one to go in. It was mighty cold, but I figured I’d probably only have one chance to experience this so I slowly creeped my way in. After splashing around for a bit, the water was quite manageable and I took a nice, long lap swim. My only regret was that I didn’t have goggles. I would have loved to see what was going on under the surface as I swam over rock formations and patches of underwater plants! Quite a unique experience for this former HS swim teamer.
Well, I can safely say that we did not go hungry while in Austin. I don’t even recall feeling any sort of hunger pains at any point during our trip, which usually happens to me on vacation when I can’t constantly snack. Vegetarian, tex mex, burgers, pork belly, hum bows….you name it, we probably ate it that week. I was sort of relieved to come home and detox a bit. I think at one point, I noticed that I had ordered an entree with pork belly every night for the first few nights. When in Rome, I guess……
Beside our infamous trip to Franklin BBQ, we visited many other food trucks and establishments, all of which were extremely good. Austin has a killer food truck community and you can find them paired up all over the parking lots of Austin. We only ate at a few, but if I find myself back in Austin again, I will def want to hit more of these up! And remember kids, it’s always BYOB!
Places we chowed down at included:
Elizabeth Street Cafe – pricier French/Vietnamese restaurant with yummy, booze punches that are good for sharing Torchy’s Tacos – a famous taco truck with locations all over the city – their deep fried avocado tacos are a must Hopdoddy Burger Bar – an inexpensive but all natural burger joint with a weird way of getting your food (you wait in line, order a drink, wait in line some more, order your burger, then they seat you) everything is organic/local/made to order East Side King – a food truck run by Top Chef winner Paul Qui, located in the back lot of a bar featuring all sorts of goodies including beet fries, Brussels sprout salad, beef tongue and pork belly humbows – just order 1 of everything off of their menu and you won’t be disappointed Austin Java – a good breakfast joint near Zilker Park with lots of veg/vegan options Chuy’s – famous tex mex place with that kitchy diner feel on the inside but OMG, cheap margaritas and queso? sign me up.
I had a nice, long holiday weekend which included our 6 year anniversary and lots of prep for the upcoming concerts I’ll be seeing in the next week. Her majesty, Madonna, will be rockin’ Seattle this week (I will be dressing with an ode to her Erotica album – hello black pleather!) then we take off for Austin City Limits the following week for more non-stop music action.
After our Austin hostel dropped the ball (and our reservation) last week, I discovered airbrb.com and booked a place to crash for the first few nights we were in town. I ended up finding a sick place near Zilker Park within walking distance to all sorts of cool things. I’m totally sold on airbrb – have you tried it out?
