Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Finally Almost an Austinite


I've lived in Austin for 10 years. And for several of those years I've complained that I have never seen most of the tourist attractions in the city.

Michael and I had a date Saturday afternoon. He asked me to confirm the sitter and said he would take care of the actual plans. Of course I was thrilled with this arrangement. So when we left the house on Saturday all I knew was that I was supposed to wear comfortable clothes and shoes and that I was not supposed to eat lunch.

We started out at Flip Happy, a crepe place, for lunch. It is a little silver airstream parked in a lot downtown. It has been featured on Throw Down with Bobby Flay on Food network. It was so good. I had a roasted chicken, goat cheese, caramelized onion and garlic aoli crepe. Dh had a ham, Gruyere, and scallion crepe and we split a cinnamon sugar, pecan, cream cheese frosting dessert crepe. It was so good.

Then we went to the Texas Capital and walked around. We didn't do a tour because I knew I would have at least 4 opportunities to do the tour over the next 10 years. I have never been inside before. It was very cool.


Next we went to the O. Henry museum (his house for about 2 years). Cool thing was O. Henry spent the first 20 years of his life in Greensboro NC (about 20 miles from where I grew up and I've been to his birthplace museum). DH didn't know that is where he was born. I joked with Michael that O. Henry and I seemed to be following the same migration pattern. Unfortunately that means I'll end up in federal prison before I become famous for my short stories! I'm not sure I like this plan so much.


Then we went to Mt. Bonnell - the tallest point in Austin - overlooks the river - really pretty - "the" Austin tourist place you must go. There Dh had packed a cooler and we had wine, fresh bread and two fab cheeses. We sat looked at the river and talked about the last 10 years and the next 10 years.

So now I can say I have done the tourist circuit of Austin - but he forgot the Oasis (restaurant with fabulous views of the lake but known for horrible food - most people just go for cocktails at sunset) and the LBJ Library, maybe by our 20th I'll have been to those :)

While we were having a wonderful date the kids were having a fun day with Miss Jenni. Here is the play they put on for us when we got home.



Jenn

2 comments:

Karen said...

That little play was so cute! Y'all have a neat babysitter, that's for sure!

Shelly Kelly said...

Sounds like you had a great time - Michael did a good job!

Another great sort-of-quick Austin place to go is the Elisabet Ney museum. http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/elisabetney/

Awesome!