Super sunny and warm vacation or Austin - Part Two

Friday

I woke up early, Sarah was still awake, and we eventually got ourselves out the door. It was surprisingly warm outside so we walked the whole way down to the blue line stop instead of calling a cab. The trains were pretty full already with closed-eyed early morning workers, but we managed to squeeze our bags in there and get ourselves out to O'Hare. I've never taken the train to the airport before but it ended up being very convenient and easy.





Sarah happy to be on another trip together, me happy with the screaming kid behind us. We actually hadn't left the gate yet. The flight was quick and easy and we both tried to sleep the whole time, but I don't think either of us fell asleep for more than a couple minutes at a time thanks to the previously mentioned toddler.



We made it to Austin. 70 degrees and raining and I was happy because I could still wear shorts in the rain. We picked up our Mazda 3 and headed downtown to find something to eat and our hotel. Above is Sarah driving us past Stubbs BBQ. It's a BBQ place and concert venue in its backyard. This is also where one Gordon Mays and one Kevin Manno attended a party as personal guests of David Cross...memories. Stubbs has good food, but it is kinda like the Hard Rock Cafe sort of place in Austin, meaning that it is sort of touristy (you can get Stubbs BBQ sauce all over the country in grocery stores including Jewel and Dominicks), so we headed to a place that is always slammed during SXSW called Ironworks BBQ. I've been there a handfull of times and it is easily my favorite place to eat in Austin.








We devoured our trays full of meats and spicy sauce and washed our hands with wetnaps. If you are ever in Austin, go to this place, and be sure to grab a bunch of toothpicks.

After we ate, we attempted to find our hotel. The first try proved unlucky and we ended up at the wrong place, which was fine because it was sort of out of the way. We eventually found the right place and got settled in (mainly took itty bitty naps because we were exhausted already). A little bit later on in the afternoon we needed to go meet up with the bride-to-be at a flower wholesaler. Sarah was doing all the flowers for the wedding and they needed to get all the supplies. It was a pretty cool place for a flower shop, it was in an old gas station. I forgot the camera.

From there, Sarah and I parted ways so she could go with the ladies to work on the flowers and do girly pre-wedding stuff like giggle and drink wine. I was invited, but I politely declined. I'm sure they were just as relieved. I hopped in our Mazda and headed back to the hotel where I took another nap and then made plans to meet up with homeboys from Austin...




We went to a place called BarFlys, which happened to be really close to where we were staying. It was a really cool bar, and probably a place I would hang out at if I lived down there. No gimmicks or anything, just a rock and roll bar with a kickass jukebox and very cheap beer (which I had a bunch of).



Normally, I would eat mexican food after drinking a ton of beer, but I had no idea as to which of 76 mexican places near me were good, so I decided to find a Sonic...and I found one. It baffels me as to why we get the commercials for Sonic up here in Chicago, but everytime I see one, I always crave their slushes and it was time to feed that craving with a cherry-lime slush and a jalapeno cheeseburger. The south is good.

It was late and it was getting chilly out, so I went back to the hotel to tear into that burger and fall asleep with a dyed-red mouth. Sarah came in much later with no pictures to share, but very happy with the flower situation.

(Sarah took pictures of all of the flowers she did at the actual wedding on a different camera, so those will surface at a later date I would imagine.)