After a very early start to the day, we kinda crashed as afternoon approached. By noon the sun had started to peak through the clouds and the humidity was making itself known. I am a baby when it comes to humidity. I just can’t stand being sticky or feeling gross. Austin in the summer is going to be just perfect for me *groan*

But neither of us wanted to be the one who suggested taking a break since we only had the one day so we soldiered on and went down the street to tour the State Capital. While I’ve never actually seen another State Capital, this one was pretty damn nice. The lawn is filled with statues and memorials and each has an explanatory plaque accompanying it so we had a nice history lesson as we strolled the grounds.

A mini-Lady Liberty!

Texas spelled out in the center. I’m not sure what this building was but I liked how it sat below ground and you could look down onto its courtyard.

Finally, though, tiredness won out and we headed to our hotel to check in and rest a little.

Now about this hotel…

When we first started planning this trip, a friend of Will’s parents who works for a hotel chain offered to provide us a free room. Score! I emailed her about some other Austin info and let her bring up the room, which she did. When I knew our travel dates, I followed up with her and asked if she would still be able to offer us a deal. No answer. For weeks. Finally, after emailing her again just days before we were to arrive, she got back to me saying she had a room for us at an associates rate. That’s not exactly a free room in my book and had I known that was what she was offering, I would not have bothered because I, too, can get associates rates through my job (perk of the travel industry).

But we had already reached out to her and it was a family friend so for the sake of the relationship, we didn’t turn her down. I’m not a picky hotel guest and just about anything with a bed and shower would be fine by me so I wasn’t really worried when she asked that I write a fake review on Trip Advisor in return for the favor.

Of course it would be the time I’m asked to review the room that I end up with a room that just can’t get its act together. Like I said, I’m not a picky guest and at first I had no complaints. The hotel was clearly in an older building and I can’t exactly say I felt safe riding up in the creeky elevator but I was sure a decent room awaited me once I made it up there.

We were in a suite, which just mean they add a sofa, and it looked okay, although still a little on the older side in keeping with the hotel in general.

All was well until I went to turn on the TV. It couldn’t get a signal. Ugh. But whatever, a nap would probably be better for me. So I went to lay down and Will went to take a shower. I must have dozed off because Will came back after quite a while and said that not only did the faucet in the bath tub continuously leak but it couldn’t get enough water pressure to actually form a shower stream. So he improvised and took a bath only to find that the water just leaked right out of the side of the tub and flood the bathroom.

Wonderful.

The other downside to this room was that the windows weren’t sealed correctly so it sounded like we were budding up against a hurricane with how loudly the wind whipped outside. But then you would look out the window and see that there was barely a rustle in the trees.

After dealing with the shallow pool on the bathroom floor, I wanted more food! So we set out for downtown to find some dessert.

I found a place called Berry Austin which offered frozen yogurt with a funky atmosphere.

They had a couple of dairy-free choices but I went with the kind I had never heard of before. I remember making a very concious effort to remember the name but of course now it escapes me. It was something like Tramf or Truf or something along those lines. And it was purple!

I didn’t really know what it would go well with (it had kind of a nutty flavor) so I piled on any and everything that sounded good. Blue berries, M&M’s, cookie dough, coconut, boba balls. Mmmm….

The counters were covered in scraps of all kinds and they had suggested lists posted as games – Try to find them all!

More exploring led us all over downtown and sixth street. It becomes very obvious where the slogan “Keep Austin Weird” comes from and that the effort is alive and well. We saw a giant chess game, all sorts of Texas-themed art and, of course, more food than we knew what to do with. I can’t wait to come back and try all these amazing looking restaurants!

As the day wore on, we saw some more history amidst the funk of downtown. It’s really cool that the young, new culture exists so well with the history of this area.

Right off downtown there was a row of old houses that looked like a horse-drawn carriage should be waiting out front. So cute!

For dinner, we wanted to go somewhere that offered local beers and found that there are no shortage of places that offer this. Opal Divine’s topped a few online lists so we headed over to see what all the hustle and bustle was about.

They seated us outside and I took stock of their giant beer menu (the food menu was about half the size lol).

But no sooner had we started to wrap our heads around this menu than Will discovered a chess group at the next table. He peaked his head over and moments later they were making room for us at their table. I just love how nice everyone in Texas is!

Will is quite the chess player. To give you an idea, we have five or six chess boards that get used regularly at our house. Will even hosted a chess tournament last year.

These players were no joke, though.

Will played a couple of games and I made my way through Austin’s local brews. The more beer I had, the more talkative I became so by the time Will finished his last game, I was up for whatever.

Looks like he won!

We drove around Austin a little more and I tried to get some pictures. This one doesn’t even come close to capturing how pretty it is.

The rest of the evening was probably not my best. I had more to drink at a Mexican place recommended to us for their margaritas, made a mess of getting my Twitter account hacked and ended up going to bed way later than I needed to in order to be rested for another ridiculous day of travel the next morning.

But it was a wonderful Saturday and I think we are both very glad that we didn’t get off the airplane Friday night.

Bye-bye, Austin. We’ll be back.

We’re back in the real world now, which means things like the laundry piles need to be dealt with.

When’s my next vacation? lol