Eating our way through Austin!

Hello fellow readers! It has been a very long time since my last blog post. I will admit that I have not kept up with my duties as co-blogger, but am making an effort to make more posts! We will start with this past weekend. After a long week of testing (we had 3, 8-hour testing days at school!) we left Thursday evening to the Northern Lands of Texas, a.k.a. Austin. Mary and Greg flew into Austin on Thursday and we had planned to spend a long weekend together. At first we did not know it, but it soon become clear to us that would eat our way through Austin. Mary and Greg began at the Green Mesquite, a barbecue place recommended by their shuttle driver on Barton Springs Rd. Both agreed that the food there was very delicious AND their driver gave them a lot of cool facts about Austin, although he considers "foreigners" anybody from New York or Los Angeles...a true Texan!

After 5 hours of driving on a dark and barren road, Chelsea and I were desperate for signs of civilization and a good night's rest. We finally arrived in Austin at the Holiday Inn Town Lake right in front of Lady Bird Lake, a beautiful lake filled with rowers, runners, dog walkers, and outdoor enthusiasts. In the morning we ate great breakfast tacos at Austin Java and then made our way to the Capitol Building, being that we are HUGE fans of governor Perry (that is a joke). Really though, we were fascinated by the Capitol building and some of the history of Texas, for instance, did you know that the Official State Dance is the Square Dance? The official State small mammal is the armadillo. We had a good time, but alas it was time for another meal. We visited Whole Foods where we sampled great bread and had some good soup and salad. We could've spent all day at Whole Foods!

After Whole Foods 2 awesome things happened. #1 we were about to walk into the movie theater to watch "The King's Speech" (Barnes and Ochoa gave it 8 thumbs up!), #2 CHELSEA GOT A CALL FROM COLORADO STATE ASKING HER TO INTERVIEW!!!! The movie was great and Chelsea's news was even greater. After the movie we went to celebrate at Chuy's (pronounced "Chewies"). We had good mexican food and a great time. Being the party animals that we are, we then drove down 6th street with our windows rolled down and briefly caught some live music. We ended the night with a game of 500.

Saturday we ate at Kerbey Lane Cafe, an Austin staple with great breakfast items. After Kerbey Lane we went to a Farmer's Market where we had a chocolate Beignet and later to the famous Texas Hotel, The Driskill, where Lyndon B. Johnson met his wife Lady Bird Johnson. At the hotel we got a very delicious chocolate croissant which we ate in the parking lot of the LBJ Presidential Library. At the Library we spent a couple of hours perusing the life and presidency of LBJ. After the Library we headed to SoCo (South Congress) for some street food!!! We tasted food in a cone! It was like a wrap with pulled pork, honey mustard and purple cabbage! It was very delicious. We also tasted some crepes and then headed back for a little rest.

Saturday night we had a very nice dinner at South Congress Cafe. The name does it no justice, as the food at this place is not typical of ordinary cafes. Chelsea had Sweet Potato Gnocchi, Mary ate a wonderful Angel Hair with Salsa Fresca pasta, Greg had a delicious 5-spice pork loin and I ate jalapeno-venison meatloaf. Afterwards we took a small stroll and headed back to play another game of 500.

The following day we had a southern brunch at Stubb's. Stubb's is a great barbecue place and music venue in Austin. They sell their barbecue sauce nationwide and have some really good brisket. We attended their weekly Sunday Gospel Brunch. The Gospel band was a mix of Gospel and Blues which was a nice complement to our delicious brunch. We had an assortment of food that included spinach enchiladas, brisket, migas (Chel's favorite), bacon, pancakes, cheesy grits, and prickly pear cactus. It was a perfect end to a wonderful weekend. We were both very happy and grateful to be in Austin with Mary and Greg. We laughed almost as much as we ate.

From here on we have several things to look forward to. In early February we will be in D.C. for the TFA 20 year summit. Chelsea will interview with Colorado State University for graduate school in late February, and 2 weeks afterwards we will be in Costa Rica where Brady says he wants to see monkeys and practice his spanish... I hear he's related to an awesome Spanish teacher. We promise to blog about food soon!! Don't worry though, just because we haven't blogged about food does not mean we have stopped eating good food!

P.S. I have attached photos of my nephew Jafet (pronounced Hafet or JJ as I like to call him). He's cute as a button and likes to dance.