Showing posts with label austin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label austin. Show all posts

Friday, September 28, 2012

do: Barton Springs

I mayyyyy have mentioned once or twice that I'm in love with Austin, TX. I realize this. However, my gushiness is about to continue & I'd like you to go ahead and deal with it.

Outside of multiple face-stuffing opportunities for BBQ and tacos, Austin also has these amazing fresh spring pools that are not waist line enhancing at all! Hamilton Pool (which, to me, is the prettiest) is quite a drive outside the city. Since we live in a van, we decided to forgo that experience and head to Barton Springs on our day off instead.

Barton Springs

Instead of me trying to describe what Barton is like, I'm going to leave it to Wiki:
Barton Springs Pool is a man-made recreational swimming pool located on the grounds of Zilker Park in Austin, Texas. The pool exists in the channel of Barton Creek and is filled by water from Main Barton Spring, the fourth largest spring in Texas. The pool is a popular venue for year-round swimming, as its temperature maintains a narrow range from about 68.0 °F (20.0 °C) in the winter to about 71.6 °F (22.0 °C) in the summer.

The water is constantly chilly, but can be crazy refreshing if you let it. In my experience, the best way to do this is to just jump on in. Our very own Meghan Tonjes put us all to shame when she said "eff it" and jumped in first. That's hero shiz. 

The best part of all of this is - it's CHEAP!  $3 and you're in. The men in speedos come free. 


People always ask Ron what he'd be doing if he didn't play music for a living. Clearly he'd represent the US in Olympic diving.
You need a close up of this beaut. 
free toes!
butt cracks aplenty! (but seriously, this place is gorgeous)

hayyyyyy.




Carl got in & them promptly took a nap. Perhaps he had too much fun the night before? Perhaps. 

That about wraps up our Austin visit. We attempted to go to Franklin's BBQ since we've been berated for only going to Salt Lick... but it was, sadly, closed. Ahhh well... I guess we'll have to come back. 


post love/hate/advice below! (please don't really post hate. I live in a van. I can't deal with hate)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Austin: We've arrived.

in fact, we arrived JUST in time to make it to Antone's Record Shop to do a little show preview. It was a free (FREE... FREEEEEEEEE!!!) acoustic set and we gave away free (FREE!) beer. It was pretty fun. I got all nostalgic for record stores & wanted to buy everything... and then I remembered I live in a van most of the time.







From there we went to our BBQ heaven, the Salt Lick. I can't tell you why it has the best brisket in the world... you have to find out for yourself. All I can say is - if you're in a town known for great BBQ and all of the locals (and anyone who has ever visited) tell you to drive 30 minutes away to get BBQ - you know you've made the right decision. So, we relaxed on their beer deck with a couple of buckets of Shiner Light Blonde & went to work. Any photos of Meghan's cleavage, she took herself.... and below is proof that Carl does not actually smell bad (since I took a picture with him).













TONIGHT: full band show at the ND. Rock.

Later!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Austin


Confession time: Austin, I love you… ahhh, I do indeed love you so very much. I’ll never claim you as my own, but I’d like to say we have a mutual admiration for each other. Shhh, we were introduced via an ex, but that is neither here nor there. Sometimes love blossoms in the strangest of places. And now everyone knows. EVERYONE. All six people who read this.

Unfortunately, our stop in Austin was a brief one & we didn’t have time to play a show (because we’re coming back soon!). This means we didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to partake in some of my favorite things:
  • Swimmin holes – Barton Springs or Hamilton Pool
  • East Austin - good tex mex & bars that aren't found on 6th st (although, those are fun for people watching)
  • Tacos tacos tacos (keep reading for our mistake on this)

Oddly, RP and I were craving Indian, so we went to the highest rated Indian restaurant in Austin – The Clay Pit. Umm, wouldn’t recommend. Not bad, but definitely not worth writing about.  I guess that’s what we get for craving Indian in a Mexican-centric town!

Salt Lick BBQ & RP with his ever present phone
At least we did not miss one MAJOR thing: a stop at Salt Lick BBQ. It’s about 20 min outside of the city, but well worth the trek. RP and I both classify it as the best we’ve ever had. So, we popped in, put our name on the list and got a couple buckets of beer for everyone but the driver to drink. We were set. One slight problem: my recent vegetarianism! Yikes, forgot about that little situation. I was persuaded by my fellow travelers to put it on hold… I didn’t want to miss an experience right? Plus, as I was kindly reminded, my reasons behind the diet change are varied, but do not involve me thinking that we, as human beings, SHOULDN’T eat meat (I won’t go into my reasoning here, but if you’d like a post about it, throw it in the comments). SO, I did it. I ate meat AGAIN! This is proving to be trickier and trickier the further away I get from NYC. Any vegetarian readers care to give me some support or words of wisdom of how you got through the first hurdles? I’ve been doing it for about 6 months & it’s been a breeze until these last couple of weeks.

Anyway, back to the meat. The boys decided to get "All You Can Eat"... which is not just a cute saying here, but a threat. Each plate they bring gets bigger and bigger until you have to fold and admit that you can no longer consume BBQ of any variety. 

Unfortunately, it was delicious. Too delicious. So delicious, in fact, that when we put our full bellies back into the van,  IT WOULDN’T MOVE! No matter how much Cousin Carl pushed the trailer, it just stayed put. Just kidding, but that would have been a better ending to the story. What am I saying?? That would have been horrible. Knock on wood. Instead of that, Josiah ran around like a maniac (like he tends to do), Ron picked me a very small flower for the van, and we traveled down the street to pick out Hank, Jr., who now graces the front of the van with his presence...

… but that’s a story for next time. 





Sorry for the lack of smiles in the pictures... I have an easier time being behind the camera than in front of it.

See you later!