Keeping Austin Weird

Just got back from a fabulous vacation in Austin, Texas. It was hot - but a lot of fun.

First, on Thursday night, we flew into Austin and headed down to Kingsland, Texas, where Jacob's parents have their lake house. I love that place so much - home away from home, definitely! I did a lot of swimming in their beautiful salt water pool.

Afterwards, their dog joined me for some sunbathing.





In the late afternoon, Jacob, me, his mom and sister headed out on the boat and zoomed around Lake LBJ.









Once in the middle of the lake, we took a little dip.





We drove the boat through Horseshoe Bay, where we saw some ridiculous waterfront mansions.









Back at the dock, even the dogs got a swim!





And Jacob's dad took a wine break.





The next day we headed back to Austin where we would crash with Jacob's sister Valerie. We tooled around town in his mom's Saab convertible - which was awesome. I soooo want a convertible of my own now!! I loved having the top down! We checked out some vintage shops for costume supplies and wandered down Sixth Street.

Sixth Street is a crazy mishmash of bars and live music venues and crazy shops. Very Austin. Very weird. The town's motto is "Keep Austin Weird!" It's definitely not one of those cookie-cutter strip mall towns of middle America.









At night we met up with Jacob's friends Josh and Christina and we, along with Valerie and her BF Jim, went to famed Austin taco bar, Gueros. It's rumored that it's one of director Robert Rodriguez's faves. I had yummy fajitas.







We headed down to the bridge to see if we could see the bats fly. Every evening in the summer, thousands and thousands of bats fly from their roosts all at the same time. Sadly we were a few minutes too late! As you can see from the pic, though, it's quite the tourist attraction.







On Sunday, we headed to church - Christina and Josh's son Derek was getting baptized and Jacob was godfather. Derek looked so cute in his 100+ year old christening gown!





Sunday night we joined some of Valerie and Jim's friends down in San Marcos for a Japanese steak dinner. Yum! I think I must have gained 10 pounds on this trip!






All in all it was a really fun trip! I'm sad to be back!! And let me tell you, though it was in the low 100s in Austin - it feels even hotter here in NYC today! Ugh.

Marianne