So March has been quite an interesting and busy month in Casa de la Swan. We started the month with a trip to Chico Hot Springs, with our wonderful friends Joel and Morgan, and have a wonderful kid free weekend of soaking, eating, laughing, and drinking. I truly cannot say enough good things about Chico Hot Springs in the winter time!
We came home from Chico and immediately had to pack and prepare for a 6 day trip to Austin, Texas that Thad won through a software vendor he beta tested some software for! The trip included airfare, a place to stay during South by Southwest Interactive, passes to SXSW Interactive (SXSW is the initialism for this huge event, Austin is packed to the gills with hipsters for over a week), and some spending cash! Thadias is one lucky bad-assius!
So this post is an Austin recap, with pictures. Mostly food pictures, of course, but not ALL food pictures, so I can demonstrate how awesome it was.
Magnolia Cafe South...... I loved their sign
More Magnolia Cafe.... they had amazing rhinestoned art all over the place
Cranberry Mimosa, the best way to start a day
Thad had breakfast tacos, I had gingerbread pancakes and a giant omelette wth three different kinds of sauce (a red salsa, a green salsa, and a lemon sour cream)
South Congress Cafe's famous Carrot Cake French toast..... this stuff was super rich, with a side of some type of pecan, German chocolate cake stuff for dippling.... ultra rich
Thad had an eggs benedict with steak & migas (which is something you will find almost exclusively in Tex-Mex cooking)
Giant spicy Bloody Mary's, the 2nd best way to start a day
Aloe Bewara! These things were huge! Too bad we didn't get a sunburn!
One of Austin's "skyscrapers"
The Driskill Hotel in Downtown Austin.... super posh and no, we did not stay here (just had beers the last night we were there)
I was a little in love with the Hotel San Jose's courtyard... we passed it several times and I finally had to snap a picture
Austin loves their bats,so if you haven't heard about the bats at the Congress Street Bridge google it, we sat and watched them fly out at dusk, and there are MILLIONS!!
Home Slice..... delicious pizza!
The same skyscraper from the earlier pic, just all lit up for the night sky
Thank you to Adrienne, for introducing me to the glory of the Bahn Mi.... we sought out this Vietnamese delight at the loveliest little place, the Elizabeth Street Cafe, and it was one of my best decisions of the trip!
Thad's Drunken Noodles.... these were amazing, I will admit I suffered a little entree envy.
The same Vietnamese cafe has a huge amount of French influence (as did Vietnam) and offered some GORGEOUS punches, this one was called the Shady Blonde (in honor of my lunch companion) and was garnished with fresh thyme.... it was the BALLS.
The table service at Elizabeth Street Cafe.... gorgeous silver.... the folks at the next table were nearly overflowing with the amount of dishes they ordered.
This little band played at the Speakeasy and they were great, all 60s soul with horns and everything.... I looked at our friend Ethan while we were watching them play and said "If they play "Proud Mary" I can't be held responsible for my dancing".... 2 songs later we left a good job in the city.
Shiner Bock.... Texas beer at it's best!
A rather neat sculpture on our walk
The courtyard outside our apartment
Austin Hotel.... a historical landmark, fo shizzle.
BBQ Chicken at Stubb's
Beef brisket at Stubb's, melt in your mouth good, with a side of spicy creamed spinach
Stubb's and Shiner........ I HEART TEXAS!
Nuff said.
Japanese at Lucky Robot.... with my giant carafe of peach sake punch!
Spider rolls!
Amy's Ice Cream has alcohol-ice cream in the form of Shiner Bock beer ice cream, and The Dude, a White Russian in delicious ice cream form
My tiny Dude
This is the end of the Austin picture show, Fred Armisen and I in a momentary fit of drunken awesomeness....
New food blogs to come..... I promise!
