Texas Trip: Es Pretty Good

Monday morning my Mom, sister, and I left to head down to the Austin, TX area to visit family for the week.

My Mom is an McDonald’s iced coffee addict (as am I) so we didn’t get far down the road before we had to stop and grab some hazelnut iced coffees. Our motto is Go Big or Go Home when it comes to iced coffees. We go big.

Monday we drove to a small town in the hill country where my mom’s grandparents live. When we got there our great grandmother Faye Faye was there so we chatted with her on her back porch until Pop got back from the ranch. We stayed with them for the night and they took us to the ol’ King Burger for supper. I had a cheeseburger that was pretty darn good.

For as old as they are they look really good and still get around good. Pop, whose 90th birthday is coming up in October, still goes out to his ranch and has goats out there.  Tuesday morning he left the house around 5 to load up some kids (baby goats) to take them to the sale.

Faye Faye got up and cooked up some toast. I topped mine with peanut butter, banana, and some peach preserves. Too soon we hit the road to go to Austin.

In Austin we stayed with my mom’s brother, his wife and their one-year-old son D.L. They have a pool at their house so we spent some time in there when we got there.

All this time I was planning on getting up and running while we stayed at their house in the neighborhood. When I woke up on Tuesday morning it was already 10. Oops. Definitely too hot and humid for me to run at that time.

Anyways, we had breakfast which was a bagel from Einstein’s topped with nut butters and a banana. Our aunt had bought 3 different kinds. Justin’s almond butter, an organic crunch peanut butter, and Planters make banana granola peanut butter. All of those were really good, so I divided up my bagel into sections and smeared each of the 3 on there.

Eventually we all got ready and drove to downtown Austin for lunch. We ate at the Shady Grove on Barton Springs. It was sooo good! We had french fries covered with green chile sauce that were delicious and spicy for an appetizer. For lunch I went out on a limb and had the Hippie Chick sandwich. It had grilled chicken, mozzarela, squash, zuccini, and argula on it and a side of fruit.

After lunch my mom, sister,and I went shopping down SoCo (Southern Congress Street). There were lots of unique and really rad boutiques down the street. The only thing we bought however were cupcakes from a Hey Cupcake trailer. Priorities people. It’s all about priorities. Cupcakes from an airstream trailer are definitely above new clothes.

I had the double dose cupcake which was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It was pretty dang good. The best cupcake was probably my mom’s red velvet cupcake.

Then our shopping moved to The Drag by UT’s campus. We had to stop at the Tyler’s and get a new t-shirt there.

Eventually we made our way back to the house and soon went off to dinner at Lupe’s Torilla Factory where we met one of my aunts who lives in Austin too.

They ain’t lyin when they say “Es pretty goood.”

We had the beef fajitas. The beef was so tender and had a great lime flavor. The toritllas were paper thin and really soft. Best fajitas I’ve had and I’ve eaten lots of fajitas in my life.

The next day a run didn’t happen, but…a chocolate twist donut did happen. I love donuts and this one did not disappoint!

We did go on a walk around the block with baby D.L. at least. Then we all decided to get in the pool for awhile.

My aunt and uncle were dogsitting this Golden Noodle name Tanner. He was an odd duck to say the least. Kinda ugly, but really cute at the same time. He loved to fetch a ball out of the swimming pool. Never have I thought of a dog as being awkward, but Tanner was awkward. A good awkward. My sister wanted to take him home.

Evenutally we got ready and headed to a sorority boutique near UT campus where I got a few things. Then we left the big city of Austin and drove to San Marcos where we are staying with my mom’s sister, husband, and their 2 year old girl.

Last night we went to a free summer concert. I don’t remember the name of the band, but they were kind of folk/country and were really good.

And this morning we get to keep our little cousin all day while her parents are working. This morning we had breakfast of toast with scrambled eggs.

Things got a little messy with the toast.

Then we got ready and went to Target for awhile. Soon it was time to grab lunch at Chick Fil A before we headed back to the house so baby girl could nap. It looks like all we do is eat, but I promise we do more than that in a day!

After her nap I think we’ll head to the outlet mall here in San Marcos! Tomorrow we’ll float down the river and Sunday we’ll head home. This trip is flying by! More thoughts and pictures from the rest of our trip will come!