Monday, April 12, 2010

I'm Living in the Right City


After every vacation or trip away from Austin, I'm happy to get home. I like vacations and traveling to experience new cultures and sights, but I LOVE Austin. Typically the first stop after baggage claim upon returning to Austin is a meal at Chuy's on Barton Springs Road. Later at home as Chad and I cuddle pets and unpack bags, we start a verbal & mental list of all the fun Austin things we want to do.

After an audition in South Austin last week I hightailed it to South Congress Avenue, also known as SoCo. I treated myself to solitary shopping and slow browsing at Tesoros and Crofts Originals. I window-shopped at every store on my path with no fear of being a human traffic impediment. I ate a late leisurely lunch at Home Slice pizza. Exploring SoHo in Manhattan was fun, but daunting with the whipping cold winds and crowds. Hanging around SoCo in Austin offered a charming blend of familiarity, lovely weather and slow-your-roll-speed.

Other items on last week's fun-to-do list included planting tomatoes and herbs, weeding planting areas - which may not sound fun, but are fun for me. We went to the Hatch Show Print exhibit at Austin Museum of Art. I loved seeing these letterpress prints! This old fashioned method of printing produces a richness and individuality for each print that modern methods fail to deliver. Go see this exhibit for yourself!

While we had claim to a great parking space on Congress Avenue, we dined at Annie's for the first time. Chad had the mussels which I don't eat, but he liked them. I had a green salad with lemon zest and goat cheese which tasted wonderful in its simplicity and gave me a semi-healthy feeling. We shared espresso creme brulee for dessert - not so healthy, but super-delicious. The restaurant had the front french doors open. We basked in the beautiful weather and mild breeze as we watched hot rods motor up and down Congress Avenue, no doubt part of the hot rod events last weekend. Chad educated me on the term "rustoration", which refers to many of cars we saw that had shiny chrome and lovingly refurbished interiors with rusty exterior panels.

Saturday we went to a friend's birthday party for an outdoor viewing of Jurassic Park complete with typical yummy movie snacks and the above-typical snow cones! I loved seeing friends and reconnecting with some of Chad's former coworker-friends while learning the origin of the timeless cinematic quote, "Hold onto your butts!"

Sunday was truly a day of rest... and eating. Lots of sleeping, lots of eating. *happy sigh*

Next up on the hooray-we're-home-to-do-list: plant more stuff, trek up Mount Bonnell to ogle the rich people's houses, tour the fine snow cone stands in town, go swimming at Deep Eddy Pool, spend more time with friends, cuddle the pets more.