Venturing Out

We have lived in Friendswood since June 1, 2014, and we haven't left the Houston area since then as a family.  A little get away was just what the doctor ordered.  We broke out our handy dandy Texas map and headed North and West to the Austin area.  It's about a 3 hour drive.  The climate in Austin is much dryer and hotter than Houston.  I felt like I was back in the dessert for a bit.  Jackson was our map guide and laid out the route.  I told Eric google maps works just as good and he said he wanted to do things the old fashioned way; that our kids needed to learn how to use a map.  He's onto to something there.

In our travels we came across this employment opportunity.  A $400 signing bonus sounds tempting...

Most of our stops revolved around food.  You wouldn't expect anything different from us.  Black's Barbecue is the oldest barbecue establishment around.  The boys were so impressed with their food they spent their 15 hard earned dollars for a t-shirt.  I put up a fight but Eric convinced them it was worth it.

Eric's platter of food before ...

And after.  He hated it.

We ran down this little ice cream man in Austin so the kids could taste what a real Mexican pop cycle tasted like.  They were quite impressed.  Even I was impressed with the pina colada flavor.

 Austin is very artsy with a Southern California vibe.  The kids kept saying how they felt like they were in California.  Just one major thing missing:(

 The city from Zikler Park where they hold concerts, people were picnicking, playing Frisbee and heading down to the river to float or kayak.

We hit up the food trucks and sampled just about everything from pizza, to hot dogs to Philly cheese steaks to our favorite, aebelskivers.

Kennedy was on her phone when she wasn't eating. I wonder who she was texting or whose instagram she was viewing?

This place lived up to its name - terrible.

 When I placed the abelskivers on the table, they were gone in 60 seconds.

We even walked across the street to try another pizza joint.  Very Pizza Huttish.

 More art

See it kind of looks like Pizza Hut pan square pizza and tastes like it too.

 Up and at 'em the next day dining at The Salt Lick in a little town called Driftwood, headed to the Alamo in San Antonio.  San Antonio is about an hour and half drive from Austin.  We like to pack it all in.

 This was my favorite meal as Kennedy and I shared a pulled pork sandwich.  Eric gave it all a 9 which is rare and almost gave this blackberry cobbler a 10.  It was gone in 60 seconds as well.

 The pit.

Boston and Jackson wore their souvenirs from the eating establishment the day before but couldn't resist a t-shirt from the Salt Lick too.  Jackson took it a step further and bought 3 bottles of their barbecue sauce.  He guarded it with his life and has strict rules with who and when it can be eaten.

I've talked about Buc-ees before but this one was the grand daddy of them all.  HUGE convenience store.  We spent a little time in here ooing and awing.

 A little photo op with Buc-ee.

The bays for gas are endless.

The river walk in San Antonio.  We took some pictures at the Alamo but they are MIA.  To sum it up, it was hot and quick.  The Alamo gets it's name from a 13 day battle in 1836 that claimed 200+ lives including David Crockett.  It all started over a cannon.  Unfortunate chain of events but exemplified the Texan spirit.

We ended the evening back at the Aebleskiver food truck.  Three orders to go!  They remembered us.

We saved the best for last - floating the Comal River.  A lazy, relaxing float where you can connect tubes, drink, eat, sun bathe and visit.  It took us about 3 hours round trip.  Eric was the photographer and couldn't bring his camera with him on the float so this all the pics we got.  We'll plan better next time.

After the float we toured the German town of Gruene (pronounced Green).  This was a step back in time.  We ate at the Gristmill (oldest dance hall in Texas) and enjoyed Blue Bell ice cream at the little General Store.

Crocs and socks (worn by Eric) should be illegal.

Eric licked his plate clean.  Just like my dad.

Fuzzy pic and all, a great idea for a white elephant gift.  This is a Hillbilly "Brief" Case.

The General Store had a little bit of everything including a Christmas tree.  We can't wait to bring family and friends to these parts of Texas so come on down ya'll!

We'll leave the light on:)