Tour d'Austin

My siblings (3 of them, all younger) came to Austin this weekend to visit. I've lived here almost four years and it was the first visit here for two of them. It was a short trip as they arrived at 9pm Friday night and left on a 7am flight this morning, but we managed to squeeze a lot in and get quite sun burnt doing it.

Friday, I was hoping to take them to Trudy's, but they were exhausted upon arrival since they spent all day in the Dulles airport after missing their first connecting flight. Seeing only Airport and North Lamar Blvds, the trip was off to a good start though as they were impressed by the heterogeneity in building design (on two of the uglier roads in the central area!).

Saturday we went for brunch at original Kerby then proceeded to walk until we almost died, starting at Wooldrige park, to the capital, down Congress, on the Town Lake trail, to Whole Foods and Waterloo Records, then back to the car to go on a benedryl hunt because someone with a walnut allergy ate a pecan that was next to a walnut. Once the swelling subsided, we saw 300 at the Alamo with our necks craned in the first row with the unfortunate effect of blurring much of the action. (I and sibs were entertained, gnome debated the merits of such black and white depictions of society)

Sunday was biking day. Within 1 minute of renting bikes, a back wheel was bent in half by a 180 degree jump. After fixing the situation, the four of us rode through campus and downtown, ending up at Amy's Ice Cream on South Congress, and toured the strip, stopping to purchase a cowgirl hat, a cigarette pen and various random items. Despite their protests, I wouldn't let them eat at Home Slice because they needed to be starving for Salt Lick. I suppose I starved us all too much though because by the time we got there, everyone was too hungry to talk and when we finally got our food, we ate it in seconds and were ready to leave.

So I'm happy.. they loved the trip and there was even some talk of moving down here (isn't that Austin's curse?). I can't imagine my parents will be too excited at the prospect of their family uprooting 2000 miles away. They could move down here too, but my dad, being the fairest of all of us, would probably burst into flames at the first sign of summer.