Our Trip Home

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

It’s been a long caffeine-fueled trip home, but we made it!

It’s actually not that far from Austin to Houston. It’s about 3 hours plus stops, in a perfect world at least. We stopped at a gas station to get coffee as we were leaving Austin… Then we stopped again at a Kroger to get gas and switch drivers… Then again at Buc-ee’s in Giddings to get more coffee … Then again at a Starbuck’s in Brenham to get coffee and switch again.

The worst part was that once we got into Houston, we found out that both Beltway 8 East and I-610 East were closed!!!! After a very long detour through the city and a failed bathroom break, which added an extra 35 minutes to our trip, we finally got home just past midnight.

It’s nice to be home, to be married, and to sleep in our bed again. And after our long day, we are definitely ready for bed. Good night!

-Kori & Eileen

Austin Street Art and Capitol

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

We headed back into downtown Austin, hoping to visit some Austin landmarks and popular tourist spots, as well as drive around and look for more street art and murals after seeing a few last night. There are tons more murals all over Austin that we missed or didn’t know about, so we’ll definitely have to make a trip back and see the rest.

One in particular we wanted to see was the cheesy but iconic ‘i love you so much’ painted on the side of Jo’s Coffee on South Congress by the girlfriend of the owner. It has since become a popular spot for couples to take photos in front of. Since we just got married, we figured what better time to go there and take our own picture!

We continued driving through town, taking pictures of the sights as we went until we got to the Baylor Street Art Wall (aka the HOPE Outdoor Gallery), an abandoned development with huge concrete walls that provide an endless canvas for graffiti and street artists. Since the space is open and available to anyone, the artwork is constantly changing, so we didn’t know what we would see today. This can make it a bit of a hit-or-miss, but we did manage to find a few cool pieces this time.

The top of the structure supposedly boasts one of the best views of downtown Austin if you’re brave enough to climb to the top. This is as far as I made it.

Next, being in Austin, we of course had to see the Texas State Capitol building. We drove back in that direction, this time in a bit of a rush since it was getting closer to sunset. We parked on the street and walked around the grounds and looking at the statues and monuments. We got a lot of pictures in before our meter ran out just as it started to drizzle outside.

As we were heading out of the city, we made one last stop for a photo op in front of the ‘You’re My Butter Half’ mural at the United Way building on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Then we made our way down the street to have dinner at the Austin Daily Press, a sandwich shop that had some really original flavor combinations. I got The Edward, a torta with edamame fritters, avocado, and ginger peanut sauce. It’s really good and tastes like an Asian stir-fry in a sandwich. Kori got the Pineapple Express, a torta filled with chicken, ham, and pineapple ginger chutney. We also got an order of jalapeño hush puppies to split between us. Once we finish up, we’ll be getting on the road and heading back home.

-Eileen

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

We arrived at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center about an hour ago. We came here hoping to see some of the wildflowers since apparently the season has just started. Eileen has been especially anxious to see some bluebonnets.

We have a booklet that we got when we came in, and it has names and pictures of the wildflowers we’re likely to see. We’ve been walking around the main path looking for different ones. We’re about halfway around the path now. We found some bluebonnets near here and took some pictures. There’s also an owl! We saw her on the way into the park. There’s a guy over by the entrance that works here and he told us to look up behind a plant at the top corner of the brick wall. It took a second to see her, but she’s definitely there.

– Kori

Good Morning Austin!

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

Or should I say afternoon?

We just left our hotel after an extended checkout time made us just that much more reluctant to leave. We had breakfast this morning, but we were told that we could leave later than the 11 am check out time, due to our membership in a program there. We had already rushed to have some of the complimentary breakfast around 8:30 am. But since we had more time, we stayed and slept in another couple of hours. We took the time to rest some more, and review all the places we can go, and how long they are going to take.

We packed our stuff up and hit the road about an hour ago. At which point, we ended up heading to a proper lunch location. We are currently finishing up our lunch at this great place called the Catfish Parlour. Eileen had the tilapia. I got the all you can eat catfish meal. It was probably some of the best catfish I’ve had since my grandfather made it way back when.

-Kori