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

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

Arriving in Austin

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

After an entire day of driving, we made it to Austin. We took quite a while to get here, with all the photo-op stops, and the great wineries we have already stopped at. We got to town and immediately started taking photos of local street art.

We were debating the various restaurants with the best reviews we could find. We settled on a Japanese restaurant called Daito. We had a little of everything they had, from sushi to tempura to udon, and it was all delicious.

After grabbing a bite to eat, and taking a few more pictures, we’ve finally gotten in for the night. We’re staying fairly close to downtown. We plan on visiting a few of the popular street art locations tomorrow. For now, we’re going to pop open a bottle of wine and spend the night chatting about how great our adventure has been so far.

-Kori & Eileen

Our Wedding Night Dinner

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Kori and Eileen

We finally decided on a place to eat! We settled on the Turtle Restaurant in downtown Brownwood. It only took 15-20 minutes to get here. We decided on this place since it had good reviews and seemed to have good food and some vegetarian options for Eileen.

I took some pictures inside of our food, and we just got through taking some more outside. The ambiance was calm. We had some issues getting Eileen’s vegetarian dish to actually be vegetarian, but it was cleared up without too much fuss. I had a fantastic steak. Probably one of the best I’ve ever had. Looks like there’s a wine tasting place next door to the restaurant, but we haven’t ventured over there.

As I was saying, we took a walk down the road here to see everything and get some cool pictures. The area feels very safe and is all around nice to look at. I took some pictures of Eileen walking around with my jacket on. Feels like we’re in the 1950s. Cool place. The night sky is even more amazing than what we see at home. I’ll get some pictures of that later.

But for now we need to get to the Hideout and go to bed! It’s been a really long day. We’re fairly tired. We’ve finally done it, we got married, we declared our love for each other to the world. It’s official now, we are one.

-Kori