Austin Powers

Another day of food, fun & heat.  We started our day with a drive to the state capitol building and our own self-guided walking tour.  Of course it was under construction and they had scaffolding set up around the dome but we still managed to take some neat pictures.  Next we found a parking spot at the trail entrance to Lady Bird Lake (formerly Town Lake).  It's a trail that follows the shore of the Colorado River - not the same Colorado River flowing through the Grand Canyon.  It was too hot to do much walking and I was dressed in a skirt so that nixed the idea of renting bikes, but it was still an enjoyable walk.

By this time we were hungry so we went to Home Slice Pizza which we saw near the Continental Club & Guero's.  What a great pizza joint!  It's got the college feel like Woodstock's and the freshness of Pizza My Heart.  I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza with a Boylan grape soda.  I don't think I've ever heard of the soda company, but it was a delicious grape soda made with cane sugar.  And the pizza slice was wonderful and had a cornmeal bottom crust.  We sat at the bar and got to watch the guy toss up the dough which is always fun to see.  :-)

After a pit stop at the hotel to use the gym and shower we headed out for an awesome night on the town.  Our first stop was Antone's, a blues club founded by Clifford Antone who was a mentor to Stevie Ray Vaughan.  We went to see our second BlueBonnet's performance.  They rocked the stage again but I didn't think this performance was as good as Tuesday's.  Maybe it was the smaller, older crowd...

We watched the first two songs of the next act's set before heading out to dinner at Fado Irish Pub around the corner.  I ordered a Smithwick's to wash down my Smithwick's flavored mini burgers.  The beer was refreshing as usual but I could not pick up the flavor of the beer in the burgers at all.  A bit of a bummer, but then I really wasn't expecting much.  Before we decided on Fado for dinner, we noticed a small outdoor stage set up between two other buildings in the area.  I wanted to check it out after dinner, but unfortunately no one was playing yet so we walked back to Antone's to see what was going on in there.  I think if I had known anything about blues music I would have really appreciated what was going on in there - two female artists were doing a duet on stage and they said they hadn't worked together in years.  The audience was loving it and I really enjoyed what I heard.  But like I said...  I know nothing about blues and so I can't tell you who they were or what they were singing.

We left Antone's after that song and again walked around the block and found our way to that outdoor stage.  A great cover band was playing so we watched them from the sidewalk for a few songs.  I found out they are called Suede.  Mom and I both enjoyed them because they rocked out the classics as well as current songs.  Very cool.  Even cooler was the venue - Cedar Street Courtyard.  Check out the link to see what the venue looks like during the day.

The night was young and we wanted to see more Austin so we decided to take a pedicab tour of the immediate area.  The guy we chose to ride us around was working his first shift ever and we were his very first customers so that was kind of special.  His more experienced co-worker rode along beside us to point out some of the cool stuff around us.  They intended to take us down 6th Street where all the action is, but couldn't because the police had the road blocked off to traffic.  Apparently every Thursday thru Saturday night the street is closed down for pedestrian traffic only.  That should tell you how hip it is.  This was just a Thursday night and there were thousands of people out on the streets and in all the different bars & clubs.  It looked like a scene from an MTV spring break - sans naked people.

We got out of pedicab and headed east.  The first place we found that looked interesting was Friends Bar.  They had a live band playing - Sam Riggs Band.  They were just okay for me.  I think they played some covers (none of which I recognized) and an original song that I had no way of knowing.  We left after about three or four songs to walk around more.

We poked our heads into a couple of places to see what they were like and made our last stop at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar.  By far my favorite stop for the evening!  This dueling piano bar was very similar to others I've been to but this crowd was so much fun. The place was pretty crowded when we first arrived (thinned out a lot by 2:00 A.M. though).  There was a young guy standing next to us at the bar that was so drunk I'm still trying to figure out how he never fell down.  He was swaying so much he was actually losing his drink due to it sloshing over the sides.  He was a fun character to watch because he knew all the songs and was very into it.  My mom requested some Go-Go's music so the blind musician came up with a medley for us that you can watch here.  Too funny!  The other cool thing to happen here was when someone requested they play Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA."  They called people up to the stage who have served for our country and the rest of us in the audience stood on our feet and belted out the tune.  A very cool sight indeed!

So we called it a night when Pete's closed down and I was sad to make it my last night in Austin.  We knew there was nightlife down there but we never expected anything like 6th Street.  There is truly something for everyone in that time.  No matter what your music scene is, Austin is the place for you.

All My Ex's Live In Texas

...Well one of them does anyway.  Seriously.  But thinking about George Strait has got me thinking that I still haven't seen cowboys walking down the street.  Guess that's just not going to happen - even in Austin. Mom and I both slept in since we partied so late last night.  Lunch was our breakfast at The Salt Lick in Driftwood which I had heard about from Man Vs. Food.  Adam didn't do an eating competition here, but he raved about their open pit barbecue and yummy burnt ends.  I enjoyed their bread.

After lunch we explored more of Texas Hill Country and did a wine tasting at Driftwood Vineyards.  I wanted to go there because their website professed "spectacular views of Hill Country."  Unfortunately we were caught in a nasty thunderstorm when we arrived.  We sat in the car for about ten minutes trying to wait it out but gave up and eventually braved the weather to go inside and try some wine.  Nothing spectacular but it was a really pretty property and we had fun.  The storm cleared while we were inside so I snapped a few pictures when we were done tasting.  Very pretty place.

The concierge at our hotel suggested trying the Mandola winery in Driftwood so we went there next.  We found out they are in the process of becoming Duchman Family Winery.  Where the last winery had a beautiful property this one had a beautiful building.  The interior was decorated to make you feel like you were at an Italian vineyard.  I also think these wines were better in quality.  We enjoyed them so much we each ordered a glass of our favorite and snacked on their free cheeses.

After this it was time to take a breather at the hotel. Then we got ready to have dinner at Güero's Taco Bar in downtown Austin.  I was able to order my plain cheese quesadilla for just $1.99 so that made me happy.  Neither Mom nor I were totally happy with our margaritas - they weren't bad... they just weren't great.  We walked across the street after dinner to take a couple pics of the Continental Club that we didn't get last night.

Then Mom and I hopped in a cab and went to The Broken Spoke for line dancing.  I didn't catch the name of the band playing but they were pretty good.  Unfortunately everyone was two-stepping instead of line dancing.  I was hoping to get out on the dance floor a bit.  But I did get to try my first Lone Star longneck - not that it's anything to write home about.  And after all this we called it a night.

Thinking about longnecks got me thinking about "Longneck Bottle" and because I heard him on the radio today, Garth Brooks is tonight's media mention.  Amazon is not letting me link his Double Live album though which is my favorite.  His studio albums are fine but he is one of the few artists who actually sounds better live.  He brings so much more energy to the recordings that way.

Austin City Limits

More food!  Met up with family for an early lunch at Texas Land & Cattle - another steak house.  Mom and I split the lunch burger which didn't completely fill up either one of us.  I insisted on swinging by Billy Bob's Texas - the world's largest honkey-tonk located in Fort Worth.  I have to admit it's kind of dead early in the afternoon on a Tuesday, but what can you do?  We had fun sipping a Blue Moon while walking around and checking out the joint.  This place has everything!  Pool tables, dance floor, arcade games, concert stage, a disco saddle instead of a ball hanging from the ceiling, slot machines, and a real bull-riding area.  Not a mechanical bull station.  A dirt floor with hay where cowboys come to ride real bulls.  It was weird to see but it looks like it'd be a fun place to check out when it's busy and happening.

We were hungry for a snack on the drive to Austin and saw a billboard for Whataburger.  My mom knew I wanted to go there because I saw Josh Brolin talk about it on Jay Leno about two months ago.  I was hoping it would be like In-N-Out.  And it is - kind of.  It's like a not-so-fresh Jack In The Box burger meets In-N-Out.  We hopped back on the road and started talking about getting some wine for the hotel room.  I frantically called Eddie and had him search for wineries in the area only to find out they were already closed for the day.  But luck was in our favor and we saw another important billboard advertising Korks Wine & Spirits.  They had a nice little selection of wines from Texas so we bought a few for the trip.

We checked into our beautiful hotel on the University of Texas at Austin campus and relaxed for a few minutes before hitting the town.  We went to the historic Continental Club to see the BlueBonnets perform.  Clem Burke of Blondie filled in on drums and after the show Kathy Valentine took a minute to pose for a photo with us.  This was a fun show but I was tired crawling into bed at 3:00 A.M.!

I would have made the BlueBonnets my media mention, but they're not available on Amazon.  And neither is Kathy Valentine.  So I'll talk about Chely Wright.  I only knew her because of "Single White Female."  My mom had plenty of time in the car on the way to Austin to introduce me to her.  I did enjoy the few songs I heard - especially her cover of Chuck Berry's "C'est la Vie" which you would recognize from the famous dance scene in Pulp Fiction.  I'm now interested in reading Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer to learn more about Chely's life because my mom definitely made it sound like a good story.