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.

Dallas Cowboys

After spending a whole day in Dallas, I am convinced no honest-to-goodness stereotypical cowboys live here.  I wanted to see men wearing Stetsons, Wranglers, belt buckles, and cowboy boots.  I've mentioned before that I love wearing my cowboy boots so I made sure to bring them on this trip.  In fact, I wore them all day yesterday and I was the only person on my Sunday evening flight bound for Dallas wearing boots.  That kind of bummed me out but I figured I would see people wearing boots today.  Nope.  Well, my uncle Michael did.  But that's it.  No other boots to be seen today.  I've been told we're more likely to see cowboys in Austin so I'll hold out 'til then.

Anyways...  I'm sure you'd like for me to get off my cowboy rant and tell you about my day.  My mom and I only had plans to meet with our family at the hotel and we had about an hour to ourselves in the morning so we headed downtown to the infamous Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  It was kind of surreal to be there as a tourist almost celebrating such a tragedy.  What surprised me was seeing that they have a white "X" painted in the middle of the street in the spot where the fatal bullet hit.  I took this picture of the book depository while standing on that "X."  When I get home I want to find some JFK documentaries on Netflix or YouTube and watch everything while the layout of the plaza is still fresh in my mind.

Not sure what to do with the family, we were happy when one suggested going to Saltgrass Steak House.  I ordered chicken strips and swapped out the fries for a mini cast iron skillet of macaroni and cheese.  The chicken tenders were cooked perfectly but I did not care for the mac n cheese and only managed to eat one noodle.  My mom liked it though so people with normal palates would probably enjoy.  Everyone went back to the hotel after lunch where we digested our large meals with good conversation.

As it got later we needed a change in scenery.  Several hours had passed and some of us were starting to feel hungry so we went downtown to the Iron Cactus Mexican restaurant and tequila bar.  I didn't find any of the entree items appealing so I chose to have dessert and boy did I make the right move!  I hope I can find a place in Portland that does Rollo de Canela because it was amazing.  Basically cheesecake wrapped in a crispy cinnamon/sugar tortilla and drizzled with caramel sauce.  Mmm...  My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.  

Off the food for a minute...  Today was truly special getting to spend so much time with family.  While I'm looking forward to moving on to Austin tomorrow, I'm a little sad to be leaving Dallas without doing more touristy things and really checking it out.  To wrap things up, today's mention will be in honor of our fallen thirty-fifth president.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles - and Buses Too!

Texas trip day one.  Being a new transplant to the Portland area has one big disadvantage - I don’t have any friends close enough to beg for a ride to the airport 40 minutes away.  And since Eddie was at work, I was SOL and on my own.  I decided to give the whole Tri-Met system a try and found a bus & light rail schedule that would work to get me to the airport on time.  I walked a half mile from my apartment to the bus stop and paid $2.30 which covered my bus and light rail fares.  It was a 40-minute ride from my house to the Beaverton Transit Center where I caught the light rail.  The lady driving the bus was awesome.  A couple of her regulars boarded the bus while I was on and she was super friendly with all of them and she’s one of those people who just loves their job - even though you might expect someone in that position to not love their job.  Then I hopped on the light rail and saw parts of Portland I had never seen before and really enjoyed relaxing during the 1-hour trip.  BUT...  I was way too cautious with my planning because I was paranoid something would go wrong so I planned to get to the airport three hours before my departure time.  Needless to say, I was quite bored at the airport.  But PDX is a really nice airport.  And now that I know Rogue has a restaurant in one of terminals, the airport is even cooler in my book.

Not much to say about Dallas so far.  It was well after 10:00 P.M. when we checked in so we just ran up to the room to throw our bags down then went to the lobby bar for drinks and a snack.  We also met with some family members that I haven’t seen in over twelve years during my last trip to Texas.  And since I’m running on just three hours of sleep, I am going to bed.  And because of this my media mention will be lame (my lack of creativity is lame, not the media mention itself).  So my mention is the title of this blog.  What a classic!  “You’re going the wrong way.  You’re gonna die.”  ....  “Wait, how do they know where we’re going?”  Love it.  But going back to the title of this blog, I did in fact travel by all four of these modes of transportation today.  Busy, busy, busy.  Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.

Movie Week

When this week began I had no intentions of making it all about movies...  It just turned out that way.  I was really bored at home this morning and when it started heating up in the apartment I decided to get out of the house for a few hours.  I had been wanting to see The Girl Who Played With Fire - the second installment in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  I saw the first film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo just over a month ago when it came to one of the independent theaters in Portland.  I have loved both films so far and am anxious for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest to be released in the States this fall.  I absolutely love this series and know only a handful of people who like it too.  So if you're reading this and enjoy the series, let me know because I'd love to chat about it.  I think the Swedish film adaptations have been perfect and I worry what Hollywood will do to them.  I know Daniel Craig is in talks to play Michael Blomkvist which didn't sit well with me at first, but the more I think about it, I think he'll be okay.  I think Hollywood will try to tone down some of the violence (and many of the American reviews I have read complain about the amount of violence), but if you've actually read the stories you know how critical these violent scenes are to the whole story.

I was expecting this movie to run close to three hours with the previews (like the first movie did) but when I got out of the theater in just under two hours and it was still scorchingly hot outside, I decided to find a cool place to read before heading home.  I was parked near Southpark Seafood and saw they had sangria on their happy hour menu so I went inside.  It's a swanky place with a relaxed bar room.  The burger sounded too good to pass up (local Carlton Farms beef and white cheddar on a toasted sesame seed bun).  They cooked my burger well instead of medium rare, but that was okay.  It was oddly seasoned - I've had another burger seasoned this way but I don't remember where.  It's something I'm not too fond of.  But at least the fries were good.  They were really brown though.  I'm not sure if that's because they soaked them in vinegar before frying?...  Not sure what makes fries brown.  They were definitely fresh and very crispy, but not in an over-cooked kind of way.  That's why I think they soaked in vinegar or something.

Lazy Day

Another lazy day today...  I slept in again since I was up late last night.  I did spend a couple hours walking around town to take care of my errands.  It's so nice being able to walk to the pharmacy, Fred Meyer, and the post office (and so much more) just from my apartment.  Once Eddie got home from work we hopped in the car and headed to Canby, OR where we met my family for dinner to celebrate Chris' birthday.  He discovered El Chilito, a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place, while doing some work in this area.  We commandeered three tables outside and enjoyed our meals in the warm evening air.  After dinner we drove over to Walt City Park just a few blocks away where we had homemade apple pie and vanilla ice cream.  And that was my day.  The only other thing I accomplished was watching Guarding Tess.  I had never seen it but it was on my Hulu queue and was about to expire so I thought I'd give it a try.  The movie was fair but I realized one thing: the more movies I see starring Nicholas Cage, the more I start to like him.