The Best of

Margarita: Tie- Cowgirl BBQ-Santa Fe and the Mexican Handshake at Rosario's-San Antonio, TX
Enchiladas: Mi Tierra Cafe and Bakery- San Antonio, TX
Store: Wholefoods- Austin, TX
Hotel: Woodburn House- Austin, TX
Museum: Tie- Georgia O'Keeffe- Santa Fe and The Alameda- San Antonio
Vibe: Austin, TX
Activity: Sledding in White Sands, NM
Surprise: Tie- Marfa, TX and White Sands, NM
Photo-op: White Sands, NM
Sign: Del Rio, TX "Warning, Prison Area. Do not pick up hitchhikers."
Song in the Car: Tie- La Vie Boheme-Rent and Dolly Parton
Day: White Sands, NM

Gracias great southwest

Ah...time to leave. The road trip had come to a close. But before we headed to the airport my sweet friend Donna, up from Houston, was ever so kind to wake up very early and come get me for breakfast at 8:30am. We headed to Kirby's, an Austin brunch staple, and had a delicious breakfast. I had gingerbread pancakes, which I've never heard of before, and they were fabulous! They're a little rich so I couldn't finish one, but they are so so yummy. I love making pancakes and I couldn't believe I never thought to try gingerbread ones, but I will now. It was so great to see Donna, even though I could only hang out till 10am. But thanks Donna Lynn for making the early morning trek!!
And so sadly we had to bid adieu to our lovely b&b, the beautiful porch, Austin, white lightening (our rental car that kicked ass) and the whole road trip. You know, originally we were planning a few weeks in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Due to the political climate in Thailand we decided maybe this wasn't the best year to go there. Wracking our brains about where else to go we decided why not pump some much needed money into our own economy and explore somewhere none of us were familiar with. And it was worth it. I often forget how truly amazing, vast and beautiful our country is. It's trips like this that remind me. We're so incredibly fortunate to have all of this in our backyard. Whether it be a small town or a big city, each has it's own identity. If last year's trip was the Good Kharma one, then this years was the Good Characters one. No matter where we went we kept meeting such wonderful people with so many stories to tell. Without a doubt this is one of my favorite parts of traveling. Always, always! take the time to sit down at a cafe or a bar or a b&b and talk to the people who live and work there. Shakespeare said, "What is the city but the people?" and I couldn't find this to be more true. You'll get your best recommendations, the most entertainment and best sense of a place from its people. I loved that about this road trip. From Jerry and Linda in Las Cruces, to Verena in Marfa, to Brooke in San Antonio, to Noel and his wife in Austin; it was a never ending cast of characters.
Thank you to all the people we met along the road and, as always, thanks to my partners in crime, Jaime and Steph. I'm a lucky lady to have such wonderful girlfriends to enjoy exploring the world as much as I do.
Now for the next trip... India? Africa? Australia? :) tbd

Bear wants beer

In a bbq coma I knew we were really going to have to rally to hit the town. First we had to take advantage of our jacuzzi on our last night at the b&b. I used some of the tropical body wash in the shower and ended up making quite the bubble bath. We had debated getting in in our bathing suits but since we were about to go out we opted to just stick our feet in. haha I'm sure this is not how the jacuzzi is typically used in a b&b but it was great fun. We ended up having to turn off the jacuzzi jets bec. the bubbles got so high. Fortunately just as the bubbles started to make us a little sleepy my lovely friend Chelsea, who lives in Austin, showed up. She was kind enough to drive us downtown and hit the bars. We had hear to go out on 6th street but fortunately Chelsea showed us which side of 6th street to go out on. I guess one side is all college kids with a Girls Gone Wild Van hovering nearby.... yeah, not quite our cup o'tea. I can't remember the name of the first bar we went to but it was a cute outdoor bar with a great selection of beer. I liked that all the bars in Austin are outdoors with heat lamps. We ran into a couple of Chelsea's friends who were kind enough to hang with us and took us to the next bar, Molotov. What happened next was absolutely hysterical, to say the least. We arrived at the bar and I looked up on the second level porch and saw...FURRIES! (I am not explaining that one to Mom). I'm also not entirely sure they were furries, but whatever it was there were about 50 people dressed up as animals ordering drinks and tearing up the dance floor. It was so freaking funny. I couldn't stop taking pictures of the animals dancing with each other, ordering drinks at the bar, etc. I have no idea what it was but the bouncer said a bus had pulled up and unloaded all 50 of them. We also heard word that about 100 people dressed as animals were running around in circles in Union Sq. back in NYC that night so who knows. The animals were let loose! We hung out till about 1/1:30 dancing to an awesome dj. Seriously, he rocked.
The night out was a blast and I have to thank Chelsea, well the furries too ;), for that.

The Salt Lick Experience

The bbq joint we picked, after much research and asking around, was the Salt Lick. www.saltlickbbq.com This one in particular is located in Driftwood, Tx about 30 minutes south of Austin. The drive out was really quite pretty. You kind of feel like you're in the middle of nowhere going down a 2 lane road surrounded by trees and ranches. I was imagining seeing signs everywhere "2 MILES TO SALT LICK!" "1 MILE LEFT TO SALT LICK!" a la Outer Banks advertising. But there was nothing. So we started worrying how we would see it...would we miss it? This is hysterical in retrospect. Suddenly we rounded a corner and there up ahead was a massive parking lot full of cars. It could have been a state fair or something. We pulled up and there was a police man directing traffic and so so many people. I could feel the intimidation setting in... how am I going to eat all that meat, what am I supposed to order again? am I not supposed to ask for sauce on the side? eek
I thought for sure we'd have at least an hour wait. The outdoor areas were insane. A band was playing in one section and big groups of people, or even families, were hanging out by the picnic tables getting their kegs started. Kegs you ask? Oh yes, this is Texas after all. Salt Lick is b.y.o.b. so people roll up with kegs and coolers galore. I couldn't stop laughing. Particularly at the families rolling up with little kids and grabbing their bud lights from the cooler. haha We were sat after about only 20 minutes. They took us to one of the many huge rooms with row upon row of picnic tables. It was time. The moment of truth. What to order... We all settled on the meat combination platter. And we did ask for the Salt Lick jalapeno sauce on the side, faux pas or not, bec. we were curious to see how it tasted. Our plates came out and they were intimidating (though not nearly as intimidating as the bottomless meat platters families around us were ordering). We had sausage, beef brisket and ribs as well as potato salad and coleslaw. I've been a true North Carolina bbq devotee for years so I was dying to see how this measured up. I should also mention that I can't even remember the last time I ate ribs. I've been grossed out by them since I was a kid bec. I don't like getting messy when I eat food. haha Laugh all you want, I know it's ridiculous, but it's just how I am. However I made an exception for this place and in the end the rib was my favorite. I thought the sauce, both the regular and the jalapeno, were delicious! The meat was good, the rib really good, but I didn't think it was exceptional. The thing is you really go here for the whole experience, not just the meat. That said, i did think all of the meat had such a fantastic smokey flavor. When we were leaving they let me go back in the kitchen to take pictures of the big bbq pit and now I can understand why it had such an amazing flavor. None of us conquered our dinner, but we were also desperately trying to leave room for the dessert: pecan pie and peach and blackberry cobbler with Texas bluebonnet vanilla icecream. The pecan pie was nothing special, but the cobbler was scrumptious. We didn't make too good of a dent in it but it was still delicious. Alas, our time at the Salt Lick had come to an end. I have to say, i still stand by my North Carolina bbq, but this was definitely a cool experience. You MUST check it out if you go to Austin. Unless you're vegetarian of course... :)

Sippin on Shiner at the Oasis

Post lunch we headed northwest of Austin about 30 miles to get an afternoon drink at a place called the Oasis. I clearly did not read the description in the book, yet again, bec. I was picturing some low key shack type bar with a pretty view of the lake. This was more of a gigantic 3..4?? story restaurant/store on a cliff overlooking the lake. The view really was great and I'm sure at sunset it's pretty amazing. We grabbed a beer, Shiner Bock since my Dad and cousin were highly recommending it, and sat at the bar for a bit. Turns out the bartender went to high school about 15 minutes from me so that was an amusing coincidence. The Oasis itself is not somewhere I'd recommend dining (very touristy and cheestastic) but it's not a bad place to grab a drink and sit outside looking down on the lake. Plus when you drive out there are some amazing houses, or castles as we called them, on the hills overlooking the lake.
We still had some time before the big final dinner, Texas bbq, so we headed into the Warehouse district in south Austin to find a boutique the book had recommended. Turns out the most amusing thing to me was that the boutique was in an area called the 2nd st. district: 2 blocks long by about 3 blocks wide. haha It amused me that it got it's own district. The boutique was nothing special but it was cool to see that part of Austin. It's being developed by a Chicago architect so the area looks different than the rest of Austin.
Finally, it was time for bbq.

Holy Wholefoods

I saw that my book (which is Fodor's, not Frommer's as I had previously said) had suggested checking out Wholefoods in Austin. And naturally I scoffed at it thinking why would I check out a Wholefoods when we have a few in NYC? No thanks. I didn't even read the description. Fortunately my wiser friend Jaime did, being the devoted Nutrition Specialist she is, and it turns out this isn't any ol' Wholefoods, this my friends, is the mothership, the mecca, THE Wholefoods. I never would have thought such a wonderful, and natural/organic, store would originate from Texas. Texas?! But once again, as I kept finding out over and over, this is Austin, not Texas. And man was this Wholefoods an experience. I think we were all excited first at parking (and not even one lot, but a parking garage!). Then 2 escalators up the golden gates opened and behold...Wholefoods, all 80,000 square feet of it. From the get go the veggies were brighter, the oranges more orange, the seafood so fresh; it was tantalizing. I think we ended up doing 3 laps of the store and I'm still not sure that we saw everything. They had an entire section of organic clothes! I've never even seen a shirt in our stores in NYC. I stopped by the tea section, yes an entire beautiful section devoted to tea, and talked to a very friendly employee. (by the way, all the employees there were awesome!) We told her we were from NYC to explain the shock and awe on our faces. She laughed and politely said our stores were "fine." Haha Our stores are nothing like this one. We walked some more and almost made a lunch out of samples: mint quinoa, edamame succatash, fresh gouda. Realizing we couldn't bring the whole store home with us and that we had to settle on something for lunch, we grabbed the fresh sushi and headed to the outdoor lunch area to dine in the sun. I don't know how I'm going to return to our Wholefoods now. And ours, at least the one on Houston, is great! But after seeing this, it's a whole other ballgame.

market, what market?

As is bound to happen sometimes, the travel books will get it wrong. I'm a faithful devotee of Lonely Planet and so it was hard to switch to Frommer's for the Austin/ San Antonio book (Lonely Planet doesn't have a Texas one!) Anyways, our book had recommended a wonderful open air market called the "Renaissance Market." We were wide awake, ready for another glorious Austin day, invigorated from another delicious b&b breakfast, and excitedly walking to the market. Except, there was no market. Correction, I suppose there was a "market" of some sort, if you count the 2 people with 2 tables set up. We looked around, walked a couple blocks more and finally asked, where's the market? Surely it can't be those 2 people. .... except it was. So I don't want to tell you not to check out that market if it does in fact exist on some other day in a much grander fashion, but I have a hunch that it's not as big as the book builds it up to be. My advice is skip it. Fortunately we were in the same area as a big Austin toy store called "Toy Joy." This was similar to the Monkey toy store we saw the day before on South Congress, but in a much bigger fashion. It was pretty hysterical to walk around and stumble upon old toys we used to play with. The best part of the experience was finding a Little Golden Books section and my favorite, the Color Kittens! Man I loved that book. Around the corner in the store we stumbled into an old school candy section where I discovered another gem: Pop rocks! I definitely purchased 2 packets of that for the bf.
So despite the market, or lack thereof, the morning excursion was worth it to take a trip down memory lane in Toy Joy.
Up next, the mothership