It's not Texas, it's Austin!!!

Man that saying could not be more true. Austin is not Texas, it's more a blend of San Fran with a dash of Nashville and a touch of southern California. But I mean this in no offense to Austin bec. it certainly is its own city with its own unique identity. We got into town Thursday night just in time for rush hour. :) But having grown up in Northern VA/DC traffic and now NYC this was nothing. We made our way easily over to our b&b in the Hyde Park area, the Woodburn House. www.woodburnhouse.com If you come to Austin, and particularly if you're a couple, this is the most charming b&b! When we pulled up I immediately fell in love with the huge porch that wrapped around the house (both on the first and second level). There were 2 lovely porch swings and a pair of rocking chairs. Oh it was just heavenly. The home was built in 1909 and is designated a City of Austin historical Landmark. I should mention that not only is the home charming, but the neighborhood of Hyde Park is too. The houses are all small ranch houses, but each has adorable front porches and quite a few have cool art work. I got the impression it was a very artsy area full of young families and artisans. Actually, there was a great glassworks store 2 blocks from our place called Blue Moon. www.austinbluemoon.com They have workshops on glass blowing and beading and quite an array of local Austinites work. The people who owned the store were incredibly friendly and took us in the back to watch one of the workshops. One man who worked there, I'm sad to say I didn't catch his name, but he showed me some beautiul work he's doing experimenting with putting photos in layers of glass. It's difficult to explain but looked great.
After checking our our hood some we retreated to our floor, we were on the third floor of the b&b called the "Treehouse" which we loved. :) We had one room with an awesome king size bed, a shared bathroom with a huge jacuzzi (more on that later :) ) and a single room where Steph slept. It was nice having our own floor though at night I can't say we were the only ones who occupied it. The squirrels went insane on the roof launching themselves off from the tree branches and fighting? I think. Do squirrels fight? I don't know, it's hard to say what went on on the roof at night but it was pretty loud at some points and pretty funny. So we settled into the treehouse and decided to sample soome the best stuff Texas has to offer: steak.
I thought it would be easy to find a good steak restaurant in Austin but that's when I had to check myself and realize I was in fact in Austin, not Dallas or Houston. Of course there are quite a few steak restaurants in Austin but in other areas of Texas that's practically ALL there is. We settled on a place called "Austin Land and Cattle." Oh and did it hit the spot. We each had the filet mignon and mine was just the perfect medium rare; melt in your mouth good. There was hardly room for the garlic mashed potatoes and wonderful sauteed spinach. I have to say the steak was a pretty damn good change after all the Mexican food.
Pleasantly full, ok maybe a little stuffed, it wasn't hard to fall into a deep slumber in the treehouse that night. :) save for the psychotic squirrels of course...