A little slice of Heaven!

A little over a week ago I went to visit my sister, Amy, in Austin, TX where she's lived the past 12ish years.  I'm ashamed to admit that it was my first trip down.  I was nervous about flying, esp because I've never flown alone but moreso because I haven't flown since my babies have been born, nor have I been that far away from them! But.. all it took was seeing my sister at the airport and my reservations and fears were gone!  When I'm with her, I'm just "ME", nothing is held back and its pure relaxation! (I even got to go to the bathroom in private!!!)





I also need to RE-CLARIFY my hate towards blogger. AGAIN, pics out of order and all kinds of to the side. I've spent way to long trying to fix it, so again.. my apologizes for the scattered mess but .. it kind of reflects my life! hahah!
I didnt get in to Austin until Midnight so we stayed up talking and then hit the streets the next morning! She took me to a swanky shopping ctr with Louis Vuitton, Tiffany etc.. and then I found this little place....  Can you believe it? MADEWELL'S!



OF COURSE I had to buy something! But only a little tank top because it was a pricey store.  Amy asked if I got a discount because of my name!  It took handing them an ID to prove it really was my last name but still didn't get a discount, nonetheless, it was still very cool!

 Next we went to this CRAZY movie theater ....  it was actually a movie theater with a super nice bar and restaurant! (See first picture) We ordered the most DELICIOUS pomegranate margarita you have ever tasted!  We had two and then headed to this lovely place, Rudy's!  It doesnt look like much but OH MY WORD... best brisket I've EVER put in my mouth!  They had these potatoes that were steamed in butter... HOLY CRAP... thats all I can say!

 We did a little more shopping and headed home and waited for Serena, I was super excited to see her as well!  While I was there a huge festival called "South by Southwest" was in town and to say that Austin was a "zoo" is to say the least. It was really cool to experience a taste of it though.  Back to that in a minute.  We went to a place called Tortilla Lupe for dinner and they are known for their steak fajitas.  I'm typically NOT a steak person but these were to die for! I would show you the picture.. but its at the bottom of the blog post, OF COURSE!  MOST people can only eat one because they are such big homemade tortillas but the "eater" in me thought... what the heck, you only live once, these are DELICIOUS and its not like I can come here whenever I want.  Guess what??? I ate two of them... it was worth it... that is until I stood up and we headed downtown.. PURE MISERY!
Back to downtown... this is a woman...  playing on BUCKETS to Michael Jackson... she was INSANELY good. I saw "ALL KINDS" of people... it was a site to behold. I felt so out of place in my "Mom Jeans" and Vera Bradley purse! OH WELL!

 Me and Serena

 Ok.. so a guy on the street told us that this place had the best "Bomb" drinks you've ever had.  I think it had five or so different alcohols in it and then she lights it on fire?  A drinker, I am not, but they bought, it, I tried it...

 Not bad.. but such a wuss...  It took me FOREVER to drink it!  It was tasty...

 The next morning we got up and decided to do some site seeing!  Amy and Serena have two dogs, Beau (the old man!) and Cody (The spaz)! LOVE MY NEPHEWS!

 Cody on the left, Beau on the right!

 We hiked up to Mt Bonnell... absolutely STUNNING

 I wished you could see the houses on this mountain... apparently Matthew McConehay (however you spell it) lives up here somewere!

 After some hiking we headed down to Shady Grove... this place was AWESOME!  It was an old trailer park that someone turned in to a restaraunt/park area, they are known for their "Bad Dog" Chili dogs and Catfish queso dip.. I was so torn on what to get... but Amy and Serena both got the Bad Dog.. so I had to too!

 The bathrooms

 After being glutinous, AGAIN we went on the "Duck Boat Tour".. its a tour of the city of Austin and its a  bus that turns in to a boat..

 When you get on the bus they give you these duck call whistle things... very funny and yet annoying.. when you'd pass random people or someone playing golf we'd honk at them!

 We saw a ton of beautiful buildings and unfortunately I dont remember them all..

 One of the oldest, most famous hotels, The Driskell

 Paramount Theater

 The beautiful Capitol

 The Texas Chili Parlor...

 Museum

 A lot of famous people got started here from what I understood..

 One of the MANY WEIRD-O's we saw

 And so begins the RANDOM pictures out of order..
Here we have Beau... he has an obsession with SOCKS! No matter how much I hid my socks he would find them.  It was so cute.. he wouldnt chew them, just held them in his mouth!  He was so proud of himself.  At one time I found him with 3 of my socks in his mouth. AND YES I left him a pair of my socks, dirty ones at that!

 Me, with my Madewell purchase!

 The pomegranate margarita

 Oh.. and of course I checked on the boys 3 times a day and Dad would send me pics of them!

 Me and "The Bad Dog"

 The crazy delicious steak fajitas.. pictures do NOT do these justice

More Duck boat tour scenery

 Oh... this was random and not even sure why I have this picture but to the left is a restaurant called Kenechi... and while at the airport waiting to go home, I read that Ashton Kutcher was eating there the night we were downtown.. we passed this place TWICE!

My very last night there was amazing and Im TICKED i dont have pictures of it! IT was the one night we all got fixed up and went to this divine place to eat called Eddie V's. They had this drink called "The Red Drgaon", by far the best drink I have ever had in my life!  We had incredible service and the most amazing meal. Steak, muscles (barf), the best mac n cheese (Id pay $100 for a side dish of it! not really... well.. maybe.. its THAT GOOD), beets with feta and walnuts, fish with avocado and crab stuffed in it.. the list goes on and on.
I had an absolute AMAZING time and was so sad to leave, I cant wait to go back and spend more time with them, its definitely going to have to be an annual thing for me.  There's nothing like that one on one "sister time" and it just makes me realize how much I miss her :(   THANK YOU AMY AND SERENA for an AMAZING TIME! MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU!