25 Oct 2015

Yow Yow! Down South

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Last week, we traveled down to the south for the very first time! I had been looking forward to this trip for awhile and after 4 days of hard work with my team in Houston at the Grace Hopper Conference, a few of us had planned ahead of time to wind down in Austin the weekend after. Houston was whatever, but Austin was extremely cute and charming. If I had to describe it, it was probably a more fast paced Portland, but with that same darlingness and Southern charm that you might expect. When planning this trip, we all kind of prioritized what mattered to us the most 1) Food 2) A great Airbnb in an awesome neighborhood and 3) the ability to get around – so we got a rental car and I played Soccer Mom the entire weekend!

It’s still summer in Texas so with the hot hot heat, we headed over to Barton Springs for the afternoon where we laid out and sort of got into the water.

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Our Airbnb near SoCo was a little  disco party and the perfect space for the 5 of us. If we make the same trip next year, we definitely will consider coming back.

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The Austin airport is its own piece of art

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The most amazing breakfast tacos at Tacodeli that didn’t photograph very well. But still, YUM.

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We couldn’t leave Austin without plates of BBQ from Salt Lick! These ribs were nailin’ it.

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While driving into the SoCo neighborhood, I spotted this beautiful boutique out of the corner of my eye on the right side of the road and naturally – immediately pulled over the car so the girls and I could stop in. Esby is seriously the cutest and reminds me of some of my favorite boutiques back home. They had only been open for a few weeks, but it’s a must for a drop-in.

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I couldn’t take my eyes off of these soap stones. Don’t they look magical?! You can find these at ByGeorge in SoCo.

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Usually when we go out to eat, there’s alway one meal in a trip that just doesn’t make the cut, right? I mean, all of your meals can’t be perfect, but no – this Houston / Austin trip was FULL of delicious meals the entire time. I couldn’t have asked for a better round up of drinks, appetizers, entrees, and desserts. This beef tartar was superb and so was this tray.

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Nicole was one of my first friends from college and I caught her just in time before she moved to Dallas the following week after.

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As soon as Nicole had found out that we were headed to Austin, she was fast at finding us potential Airbnbs to stay in. This was one of the ones she selected and it was perfection.

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The view looking up from our hot tub surrounded by lush greens and a whole lot of bamboo.