random destination 2015/16 - austin, tx

christmas vacation cont.

we had to say goodbye to nicole as she headed back to l.a. on boxing day. 

it was sooo nice to have all of my children home together. but as they say,

all good things must come to an end. why, oh why?

those of us remaining, spent the day at the denver museum of science and nature.

this was a childhood favorite sunday afternoon destination for my kids and they were just as excited to revisit the museum now as they were then.

this time last year, paul came up with a great idea, to spend new years all together....somewhere.....anywhere. it worked out so well and we had so much fun we decided to do his idea again this year. the chosen destination is determined by the cheapest flights from denver to any american city we haven't explored before. 

dallas was the winner last year and this year dallas/ft. worth won again but instead of revisiting dallas, we flew in and headed straight on down to the beautiful state capitol and new-to-us, city of austin!

let's go........

again, a plus for a texas destination was that native texan kensey could join us like last year on our random four day holiday. she met us on our arrival at the dfw airport.

we/ben were/was anxious to see her!

i will share the links to places we went, ate and discovered in austin for suggestions on your next trip to this trendy and "fastest growing city" in the country.

first, we remembered a fantastic lunch we had on our last visit to texas so decided to revisit torchy's in waco on our way down, feeling like we were learning the texan way of things.

after arriving in austin and settling in, we headed downtown to the state capitol.

whoa, texans are a tough and proud bunch with a history unique to the rest of the u.s.

with many friends' suggestions for what-to-do and where-to-go in austin, we were anticipating and looking forward to amazing food and amazing music as austin has the reputation of being the live music capitol of the world! 

so that same night, we walked from the capitol to austin's world famous and historic 6th street. 

nine blocks of live music, as well as great food! 

ben, sab and andrew thought they had died and gone to heaven...

for dinner, we ended up at easy tiger bake shop & beer garden - highly recommended.

another thing we loved about austin was being near water. the colorado river runs through the city so to take advantage of the views, we rented bikes from the nice guys at barton springs bike rental and enjoyed being outside, the warmer weather, the city skyline and an unexpected over-the-water boardwalk. a must- do!

austin must also be the food truck capitol of the state/world? they are e-ver-y-where. 

a friend suggested we hit south austin trailer park and eatery during lunchtime. so, after our bike ride, we headed south. everyone got to choose their favorite food (indian, greek, bbq, thai...), eating outside together on picnic tables. cool.

we enjoyed our last afternoon, new years eve, at the texas state history museum.

not only did we spend hours discovering all the amazing history and exhibits but bought tickets to come back later for the 10:30pm showing of star wars in 3D at the museum's imax theater!

but first, we took a vote and a catfish dinner was (nearly) everyone's first choice. so we headed to catfish parlour. i can still claim to have never tasted catfish. (i was the nay on this vote) no thanks....long story.

for dessert, we went to the highly recommended amy's ice creams. 

we actually visited amy's twice during our austin visit, it's that good!

then, back to the museum where we saw the new year in, lost in a galaxy far, far away........