*Warning*  Aggie friends you must hold your tongue! 😉 You know who you are.

Last weekend the Chef and I became tourists in our state’s capital, Austin…along with a million others who had the same idea.  They came from literally all over the world, country, and state– as Austin hosted a Formula 1 race event (Howdy Europeans) and a home football game by none other than, the University of Texas.  Our very own Paris mother, The French Market Maven, even showed up to say hello! 

From $1200 a night hotel rooms ( no we didn’t pay this madness–we roomed with a prissy hissing cat named Tippy at her apartment, thanks to a last minute deal found on Airbnb), to jammed packed streets, to vintage Airstreams on every corner slinging sweet saturated fat goodness–we braved it all for one thing– “a few photographs of burnt orange.”  We were on assignment for the Girls Guide to Paris magazine.  

Austin– edgy, boom-town for Foodies, artistic, and a tad bit weird, and they’d like to keep it that way.  It’s an anomaly for the state of Texas.  A friend of mine said…it’s like an “island”.  Once you leave the city limits, everything becomes normal.  The Traveling Pear doesn’t really do normal very well, but that’s another story! 

I know we didn’t even scratch the surface when it comes to finding the weird (we only had 2 days), but compared to where we currently live, what we found was weird…that translates to—cool for us!    

We passed this Beverly Hills-ish boutique hotel at least a four times, as the only parking we could find near the famous Congress Street, was behind this hotel.  If we had wanted to be fools with our money, this is where it would have departed our pockets.  Rooms were going for over $1200 a night and that didn’t include a view of the Eiffel! 😉 Seriously?  A quick search revealed $200-$300 a night for this weekend.  A lot more real…

I have to confess…I envisioned the Chef and I lounging about the poolside sipping mint juleps!

Found one of our fav vodkas… again another Airstream.

I don’t know of any other bovine creature that gets a police escort (sirens blasting) through a city like this Longhorn… Bevo! Bevo (the steer) is currently the 14th in a line of Bevos.  The original “Bo” as they called him, debuted in 1916 at a Thanksgiving day game with the arch rivals– Texas A&M University.  This actually wasn’t my first encounter with Bevo–we exchanged glances one summer, circa 1999, while I was working at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. He was making an appearance for the summer school students, and I was contently washing and sorting marsh grasses behind his enclosure.  It was a…hey…I see you…you see me…cool.  He must have known I was an Islander Aggie (TAMU-CC 1st year undergrad at the time.) Even though I graduated from “an” A&M, I totally had more of an affection for UT.  Six years of working for the university, naturally I was attached. *Please don’t unfriend me Aggie friends who read this blog.*

And well here’s the rest of the weirdness we enjoyed!

This group reminded us of a band we discovered while living in Maine– Tricky Britches.  While they played, I had thoughts of the Oyster River Farm and Don.  Kinda made me sad, yet appreciative for the experience we had.  Now where’s my jug o’ cider?

Then there was street art…

and the old being covered by the new….

at least it’s nice words…

say a little prayer

hey..burnt orange

by the way it is Movember gentlemen

grassfed…always

a tribute to the thousands upon thousands of trees that have died as a result of the dreadful Texas drought

while we’re on the subject of thirst…

found an Oasis

to watch the sunset

before calling it a night

Any weird Austin stories of your own?  Do share!

xoxo,

TTP