Austin Day 1: A Slower Pace...We Tried, Anyway

We checked out of the hotel and packed our 2 big suitcases, 1 little suitcase, 3 tote bags, 2 purses, case of bottled water, and golf bag along with the 3 of us into our Chevy Cobalt. Whew! We drove over to the Galleria -- the frou-frou part of Houston, where Beyonce shops (did you know she's from here? I didn't) -- to eat breakfast at Kenny & Ziggy's, a New York-style deli. They had terrific bagels and omelets and fruit cups. Thuy met us there, and she brought Mel and me Texas guidebooks and maps to use! She is awesome. We were done with breakfast by 10:45 and transferred Kim, her suitcase, her laptop bag, and Thuy's golf clubs to Thuy's car, then headed west out of Houston toward Austin.

As we drove to Austin, we saw lots of interesting sights. A caravan of motorcycles. A field of oil rigs. Buzzards circling overhead. We crossed the Colorado River 3 times on our way. We saw all sorts of crazy roads, including "Ranch Road 2222." Thuy told us there are also RMs (roads to market) and RFs (roads to farm). Overall, the drive was flat, though, with low trees scattered around. Occasionally we would go through a small town. Melanie said it reminded her of a flat Pennsylvania, and I agree. We talked about this -- we expected Texas to be like a whole different country, but really, it is a lot like many other places. This revelation was simultaneously disappointing and comforting.

He finished the song by playing the piano with his FEET.

We arrived in Austin at 1:30 -- under 3 hours, and that included a stop for gas! Not bad. We checked into the Days Inn and decided to head out immediately to try to get on the 2:00 tour of Celis Brewery suggested by our guidebook. We made it there with a minute or two to spare, but we had to laugh when we saw that the brewery is no longer there. Instead, there was the Aus-Tex Mailing and Package Company. OK, I guess the book is a little old, so we'd better call ahead before we drive out of our way again! We decided to head back into Austin to check out 6th St. We'd each seen a few restaurants and concert venues in the guidebooks we wanted to try to visit, and we were wondering how we would find them all. We didn't have to wonder. Everything we'd had our eye on was right on 6th St within 10 or so blocks. Easy!

We went to Iron Cactus for lunch because they had an inviting outdoor deck and their menu had some good-looking food on it. Other people had the same idea we did, so we had to wait, and while we did, I had a Cactus Juice margarita, which has tequila and margarita mix as well as midori, blue Curacao, and everclear. It was fantastic. We both ordered big salads. Mine had corn (yay!) and sweet pecans. Yumster! After lunch, we walked around and explored the 6th St/Congress Ave area. We were reminded of college towns we know and love, as well as of Old Town Alexandria. The area is pretty small, and we were able to walk all over and see almost everything in a few hours.

After our walking, we went back up to the hotel so Melanie could go for a run at the UT campus, which is right across the street from us. I took a nap. Yay! After recreation time, we got in the car and hurried (again!) to Mt. Bonnell to see the sunset over Lake Austin. The sun was behind the hill by the time we got to the park, but the sky was still beautiful. We scrambled to the top of the mountain and got a great view of the lake (and the fabulous houses right on it) as well as downtown Austin in the distance. It was really gorgeous.

After the sunset, we went down some steps (where were they when we were going up the hill?) and got back in the car to head downtown again. This time Melanie found a free parking spot right on 6th St. We walked up Congress Ave, admiring the Texas state capitol building all lit up in front of us. It is even taller than the US Capitol. Texas! We had read about a coffee shop called Little City in one of our guidebooks, but when we got there, we immediately decided it was not for us. It was absolutely silent in there -- no music, no friendly chatter -- except for the mumblings of a homeless guy. No thanks! We walked back down Congress to our second choice, The Hideout, and on the way we passed a theatre showing "Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" for the SXSW festival. We would have loved to see it, but the line was terrifically long already, so we will wait like the rest of you. The Hideout was much more our speed. We sat on a couch and read, and, I will not lie to you, I took a nap. Many who know me are aware that I can sleep anywhere. ANYWHERE! The Hideout was full of very artsy people talking about their movies. It had a friendly vibe and we liked it a lot.

After my nap, we walked down to 6th St to go to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar, which Thuy had recommended. This has to be the greatest place ever. Up on the stage are two grand pianos, and two funny guys play fantastic covers of all sorts of songs. And I do mean all sorts. Among the songs they played were "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy," "Joy to the World," "Enter Sandman," "Ice Ice Baby" (seriously), "Brown Sugar," "Benny and the Jets," "Little Red Corvette," "Sweet Caroline," and "Summer of '69." For one girl's birthday, they pulled her up on stage and sang my favorite Justin Timberlake song. I'm talking, of course, about "Dick in a Box." The best part of the whole experience is that everyone in the audience sings along with all of the songs. What I am telling you is that it was awesome. We were there for almost 4 hours (and even then, we only left because the bench got hard and uncomfortable), and we loved every minute of it. When we got there, there was an older guy with long hair and a cowboy hat playing the piano on our side and a younger guy on the piano facing us; there was also a third guy onstage whose job seemed to be leading the room in clapping along. They took requests and they knew practically every song people wanted to hear. It was fun when they did the School Song-Off, in which alums of one school (say UT) pay $10 to hear their fight song. Then, when the Texas A&M fans put down $11, they switched over to the A&M song until the UT crowd put in more money to switch back to their song. Fun! Halfway through the act, two younger guys came out and replaced the original guys on the pianos, and the original guys moved to guitar and drum as the new guys played piano. These new guys were great! The one playing the piano nearest us was an outstanding pianist -- he played "Great Balls of Fire" astonishingly well, even finishing the song by playing the piano with his FEET. The other guy was smoking hot, and he was the one facing us, so we had the best seats in the house. We both absolutely loved it. I estimate I could watch dueling pianos for about 14 hours straight before getting bored.

We didn't get home until 12:30, which was effectively 1:30 because we are switching to daylight savings time, and we were up for another hour relaxing after almost 4 hours of high-energy, nonstop entertainment. OK, we didn't do very well at taking it easy today, but maybe tomorrow. Who am I kidding? This is just how things are. We need to live with it.