What to Do in Austin, Texas

Each time we visit Austin, there are a few things on our to-do list while we're there. Here they are in no certain order (except that food always comes first.)

• Eat at Taco Cabana--Our favorite for fast, inexpensive, yummy and (mostly) unfried food. This is one of the few places I don't have a favorite menu item. I've had enchilladas, burritos, tacos--you name it--and it's all delicious. An added bonus is they put their tortilla-making machine right up front so you can watch them transform from a ball of dough to yummy, warm, served-fresh tortillas. I wanted to try to catch breakfast there, but we couldn't find one at the appropriate time. We'll add that to the list for next time.
• Eat at Chick-fil-a--OK, so you don't have to go all the way to Texas for Chick-fil-a. But since we don't have any around here, it makes the Texas list. We actually hadn't eaten there for a long time--Abby didn't even remember it. It was worth the wait. We somehow got a free dessert tucked into one of the kids meals. I think that was their way of welcoming us back. :-) Plus, we got to support a Christian company.
• Eat at Rudy's--How I have managed to visit Texas dozens of times over the last 19 years and not eat at Rudy's, I have no idea. We went one evening on a spur-of-the-moment decision. At Rudy's, you order meat by the pound, eat off wax paper, sit at one section of the several long tables and can pick from a large variety of bottled soda. I ate what is quite possibly the best brisket I've ever had. This definitely makes the list for return trips.

And, swaying from the food:

• Shop at Fry's--If the daily advertisement in the newspaper isn't enough to make you drool, actually stepping in the store should bring out some deep emotions. (What? You're not in love with all things electronic? Sorry, you can skip this part.) Fry's doesn't carry everything, but comes awfully close to it--they easily put B.est B.uy to shame. From computers to computer components, video games to cameras, big screens to stereo systems, phones to small appliances, and (for Jason, anyway) variety packs of zip ties--oh the joy of walking through this electronics mecca! (True, the kids didn't find spending an hour and a half in the store nearly as exciting as we did.)
• Driving over Pennybacker Bridge on Loop 360--Now you really think I'm strange. I'm intrigued by suspension bridges, so I love to visit this one over Lake Austin. Loop 360 is one of my favorite drives in the Austin area. I love the views--especially here around the lake.
• Attending a wedding. Ok, so that's not always on the list. But it was a big deal for this trip. The sole purpose for the trip was to attend the wedding of my brother, Michael, and his new bride, Britney. I'll post more about this (including photos) soon.

Things we failed to do on this trip:

• Load up on Dublin Dr Pepper. We soon found out that the distribution of the one-of-a-kind, pure-sugar Dr Pepper (did you know there's no period after 'Dr'?) is limited to a 50-mile area around Dublin. If we would have known that on our way down, we most certainly would have made time to swing by and buy. But since we traveled through the area on a Sunday morning, it didn't work out. We did stop at a Wally-world within the distribution area and came home with 4-6-packs. There's going to be some serious rationing.
  
• Tour Cowboys Stadium--On our way down, we spent Sunday night in Arlington--within miles of Jerry's Palace. We had planned to do some family activity on Monday--possibly the Stockyards or Dallas Zoo. When we woke up to rain, we decided to spend the morning in the swimming pool. When we finally packed up and checked out, we decided, on a whim, to find the stadium. We even went into the Pro Shop and found a few goodies. Then came decision time. It was 1:00. We hadn't eaten lunch, and we had 4 tired kids. The tour lasted an hour and 15 minutes and would have cost us $59. We thought those were all good excuses to pass--a decision we now regret. And here's the funniest part of the story. The inagural Cowboys game in the stadium was Sunday evening the 20th--the day we drove home. While we got to listen to the entire game (an awesome game, up until the last seconds), the rest of the "world" watched on TV. Every other Cowboys fan we know has actually seen more of the stadium than we have. While we have a thorough knowledge of what the outside looks like, we have no idea what's on the inside.

All-in-all, we had a great trip. The weather was beautiful! It makes me want to go back--this time in less that a year and a half. After all, I'm going to need more Dr Pepper soon!