A friend's visit and lots of food

Last week my friend Steph that lives in Boston (but we actually met at UNR ... but we both grew up in NorCal) came for a visit! So excited! I have missed her oh so much. So naturally since she flew in Saturday afternoon and was flying out on Tuesday I packed our days ... here is the run down on things to do in Austin.

Saturday: After picking her up and showing her around my amazing apartment and complex, I took her to Which Wich for lunch. Always a fun sandwich place to take people to. Then we went to the always-fun Domain. I think it is one my favorite places to window shop since almost every store there I can't afford, but it is nice to dream :-) And I just love the water features and the live music they usually have. What can I say? Give me running water and I am a sucker for it. We then moved onto a fun little tour of Round Rock where we went walking around taking pictures with some fun statues, and walked along this beautiful creek.

After our fun adventure at the creek, where I actually ended up doing a jazz split in the mud, we went back, took a dip in my pool and then got ready for a night out on the town.

Before dinner we made a stop to see Mt. Bonnell. Breathtaking as usual and we moved to Hula Hut for dinner. We ended up waiting 90 min.--not that big of a deal because we just hung out and got drinks at Mozart's--and it is, of course, worth the wait. Hula Hut never lets me down.

After, we moved our party to 6th street. We got to Pete's Piano Bar a little later than I usually like to, so it took us awhile to get a good seat and by that time it wasn't much of a sing along--it became the dirty show. But it was still fun to people watch. We went down to my favorite lounge Halcyon and had dessert and drinks there. More people-watching to do there ... we saw two of the ninja turtles! Wish I could have gotten a pic with them, but they were across the street, and my favorite Michelangelo wasn't there anyways.

By that time it was gettin' late so we headed back ... oh wait! I just remembered a huge part of the night. This weekend in Austin was the ROT Rally, which stands for Republic of Texas Biker Rally. There were over 200,000 motorcycles in town and they had a parade that was 25 miles long! So they were all lined up and down 6th street and all the side streets.

Sunday: Went to our core team meeting and church. After, we went out to lunch with a bunch of peeps to Rudy's. Had to have Steph try some good BBQ. And she of course fell in love with the creamed corn, as most people do. If I can figure out a way to mail her some, I will. We went home, relaxed, took a nap, watched Twilight, and then went to the Round Rock Express baseball game with the gang. It was a lot of fun. Although Steph is usually good luck, the Express did not win, sad story.

Monday: I worked for a few hours in the morning and then it was off to our fun adventure at Krause Springs. It is a natural swimming hole about an hour away. I thought I had the wrong directions for a long time, but we finally found it. It was a really cool spot. It definitely attracts different kinds of people, but is so beautiful. Next time I go I want to get there earlier to get a close spot to the water to lay out and maybe pack a cooler, hot water is so nasty.

One unfortunate event: Steph slipped on her bum, and her wrist and tailbone were hurting for the rest of the time. I think last I heard her wrist is doing better, but her bum is still a little sore ... sorry Steph. But it really was beautiful. It reminded me of the mermaid lagoon in Peter Pan.

We came back from our swim adventure and got ready for the Oasis. I've talked about the Oasis before. It's one of the best places to watch the sunset and they have some good drinks and appetizers there. What is also great about this place is that it has a plethora of statues. Now, if any of you know anything about Steph and my relationship, it is that we love to take pictures with statues or mimic things in photos.

... as you can see in this picture. This is from the California State Fair last year. It was a Jurassic Park set and we decided to try to be dinosaurs.

So the Oasis was prime real estate. Unfortunately I do not have any of those pics yet, they were all on Steph's camera, but be sure to check out my facebook, cause I will post them on there. And there are more fun pics that I took on my fb already. So check it out.

Tuesday: I had to say goodbye to my friend. So very sad. Luckily it won't be a long goodbye because one of our very close friends is getting hitched in August, so we will be reunited again, and it will feel so good :-)

Until next time...PEACE OUT!