The Better Trip To Austin, TX: Part I

For spring break me and my friends opted out of the typical Cancun vacation and instead chose to go home with a friend and dormmate who is from Austin, TX. Before this trip, I’d never been to Austin (or Texas for that matter), but I’d heard so many great things about the food and music scene. And since it fell on the week of South by Southwest, none of us could say no. My first 24 hours here have been amazing, and I already know 5 days won’t be enough to do all the amazing things this city has to offer.

We started the day with breakfast tacos (a totally foreign concept to LA/NYC me). Texas Honey Ham Company and they were delicious! Why isn’t the whole nation hooked on this? Instead, we are going about eating French toast and pancakes and thinking our lives are complete?! I got tacos with eggs, cheese, potatoes, and pulled pork. Even though it was one of the tastiest things I’ve ever eaten, my stomach could not accommodate the greed of my eyes, and I had to give the second taco to my friend, Jenna.

After our breakfast tacos, we headed to Allen’s Boot Store which is so stereotypically Texas. When I was on the plane imagining what we would be doing to fill our week, shops like this are exactly what I imagined. I will admit that I went in thinking, “Yee-haw! I’m gonna get myself some boots!” These intricately designed beauties were such a pleasure to marvel over. The smell of new leather; the stunning designs; and the excellent craftsmanship were almost enough to have me bring a pair up to the register, but the $490 (starting) prices made me realize it probably wasn’t the best idea to invest so much in something I would never wear– no matter how great they’d look sitting in my closet next to my JCrew pumps.

Around noon we were still in a food coma and had already done some on-foot sightseeing, so we decided to drive around the Austin area while blasting music and enjoying each others company. I spotted this house in a random neighborhood and asked my friend Emily to pull over so we snap some pictures and interact with the chalkboard wall. I loved reading all the goals of strangers who’d come before me. Some of my favorites were: “see my kids become adults,” “fall in love,” “set foot on every continent” and “love myself,” which I think are beautiful aspirations. Since there was a blank space, I wrote in mine: “Before I die I want to build my empire.” My friends laughed, but hey, I’m a believer that if you put it out in the world, you have a better chance of making the dream the reality.

Before heading home to relax in the hot tub with Prosecco, we hit up Amy’s Ice Creams where fun and creative ice cream flavors (like Saturday Morning Cartoons) were flipped and tossed in the air as they were mixed with our toppings of choice. I went with gummy bears and sprinkles! If you can’t tell by now, our trip was and will continue to be very food focused.

Dinner was at this amazing place called The Salt Lick on the outskirts of Austin. It was the dream of a caveman. Inside the restaurant, you could see all this meat hanging from the ceiling and being cooked over a huge open fire, and the BBQ sauce was to die for. Plus it is BYOB (although we weren’t aware of this fact until after we got there) which is really nice if you plan to hang around the picnic benches and watch the live music performance.