Austin, TX – 11.25.14

-Our site at McKinney State Park was beautiful!

-Spent Toni’s birthday in the North Loop neighborhood.

-Happy Thanksgiving!

-Hamilton Pool outside of Austin is definitely a site to see!

 

Austin Austin Austin. I (Toni) could go on forever. We pulled into Mckinney Falls State Park the day before my twentieth birthday and I was instantly the happiest I had been in awhile. The air was fresh, the trees were yellow and orange, and our campsite was perfect. We knew we were going to be spending over a week in Austin so we spent a couple hours getting set up and comfortable. We strung our bistro lights from the trees, put our chairs around the fire, set up the grill, made the inside feel like home again, and bought some firewood. Moving around a lot is fun, but sometimes just staying put somewhere for a decent amount of time is better. The trailer starts to feel like home again and you truly get the feel for a place. The next morning I woke up and I was twenty years old. Where did the time go? I immediately felt like I should have gotten in more trouble when I had the chance! But when I took a second to calm down, and came to the realization that I can’t be a teenager forever, I realized that I had done pretty damn well so far in life. I started this trip when I was nineteen years old. I already have a year of college down, I saved up enough money to support myself on this adventure, and I am so happy I can’t even believe it half the time. We decided to spend the day, eating tacos at Taco Deli (so good you won’t believe it!), drinking chai at Epoch’s, wandering in and out of the vintage shops in North Loop, watching Willow play with puppies at the park, and eating pumpkin pie and cupcakes at a local bakery. We winded down around a bonfire back at the State Park. I ate about five s’mores and I don’t remember being upset about it!

The next day was Thanksgiving! Our favorite! Not being with our families was strange, and new for the both of us, but we had fun and tried something new. Thanks to a helpful recommendation from Laura, our friend we met at the dog park, we ate our Thanksgiving dinner at Casa De Luz. Casa De Luz is a communal space in Austin with yoga, day care, art classes, and a buffet style of all meals for a fixed price. The food is all organic, vegan, and absolutely delicious. When we first walked in we were told to grab tea and water, a bowl of soup, and a plate of salad. Once we finished with our first course, a cook brought us our main dish. A vegan style Thanksgiving was right up our alley. We indulged in mashed sweet potatoes, garlic kale, quinoa, green beans, cranberry sauce, and probably something else that I am forgetting! We finished off our meal with a slice of cherry pie and off we went, with our pants unbuttoned under our jackets. It’s not a proper Thanksgiving dinner if you’re not busting from the seams after, right?

The rest of our days were spent hiking at the State Park, stuffing our stomachs with tacos, exploring downtown Austin, taking Willow to the puppy groomer, decorating the toaster for christmas, eating from food trucks, taking photos, drinking whiskey around the bonfire, and doing everything we could to win a stuffed donut at the carnival down the street.

I think it’s safe to say we both left a piece of our hearts in Austin. Maybe we’ll be back for good after this trip.

Bye for now!
-Toni