Austin, Texas

June 28 - 30, 2013

Howdy Ya'll!

Okay so maybe I just don't have it yet.  While I was in Austin I tried to pick it up but it wasn't happening - I'll just stick to my California one.

For a long weekend vacation I caught a flight from San Jose to Austin direct on Southwest.  My flight departed San Jose at 6:30AM and I arrived there at noon with the time change.  The flight was 3 hours and pretty seamless.  Southwest and other airlines offer other flight times but some include layovers.  So I braved the early morning flight time and made it to Texas just in time for lunch.

My first stop was Rudy's for some good ole fashion Texas BBQ.  When walking into the restaurant you wait in line to place your order - picking up any sides or bottled drinks along the way.  When you get to the counter they will ask you if you have been there before - if not they will let you try a sample of each of the meats on the menu.  Although I have never been there - some of you who know me know I am not good with alot of meat - so I opted out that and asked to try the turkey.  It was really moist and had great flavor so I decided to go with that.  The workers are hand slicing right behind the cashier and slice to the weight you want.  A quarter pound is about the size for a sandwich and half a pound is the recommended size for a full meal.  Once you pay you are served a couple of slices of bread, your meat and drinks on a plastic crate. You then take that to a spot of your choice and use the condiments on the table to make your own sandwich.  It was extremely delish. 

Rudy's.

The menu and the meat station. 

Food!

Delish Turkey!

From there I went to the Hyatt Downtown Austin to drop my bags off.  The hotel is located on the river - pretty close to where the bats fly out each night.  It has a nice outdoor pool - somewhat small when it is busy.  But perfect size for 10+ people.  The lounge chairs out by the pool were very nicely taken care of and it was 50/50 sun and shaded spots.  Indoors the lobby looks to be recently renovated and very modern.  There is a nice bar location with access to a patio looking out to the river.  The rooms were very clean and the bed was extremely comfortable.  Each room had a coffee maker and a humidifier.  The location of the hotel was very convenient and easily walk-able to multiple places for food and drinks.

Downtown Austin. 

Swimming pool at the Hyatt. 

Since it was 110+ degrees and the pool was pretty busy we decided to head over to the Domain.  It is a shopping center similar to Santana Row in the bay area.  It is outdoors with higher end stores, restaurants and tea shops.  There are some hotels near this area but not much else.  It is nice to go and see what is around and do some people watching.  But I would not say this is a MUST do.  Some of my favorite stores here are Lululemon, J Crew and Madewell.  I stopped at a cake ball shop in the Domain -- Coppers (formally known as Austin's Cake Balls).  It is a dessert bar and restaurant that sells cake balls - similar to cake pops but without the stick.  My favorite was the birthday cake flavor.

After killing a few hours at the mall we went back to the hotel for some pool time.  By 5pm the pool had cleared out and it was still extremely hot - so the dip into the water was well deserved.  Once it was cool enough we hopped into a cab for a 4 minute drive to eat dinner at Hopdoddy Burger Bar.  The line was out the door and around the corner so we walked up and down South Congress Street.  It is a cute street with some stores and restaurants spread out.  I ended up at a mixed candy store called Big Top Candy Shop.  They have a wide range of candy options and I had the best italian soda of my life from here.  The only problem was the service was so slow!  It took at least 20 minutes to pay for my candy!  By this time it was about 830 and we got in line at Hopdoddy's.  The line took about 45minutes to get through.  You order at the front of the restaurant and then they assign you a seat.  If there are no seats -- there is no service.  They want you receive your burger fresh and for you to eat it fresh.  It sounds weird - but let me tell you once you eat the burger you will get it.  It is probably the best burger I have ever had.  I had 'The Goodnight' burger - which is all natural grass fed beef with cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, jalapenos, BBQ sauce and Sassy Sauce.  It was beyond amazing.  Add a side of thin cut fries with the Green chili Queso.  It is a MUST have - dont worry about the lines, and dont doubt your decision to try Hopdoddy's ... JUST DO IT!  However - after a meal like that you will want to walk it off.  So we walked from South Congress back to the hotel.  It was about a 10 min walk and very refreshing (if it was mid day prob not so much).

Hopdoddy's.

Queso and Fries.

Burger!

The next day we headed out to the river in New Braunfels.  It is about 45mins out of the city and offers recreational tubing down the Comal River.  We rented tubes from Texas Tubes and they provided us a pick up for about 25 dollars today.  After reading reviews about the river tubing I was nervous because alot of people made it sound dangerous.  It was not at all - there are a few parts where you go through a mini water slide but I didn't see anyone lose their tubes.  Just be safe if you dont know how to swim wear a life vest.  The tubing adventure was bout 2.5 hours long and kept you cool in the Texas heat.  There was alot of drinking going on in the river, however, it is monitored by the police - so dont do anything stupid.  We did see people getting tickets.

Tubing!

On the way back to town we stopped by the San Marcos Outlets -- and wow.  I dont know if we just picked a great weekend to pop on by or if the sales are always that good but all the stores had great sales and we walked away with so many clothes we weren't sure how to get them all home.

The next stop was Chuy's.  This was hands down...the best Tex Mex food I have EVER had.  I am telling you right now...I would go back to Austin just to eat here for breakfast lunch and dinner.  It was that good.  Based on the ever so popular yelp reviews I had the Chicka chicka boom boom enchiladas.  WOW.  Just wow.  First of all the service was outstanding.  Although there was about a 30 minute wait for the table - once we were seated the waitress came over right away for our drink order.  That is when I asked her what the 'boom boom' sauce was she said it was a spicy chili cheese based sauce and that she would bring me over a sample.  Back with our drinks and the sauce I tasted some amazing boom boom sauce.  I ordered that along with the creamy jalapenos sauce for the chips and to go on my meal.  The enchiladas were pretty spicy - but in a good way.  I couldn't stop eating them.  I wish I had some in front of me now!  This tops all of the amazing food I had in Austin.  And Chuy's need to be on you list of things to do in Texas!

Best EVER!!!

Wrapping up on Sunday we headed out to Hula Hut on the water for lunch.  It was an okay meal.  Personally looking back I would have skipped it and gone back to Chuy's.  But it was nice to look over the lake and watch the boats and feed the fish and turtles.

At the airport - the last meal in Austin - we had Salt Lick's BBQ.  I had the turkey sandwich with BBQ sauce and I ate the whole thing...this is pretty shocking.  The potato salad was nothing special -- I actually preferred Rudy's.  But the sandwich was amazing for airport food.

I think I left Austin 10lbs heavier and with alot less $$ due to the shopping but it was a great mini trip.

Highlight of my Trip:
-  Eating
-  Shopping
-  Floating down the river

On my To-Do list next time:
-  Check out the bats at sunset
-  Maybe do a tour around the area - Segway or Duck tour
-  Check out Rainey Street in Austin
-  Eat at Chuy's!!!