Anniversary in Austin

This past Saturday we celebrated our five year anniversary with a trip to Austin! This is the first time we've really hung out in Austin together since we moved. And boy was it overdue! We started out with lunch at Counter Culture, which I think is my favorite place to eat in Austin?? ALL vegan! Which means we can order whatever we want!! And it's all so so good. We did not eat there enough when we lived so close! After lunch we hit up Juice Land for a smoothie and then took a walk on the boardwalk. Which brought back lots of memories of miles and miles and MILES of running on the trail. Dang I miss that trail.

Squishy face!!!

After our walk we hit up Once Over for some good coffee. Temple is severely lacking in the coffee department. Another thing I miss about Austin, decent coffee everywhere!

After coffee we hit up the mall and then scooted on back up northward home. We grabbed Italian takeout for dinner and I think we were all in bed by 8:30. Wild night, as usual.

It was a really good day! So much fun. I'm glad we went to Austin, I think it's something we need to do more often for sure. The drive really isn't that bad, if you don't hit traffic. If you hit traffic it's hellish. It was fun hanging out in our old haunts, this time with a baby! Showing Indy where her parents used to pretend they were cool. I do miss Austin, a lot. Sometimes I think I'm over it, but y'all, I'm not. It's a very awesome place and we were very happy there. We spent most of our married life there! Lots of love in that city. Maybe one day we'll end up back there. Maybe not. Who knows! :)

The Boardwalk

How's the summer going, y'all? We're already halfway through June, how insane is that? I'm excited, because that means that the years half over, but sad because Brendon only has a couple weeks of freedom left before he starts rotations. You win some you lose some, eh? Really, the first day of summer isn't until Saturday, but whatevs. So far this "summer" has been pretty fantastic. Mr. Hogan and I have been taking full advantage of days off together and doing lots of fun things that do not involve pharmacy school at all. We've been playing outside and adventuring and I've become what I'd like to call, vampire tan. Very freckly. 

Saturday before last we were able to attend the grand opening of the Boardwalk at the Trail. The official name is the Butler Trail, but I will never be able to not call it the Town Lake Trail. Just like I've never gotten used to calling it Lady Bird Lake. 

This was very neat to attend as we are avid lovers and users of the Trail. It's probably half the reason we got into running and most of the reason why we've been able to keep it up. Now that the boardwalk has opened you can run all the way around the lake from Mopaq to Pleasant Valley (10.15 miles, which we've run!) without leaving the trail! Big deal! Previously you'd have to run a mile or so up Riverside and over 35, which was a hellish jaunt up a busy road. Now there's a beautiful boardwalk to run on instead! It is very very pretty and really neat. The Trail Foundation (the wonderful folks behind the upkeep and development of the trail, you are all angels) had a little grand opening ceremony and then a parade down the boardwalk.

The Mayor and all sorts of other important and trail loving folks cutting the ribbon! Afterwards we followed an East Austin drum line (did you know I was a band nerd in my teen years? I love me some drum line) down the boardwalk. Somehow we ended up right up front with all the important folks (we're pushy). It was an awesome experience, and such a beautiful day.

I mean, how cool is that? Who else has a boardwalk to run on?? Austin wins again. My only qualm with it is that it is almost entirely in the sun and the light reflecting off the boardwalk is a little intense. Definitely a hot stretch to run, but far better than running up Riverside. It's mostly flat! And the views aren't bad either.

You can barely see them, but they had some aerialists performing underneath 35 on the columns! Neato!

And thanks to the boardwalk we have a brand new view of our beautiful skyline. I really love this town, y'all. It's such a good place to live. We're so spoiled. Yeah the traffic sucks and a ton of people move here everyday (ahem, like us), but it's so worth it. I mean, the Trail you guys! It's such a lovely resource that I will sorely miss if we ever move. One of many, many things.