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! :)

Austin Ice Cream Festival!

Saturday we ventured out into the Great August Summer Heat (who has just now decided to grace us with it's presence and I am totally okay with it, it's been such a lovely cool summer, I'll take a whole month of 100+ degree days!) to check out the Austin Ice Cream Festival. We've been talking about going for years but have always had to work. Somehow miraculously this year we both had the day off! So to celebrate ice cream we went!

This is just how photos of me go, so I'm embracing it. I am actually not a fan of ice cream, but Mr. Hogan on the other had loves the stuff. I ate a lot of fruit/ice things, which there was plenty of! Tickets to the event are $10 per person and you get 3 sample tickets to try out different ice cream vendors. So between the two of us we had 6 tickets, and we got to try almost everything! You can also buy more tickets, but we were sugared out by 6. Oh, and there's unlimited Blue Bell ice cream goodies. Literally, unlimited. They had a Blue Bell truck that they were just piling out ice cream cups, bars, popsicles, etc out of to any one who wanted some. Ice cream insanity.

They had this super cute craft set up for kids (and adults who are children at heart), tons of popsicle sticks and elmers glue! We got in on the action. I made some swirly thing, and Brendon made... a turkey! A turkey!! That boy wins for creativity. Watching him make that thing was adorable.

Someone explain to me whats up with this baby sculpture on top of this van. Creeeepy!

I think that was fruit popsicle number 3 for me? This was the coolest little event, and if you get the chance next year I highly recommend it! SO MUCH ICE CREAM! Also tons of free junk from random vendors. We both got new obnoxious colored sunglasses, because you can never have enough. And sunscreen, which was a genius move on Concentra's part.

Thanks for the good time Austin Ice Cream Festival! You were a great way to beat the heat and get a crazy sugar high.

Jester King Brewery

Y'all, I got back from a week in Colorado a couple days ago and I am so still on mountain time. There are roughly 1 million mountain pictures that I need to plaster onto the internet, BUT FIRST... Jester King Brewery!

The weekend before we headed off to the mountains we visited Jester King Brewery out near Dripping Springs. It's the coolest place, and if you are ever free on a weekend in Austin I highly suggest it. I am not a big drinker, usually one glass of wine or beer (if I finish it) makes me a happy girl, but I had like two beers at this place, y'all. It was SO GOOD. I was seriously blown away at how much I enjoyed this beer. It's very different. We went on a tour given by one of the founders and he described the beer as "funky", which is apt. We tried about four beers and I enjoyed all of them. We had a blackberry, a raspberry, some sort of porter, and then my favorite, Biere de Miel. (Which I recently learned was a tiny batch just released in June and will soon be GONE, if not already. SAD. But they're brewing a second batch, thank goodness, because it was heavenly.) The beers are so tangy and tart, seriously unexpected. They're almost wine-like. And so so so local. They get their yeast from the local flora on their property and use their own well water. Very neat. And very, very good.

The place itself is also very neat. It's basically just a bunch of picnic tables under trees and a couple of barns that have been converted to sitting areas. It's all open air (like literally, the only ac is where the beer is stored in barrels) so I wouldn't recommend going in the heat of summer. But on a breezy day it's perfect. There's also a pizza place there called Stanley's Farmhouse Pizza, that is DELICIOUS. Like Homeslice good. This whole brewery/pizza combo seriously kills it. It's such a great place to just go and chill.

Very impressed Jester King, we will be back. And I'll be searching for your beers at the store! Please make lots more Biere de Miel! The girl who never drinks will drink it allll! Just not at once.

And, because I am SO good at these types of photos, I leave you with this:

Brendon always captures my best side.

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.

McKinney Falls... again!

We went to McKinney Falls today, again! Even though we were there Saturday, it rained a ton this week, and we wanted to check out the falls now that there was an influx of water. And dang, it makes a difference! The water is a good three feet+ higher than it was when we were there a few days ago, and the falls are fallin'! It was really awesome.

I love having that park pass. Seriously, such a good investment and such good motivation to get us outside! We ran a bit, tossed around a football (Brendon's new thing?), hiked a little, and "swam". By swam I mean, we sat in the water a little. It was COLD water and although it was warm outside, it wasn't quite warm enough to make us brave enough to get all the way in.

Such a seriously lovely day. We brought a lunch and ate it picnic style in the shade, and even napped a little. I love this place! So glad we got that state park pass. Next on my radar is Pedernales Falls State Park. That's another park I think you should visit just after a big rain. The last time we were there was during that insane drought a couple years ago and it was a bit depressing. I'd love to see it after a good rain!

And really, if you're in Austin and need something fun and cheap to do this weekend, go to McKinney Falls! The water is perfect right now! Go, go, go!