Another fun "Austin-esque" weekend

In case you've failed to notice, our family likes to take full advantage of the diversity and activity Austin has to offer. It's rare that we spend a weekend just sitting around the house. This weekend was no exception. On Friday night, Bryan and I saw a movie, in the theatres, together for the first time in almost a year. We caught the new Indiana Jones flick at the Alamo Drafthouse. The Alamo Drafthouse is a unique movie-going experience. For one, they serve beer (and food) and delicious $5 milkshakes made with real Blue Bell ice cream. You've gotta get their early though. Bryan and I almost skipped out on the movie because the only two seats we could find together were in the very first row. Fortunately for us, some folks a few rows back moved over and made some extra room.

Saturday, we hit the pool to celebrate Tyler's birthday. Brick thinks Tyler's the greatest. He insisted on wrapping his present in blue AND red paper, and decorated the paper all by himself. Although, he kept saying all day that he was "going to take his birthday from him," Brick was well-behaved throughout the party.

The evening, Bryan suggested we all head out to the Hill Country Galleria since they're having a summer concert series of sorts. We had no idea who'd be playing, but the live music in Austin rarely disappoints, and we don't have many opportunities to enjoy it with the kids in tow. So, off we went.

While we were waiting for the "headliner," Bryan joked about it being some big-name band .. turns out, he wasn't too far off. We were both a little shocked when the emcee introduced Fastball. In fact, I convinced that we just misheard the announcement and commented that he must have said "Fast Bob." A few bars into "Out of my Head" and I realized, "Wow. He really did say Fastball." Gotta love that about Austin. Where else could you see a Grammy-nominated, nationally recognized band at a mall, with maybe 100 other people in the audience, all for free?!

It's good to be in Austin

The ACL Lineup was announced today. Yes, we're going. We've had our tickets since literally just a few days after ACL 2007 wrapped up. This year's gonna be awesome!

Quintessentially Austin

One of the things we LOVE about Austin is there is always something going on around here. Last weekend was a prime example. I know this post is a little overdue, but I didn't have an opportunity to edit these pictures until recently.

Saturday we headed downtown for the Texas Independence Day Parade.





It was a pretty traditional parade with lots of bands and displays of patriotism.



Somehow over the years, word must have gotten out that parades are a terrific opportunity for senior citizens to dance around with random objects. There were several groups fitting this motif in this particular parade.

There were The Plungettes. And yes, they dance around with overly decorative plungers. And they genuinely seem to like it.





We also had the pleasure of seeing The Beachers. They came in all the way from Sunrise Beach, TX just to be a part of the parade and dance around with elaborate beach chairs.



During the parade, we spotted the Austin Segway Tour. We see these guys around town all the time. Bryan and I are itching to do one of these tours. We've already experienced Austin through the eyes of the duck. It was a hoot. How could it not be equally as fun to learn about our great city while riding a a self-balancing personal transportation device?



The funny thing about this crew is they rode up one side of the street looking like an ordinary group of tourists catching a glimpse of our awesome parade. And then they came back down the other side of the street wearing these flimsy foam Statue of Liberty hats that were being passed out by the friendly folks at Liberty Tax Service. I wish I'd gotten THAT shot.

After the parade, we took advantage of our proximity to the Capitol to take a few fun shots. I personally think the Capitol is such a beautiful building. I'm not sure I could ever really get tired of photographing it.



And like many others in Austin, I've taken some variation of this shot of the interior of the Capitol dome several times. But this honestly might be my favorite one yet.



Sunday was the 80th Annual Zilker Park Kite Festival.



The skies were totally overcast, so unlike last year there weren't many great photo ops. On the bright side, there was TONS of wind, so we were able to redeem ourselves and get our miserable excuse for a kite off the ground - WAY far off the ground. See that tiny speck in the upper right portion of the picture below? That's our kite.



The string was so taut that every kite that was unfortunate enough to cross its path was instantly severed. This dragon kite put up quite a fight. It must have gotten tangled with our kite 5 or 6 different times. But ultimately, it too was defeated by our bully kite.

Austin Zoo

We took a quick trip to the Austin Zoo this weekend. There's not a whole lot to the zoo; we made it around the entire zoo in a little less than 2 hours, but there are quite a few interesting animals, and it made for a fun little outing for the day.

Bryan did a pretty good job of tricking the goats into thinking he had food for this picture. I only wish I'd snapped the picture of Bryan running scared as soon as the camera clicked.


Brick LOVED the turtles. I think he would have watched them forever if we'd let him. We got to catch this guy getting lunch. Mmmmm.


These were some seriously lazy lions. I can't say I blame them. It was probably close to 100 degrees out. If I'd had a choice, I would have found a nice spot in the shade to take a nap too!

Go Fly a Kite

This weekend was the Zilker Park Kite Festival. It felt like everyone in Austin (and maybe a few of their visiting friends) was at the park flying a kite.




We attempted to join in on the fun, but were a little less than successful getting our kite off the ground. Who knew it was so difficult to fly a kite?!




Brick enjoyed the show.



And I got a few cool pictures.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

A couple of months ago, I was singing the praises of this beautiful city we now live in. Today I've found out there's one list where Austin did not rank so well: FitPregnancy's Best Cities in America to Have a Baby.

If you check out the rankings you'll see the editors over at FitPregnancy think Austin's a fine city once you've actually had the baby. It's safe; it's affordable; it's stroller friendly. The problem seems to lie with the quality of care and options available to pregnant women. Having never been pregnant in Austin, I can't attest to their findings. But it is something to think about, since chances are I will someday be pregnant in Austin.

Don't Mess with Texas

Relatively few people have heard the news that we're relocating. Bryan's company first brought up the idea a few months back, but in the last couple of weeks, they've firmed up the details. It looks like we're heading to Texas - Austin, to be exact.

We couldn't be more excited. Austin is one of those cities that frequents magazine polls. Just a few examples:

• 10 Best Big Cities, Money Magazine, #2
  
• Seven Cool Cities, Kiplinger
  
• Most Educated Cities, MSN Encarta, #5
  
• Cleanest Cities in America, Reader's Digest, #8
  

Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau Ranking List

Besides finding a new place to call home, our biggest goal right now is selling our current home. We re-landscaped over the weekend (boy, did it need it). Through the week we'll be de-cluttering and taking pictures to get our house on the market. We're heading to Austin in a couple of weeks to check out the area and house-hunt a bit. Before you know it, we'll be Texans!