When the opportunity arose to go to Austin City Limits Music Festival, I was just as excited about exploring this city that is often compared to Portland. The La Quinta we stayed at was just two blocks from the Texas State Capital. The grounds for the Capital are very pretty, and the building is very cool although it was undergoing some construction. However, the Texas rose garden looked like weeds in comparison to Portland’s award winning roses…sorry Texas! We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, and decided to go see what Austin’s nightlife is all about. Between the University of Texas students and just a generally popular music town, Austin is hopping at night. The party street is 6th Avenue which gets shut down to cars every night and is filled with what looks like dozens of dive bars with live music spilling from every one of them! We strolled down 6th Avenue, but opted to explore the more mellow Rainey Street. Rainey Street was lined with charming bars created from old cottages with lots of lovely out door seating. The Blackheart had fantastic whiskey drinks and we had great seats to people watch from the front porch. For dinner we found Austin’s food carts and of course had to try the Fried Chicken…the marketing was fabulous! Both the chicken and Mac n’ Cheese were delicious. Lucille’s was another fantastic bar, which was conveniently located next to the fresh Little Lucy’s donut cart…the pumpkin donuts were delicious. The Container Bar, created from multiple shipping containers, gave us another great view for watching the multiple bachelorette parties go by. They also had the best bathroom signs of the weekend! Because the Festival didn’t start until lunchtime, we had lots of morning time to explore the city. One day we took a walk on the famous River Walk along the Colorado River. It is a well-used path with lots of runners, cyclists and walkers, much like Portland’s Eastside Esplanade. We did get to see some charming turtles too! On Saturday we decided to test Austin on brunching, one of Portland’s favorite pastimes. Yelp suggested we try a restaurant called Chicon that was famous for their French Toast called The Elvis. Thank goodness we walked the three miles to the restaurant in preparation for the 1000’s of calories. Upon being seated and ordering our brunch bevvies, a mimosa and old fashioned, they also delivered an “appetizer” of some of the best banana bread I’ve ever had! The Elvis is a Brioche French toast that is topped with fried bourbon bananas, pork belly, peanut butter mousse and a good dollop of whipped coconut cream. It was every bit of tasty heaven as you can imagine. After that amazing brunch, we meandered our way through some of the outer neighborhoods of Austin and worked our way back to the river. We passed many things that reminded us of Portland, including a neighborhood meditation center. On our way home from the Festival that night we passed the famous Paramount theater where tons of famous artists have played, including Brenda’s crush Lyle Lovett. We were so tired that night; we ordered Pizza and drank canned wine while watching SNL! Austin is now one of my favorite American cities! So much to do, fantastic food scene and lots of outdoor activities. Hope to get to visit again soon!
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