Lonelilly
Doin' it my way.
At this point, we’ve really started to explore Austin, and a big part of that is its food culture (which, sadly, so far we’ve only found to be so-so. We’re big home cooks though so that could be part of it).
This wild boar pate tasted like bologna. :\
Evan had beef tenderloin, which was rockin’.
I had sea bass. It tasted like cafeteria food at an old folks home.
Sweating into a puddle at the Hot Sauce Festival. Who has a festival in AUGUST in the south? And what dumb fools actually show up? 
Central Market, HEB’s competitor to Whole Foods, is such a gorgeous grocery store!
At Kerbey Lane Cafe, eating something covered with queso. Yes, queso, as in, liquid cheese product prolly made with lots of Velveeta. Guess its a Southern thing–I grew up on it, but Evan is still pretty debious about it. I say yum!
Evan’s sis Diane, Evan, Meredith, and Jordan @ Kerbey Lane
At Barton Springs Pool–freshwater spring-fed pool that’s been a public park since the 1930s or something like that. Has a natural bottom and lots of eel grass at one end that act as a filter, which is a little spooky when your feet graze against it!
Diane with Hunter in mid-spring at Red Bud Isle, a little island in the middle of Ladybird Lake/Town Lake/Colorado River that’s an off-leash dog park.
Loved the light on this one of Diane reading. She and Kirsten and her fiance Maynard are coming in March, sooo excited!!!
At P. Terry’s, local burger place reminiscent of In N Out burger, but not as good. We recently discovered Hat Creek Burger Co., only a couple minutes from our house, which possibly has one of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten.
I took a couple art classes in the fall. One of them was at AMOA’s Laguna Gloria campus, which is an old villa on a lake w/a bunch of studios around it and peacocks strolling lazily around. Beautiful!
Inside the studio
Have also been dropping in at the open figure-drawing studios.
And what would living in Austin be without a little live music?
And then we arrived in Austin!
The first couple weeks were madness… sleeping on the floor of my friend’s apartment while working at coffeeshops like this one and trying to run a business……
But we got to have some fun too… this is Mer and Ev our on first night in Austin @ Simplicity, a cute little wine bar within biking distance to our house (little did we know that at the time).
Texas, land of the Big Red!
One of the best things about living here is that we’re close to Kelsey and AJ so we get to see them a lot!
Gorging ourselves on tacos at Guero’s.
I discovered mango margaritas (w/vodka, not tequila!).
And became Susie Homemaker.
And developed an addiction to breakfast tacos.
Me and Mer’s epic night of “lemon drops” (more like vodka w/lemon vodka!), Chinese takeout, and house cleaning.
I just thought this was hilarious. Had a laughing fit in the grocery store.
Byron looking a little freaky in this one… Bryan N. was in town and a long happy hour turned into an overnight….
And my doggy loving his backyard!
Yes, it’s been awhile. Better late than never! Last I wrote, we were just getting to Austin-town. We’re finally starting to get settled in and feel like it’s home!
Here’s a photo recap of the past six months:
This is what we left up in Washington–rain and more rain:
The weekend before we moved, we went to TWO weddings of good friends of ours. This wouldn’t have been that big of a deal except that one of them was in Portland and we were 6 hours north. So we took one last road trip south. It was worth it to see our friends before moving far away–Doug and Amy’s wedding was at a gorgeous orchard nestled on the southeastern slope of Mt. Hood.
(I tried to get the mountain in the background on this one, but taking pics yourself with a smart phone is tough!)
The next morning, we jetted down the Columbia Gorge back up to Bellingham, where our friends Jacob and Sarah were getting married later that day.
And the next day, the Grand Voyage got underway! Evan’s dad and wife helped with hauling and cleaning, and my dad flew out to help drive the truck down (I flew since our car was totaled from my accident a couple weeks earlier! (I was hit by a 20-yr-old drunk driver going 70 on a sharp 25mph curve. Very scary and not a fun ordeal and I’m lucky to be alive–and Hunter too. “Count your lucky stars and give thanks for every single day” is what I have to say to all THAT.))
I don’t know how many of these pics Evan and I have. Hopefully not as many in upcoming years.
Dad and Hunter in the truck taking me down to Seattle to catch my flight to Kansas, where I picked up our little truck and met them in Russell.
Bye Rainier!
Somewhere in Kansas…
What used to be a Kobe burger @ the Burger Stand in Lawrence.
The new KS windmills on our way to Russell.
Storm rolling in.
Downtown Russell.
Iced tea on gma and gpa’s screened-in porch. Priceless.
To Austin-town, that is! We’ve experienced quite the trip this past month, have lived through it all, and now we’re getting settled in Austin, Texas. Pictures and fun bits to come!
Taken last summer on a road trip in northern California…