Weekend in Austin

On Friday afternoon we left Dallas and headed toward Austin.  Traffic getting out of Dallas was terrible!  Since it took us so long to get going, we made a pit stop in Hillsboro, and I scored this amazing ice cream cone at Dairy Queen.  Can you believe this isn't even the large size?  What a great start to vacation (after getting through the traffic, of course!).

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to spend this weekend in Austin with Michael and Jessica.  We are sad that they don't live in Dallas any more but excited to have friends to go visit.  We arrived at their house Friday night just in time for dinner.  Even though Jessica is 24-weeks pregnant and had worked all day, she had dinner ready and waiting.  She was just finishing up icing her homemade blueberry cake (with homemade lemon icing) when we arrived.  She is amazing!

The Hixons' new house is gorgeous, and Jessica has done a great job decorating it.  Michael and I love our house, but visiting them did ignite a little jealousy over the spacious garage and awesome kitchen!

For lunch on Saturday, we went to a cute little bakery/cafe called Rolling in Thyme and Dough.  It was an old house with a nursery in the yard around it.  Michael noted that it was very "Portlandia."  Our food was great!

I enjoyed my girl time with Jessica on Saturday afternoon while the boys played golf.  Jessica is always willing to talk about any topic, and she isn't shy about asking the tough questions.  I love that about her!  Thanks for the awesome conversation, Jessica!

Michael has been wanting to eat at as many BBQ restaurants on Texas Monthly's Top BBQ list as he can.  He got to cross one of them off the list on Saturday night!  We went to Salt Lick, and had a great experience!

The atmosphere is a lot like the Gristmill in Gruene.  We arrived at 6:00 to find out we had a wait on 1 hour and 45 minutes.  We had expected this and went before we were starving.  They have a great outdoor waiting area with live music.  We found a comfy place to sit and enjoy the weather.

Once it was time to be seated, we walked by the smoker pit on the way to our table.  It smelled so good!

We opted to go all out and get the Family Style, which is all you can eat brisket, pork ribs, and smoked sausage along with beans, cole slaw, potato salad, and bread.  We also wanted to try the turkey so we threw in a half pound of the smoked turkey as well.  It was all amazing!  I normally don't like ribs, but they were tied with the turkey for my favorite meat.  I also don't typically eat cole slaw or potato salad, but they were both delicious!  Of course, dessert was a must.  It was hard to decide what was the best: warm pecan pie, peach cobbler, blackberry cobbler, or the ice cream that accompanied them all.  Even Michael Hixon ate dessert!  If you know Michael, you know it must have been good if he was eating it.  After one bite, he couldn't stop!

It was great to spend Easter Sunday with Michael and Jessica worshiping at their new church.  It seems like they have found a great place to call home, and we really enjoyed the service this morning!  We were sad to leave after lunch, but we are excited to have arrived at our final destination - Barons Creekside in Fredericksburg, TX.  We are excited to have this whole week off work!

Salado

Yesterday morning, Michael and I headed down to Salado with Mom and Dad for my cousin's wedding.  We stayed at the Stagecoach Inn, which was built in 1860.  It was a really neat hotel.  I loved all the historic aspects of a hotel that old that was originally built along the Chisholm Trail.  Very neat!

We had several people tell us that the food at the Stagecoach Inn was really good, so we ate lunch in their yummy dining room.  We were not disappointed!  The food was fantastic, and there was lots of it!

After lunch, we walked down Main Street.  We wished that it would have worked out for us to see a show at the Silver Spur Theater.  This theater built at an old feed store was so cute!

We enjoyed window shopping and walking through some of the novelty and antique shops.  We also enjoyed some delicious homemade fudge!

San Francisco, Day 4

San Francisco - Day 4 (Sunday, August 7th)

We celebrated our first anniversary on our last full day in San Francisco.  Michael started out the morning by going downstairs to get my breakfast so he could serve me breakfast in bed.  He said he figured he better take the opportunity on vacation because he figured we wouldn't be allowed to eat in bed at home.  Smart man!  :o)  We didn't have anywhere that we planned to go until 10:00, so we ate and watched a movie (and I may have fallen back asleep for a little while!).

About 10:00, we left the hotel and thus began a long day of transportation!  We took a cable car to the ferry building, which was very neat.  However, since the cable car left about 10 minutes late, we didn't have time to look around.  We darted straight for the ticket booth and then boarded the ferry to Sausalito.

Sausalito is a little touristy coastal town.  It was primarily shops and cafes.  The original plan was to arrive in Sausalito and board a shuttle to Muir Woods.  However, there was no way I wanted to immediately get on the shuttle after crossing the bay.  Instead we had lunch, which gave me a little time to recuperate from the jerky cable car ride and the rough ferry ride.

After lunch, we took a cab from Sausalito up to Muir Woods.  The trails were not exactly what I had expected, but we got to see some of the tall redwoods, which was very cool.  (Watch our for bears!)

We also spotted a butterfly and a chipmunk!

After walking the trails through the woods, we took a bus (two actually) back across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We stopped at the bridge to see it up close and take some photos.  It was pretty clear (a rarity while we were there) when we first arrived at the bridge, and then the fog started rolling back in not long after we arrived.

We caught two more buses back to our hotel to rest (and recover from all the bus rides!) before getting ready for dinner at Neptune's Palace.  We had a nice anniversary dinner and then exchanged gifts to celebrate.  It was a fun evening!

By the end of Day 4, I think we were both pretty worn out.  It was a lot of fun, but we were both ready to get home and sleep in our own bed!

San Francisco, Day 3

San Francisco - Day 3 (Saturday, August 6th)

The main attraction today was our tour of Alcatraz.  We waited until about a week and a half before our trip to book these tickets, and we didn't think we were going to get them.  After a couple of days spent trying to get tickets, Michael was finally able to claim a few when another reservation was canceled.

We weren't scheduled to board the ferry until 10:30, so we walked out to Pier 39 for breakfast.  We'd had our eyes on a banana Nutella crepe that we wanted to try.  It did not disappoint!  We ended up also trying a breakfast crepe with ham, eggs, and cheese.  It was amazing!

The view at breakfast wasn't too bad either if you ignore the truck.  I don't even remember seeing it until I looked at these pictures later!

We enjoyed the view during the Ferry ride to the island.

The tour of Alcatraz this afternoon was easily my favorite thing we did.  It included an audio tour of the main cellhouse, which was fantastic.  It was narrated by four of the Alcatraz correctional officers and four inmates who served time at Alcatraz.  It was a fantastic tour!

One of the inmates mentioned that the worst thing about being held at Alcatraz was that the city was so close yet just out of reach.  He said that some nights when the wind was blowing the right direction (and every New Year's Eve) that you could hear sounds - laughter and music - from the city.  From the "bleachers" in the rec yard, you could look out and see the city.

Most of the tour focused on the prison aspects.  We even got to hear a guide open and close the cell doors, which was very loud!  Apparently this was how the term "slammer" came about.  I had never thought of the origin of that word before, but it is truly fitting!  Living in one of those tiny cells would be a miserable life.

By the time we returned, we were starving!  Michael had a fish sandwich, and I opted to return to the crepe place for a pesto turkey crepe with French fries.  Great choice!  We ate at a bar with a view of the boats in the harbor.

The rest of our afternoon included a tour of the USS Pampanito, a submarine docked at Pier 45 next to the Jeremiah O'Brien.  This was the first time I had been in a submarine, and it was crazy to see how cramped everything was.

Six men slept in each of the torpedo rooms, and the main bunker held 36 beds - 3 high with very small lockers for belongings.  In addition to these, there were the officers quarters, which were better, but still small.  There were 75 men on board with approximately two beds for every three men.  (One of the three was always on duty.)  During the war, the Pampanito rescued 73 British and Australian survivors at sea to add to the cramped quarters.

Torpedo Rooms - In the top right picture, you can see the springs of the bed above the torpedo to the left.  You can see the bed from the side in the left picture.  There were three beds on each side lined up end to end.

Main Bunker - The beds were stacked three high.  Yes, there is a third row down by Michael's feet.  On the wall beside the beds were small lockers for personal belongings.

Notice the broom atop the mast.  This is to indicate a "clean sweep."

For dinner, Michael had one of Boudin's famous bread bowls with clam chowder, while I opted for the chili in mine.  One location at Fisherman's Wharf had a huge bakery that you could observe.  Every time we got anywhere close, we could smell the delicious bread being baked.  I think they baked bread all night long!  They even did some creative alligator and turtle bread "loaves."

Another great day of vacation in San Francisco!

San Francisco, Day 2

San Francisco - Day 2 (Friday, August 5th)

We procrastinated planning the rest of our weekend until breakfast this morning.  We got up and headed downstairs for free breakfast and to plan our day, which ultimately was to include the Aquarium of the Bay, Ghirardelli Square, and Lombard Street.

After breakfast, we headed straight for Fisherman's Wharf to get tickets to the aquarium.  Thanks to our handy city guide, we saved $4 on admission!  The aquarium was small, but it was fun.

Our favorites included the jelly fish, herrings, starfish, and rays.

Did you know that some starfish apparently eat a lot?  We learned that they have two stomachs, and one can be extended to ingest pray that is too large to pass through the mouth.  We were told it usually takes about two hours for them to digest a meal, but it will likely take this first guy more than two hours!

After walking through the aquarium, Michael was ready for some of the seafood that he'd seen the street vendors preparing.  He decided on a whole crab, while I stuck with popcorn shrimp and French fries.

With full stomachs (but longing for dessert), we headed towards Ghirardelli Square.  This block was neat.  It consisted of several ice cream and candy shops, a wine tasting bar, and lots of souvenir shops.  In the largest ice cream parlor, they had the original machines that made the chocolate.  They were steady at work.  Plus, when you walked into almost any shop, they offered you a sample Ghirardelli chocolate square.  We got several caramel ones, which might be my favorite!

After admiring the chocolate, we opted for The Gold Rush sundae, which vanilla ice cream with lots of peanut butter and hot fudge (aka melted Ghirardelli chocolate)...YUM!  It was delicious!

With lots of calories that we needed to walk off, we headed up a STEEP hill towards Lombard Street.  One block of Lombard has eight switchbacks, and boasts the "crookedest street in the world."  Traffic was lined up forever waiting to drive down this famous section of the street.

Our next destination was to tour the SS Jeremiah O'Brien which is a Liberty Ship (fleet of cargo ships built by the US during WWII) docked at Pier 45, Fisherman's Wharf.  It is one of two surviving Liberty Ships (of 2,751 built) and the only surviving ship to stormed Normandy on D-Day.  Though it has become a museum/tourist attraction, it is still a working ship, and it sailed back to Normandy in 1994 to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

Before dinner, we took a cab to Chinatown.  We learned that this is the oldest Chinatown in North America, and it is the largest Chinese community outside Asia.  Of course, I had to stop in one of the convenience stores to buy some Hello Panda cookies!

From Chinatown, we headed to Little Italy for dinner at Trattoria Pinocchio.  Our fried calamari and pastas were wonderful!  We thought it was neat in Little Italy that the Italian flag was painted on the light posts at the corners.

Here are some other sightseeing photos from the day as we wandered through the city.

These are two of the many street performers that we saw in San Francisco.  Others included a guy dressed up like a giant dog with his puppies, acrobats/gymnasts, comedians, spray paint artists, and people playing horns, guitars, or a keyboard.