Texas Vacation: Day One

Well, day one consisted of Ken getting off work at 10:30pm and us having dinner (yep, that's right) at 11pm. Then we packed and got everything situated in the car and headed out around 1am. We dropped our garage door opener off (in a friend's mailbox), dropped some bills in the mail at the post office, fill-up with gas....and had to go home b/c sunglasses were forgotten. :) So we didn't really manage to get out of town until about 2am. Ken was taking the first driving shift and I was going to finish...we were driving my grandmother's Honda Accord....which she so graciously let us borrow, so we weren't travelling in one of our gas-guzzling trucks. I slept for a few hours and then was WIDE AWAKE at 5am. We had just hit Denton, TX. We ate the sandwiches that I had prepared and stopped for gas and continued south-bound!

We arrived in Round Rock, which is just north of Austin around 8am. It was too early for anything to be open, so we headed on to San Marcos, which is about 45 minutes south of Austin. They have a FABULOUS outlet mall there....filled with Kate Spade, Michael Kohrs, Betsey Johnson, Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, etc. Its a girl's DREAM!!!! :) However, my husband was the only one who bought anything. Fortunately, for him (not for me), I was not in a spending-money-kinda-mood. I didn't even want to try anything on...I wasn't tired or anything, just not in the mood to buy anything. He got some really great clothes at Banana...his new favorite place! :)

After shopping for a little while, we headed into Hill Country...to Gruene, TX! Gruene is know for its red-dirt music and is where Pat Green started singing a lot. The Gruene Hall is famous for their live music! We were also told we needed to eat at "The Gristmill". And it did not disappoint! Its a really cool, renovated cotton gin. Everything is wide-open. All their "windows" are actually huge glass doors that they open up and turn on fans. There wasn't one room that was closed off. It was really cool!Towards the end of lunch, we BOTH were started feel the night's drive catching up with us. So, we headed back north into Austin....me driving. As we entered the Austin metroplex, we came to a complete stand-still. I thought it was just due to downtown traffic at first, but then we quickly realized that it had to be wreck of some kind. We finally made it to an exit that was close to our hotel and thought we could make it from there. However, we were at another standstill. As we moved forward on the side-road, we see 4 Austin Police SUV's blocking all 4 lanes of traffic. We were thinking this is a HUGE wreck!!!! Ken called his cousin who we were meeting that night, who then informed us that President Obama was in town speaking at The Four Seasons Hotel and then at the University of Texas. NICE! So, we were behind his motorcade. GREAT! After patiently waiting (not so patiently), we finally made it to the hotel and got settled. Ken was in HEAVEN b/c our window over-looked a hospital where he could see the Travis County EMS (I think) helicopters land and take-off from their helipad. This was very entertaining to him. We could also see I-35...now that doesn't sound thrilling, but it really was b/c it gave us a PERFECT view of the President's motorcade as he was leaving Austin. I've never seen anything like it! No matter what you think of the President in office, it was pretty cool to see all the emergency vehicles close a major interstate, more emergency vehicles, then LOTS of all black vehicles...and then one trailing black SUV with the hatch up. I asked Ken why....oh, its just hold a machine gun so if anyone tries to follow them.....well, the President is protected! :) Then a huge white tank of a truck and more emergency vehicles. It was really an interesting thing to see. Not only was town bustling with Mr. President, BUT they were also having AMERICAN IDOL try-outs!!!!! We got to talk to so many contestants and hear them practicing in their hotel rooms. It was really cool!!!! I loved getting to WATCH, but I'm so thankful I didn't try-out!!! What a process!!!!! There are at least 3 auditions before you get to see the celebrity judges or Ryan Secrest!!! They were getting bracelets on Monday/Tuesday so they could audition on Wednesday/Thursday....which was the FIRST auditions...can you imagine???? If you made it, then you have to plan another week around more auditions!!!! CRAZY!!!!! But, it really was fun to meet and talk to some of the contestants. I SOOOOO badly wanted to take pictures of all the contestants we talked to....just in case I could have met someone famous!!!!! But, I refrained....I was afraid my husband would be embarrassed. :)

After taking a nap, we got dressed and headed out to meet Ken's cousin, Chris. They haven't seen each other since they were kids, so it was a fun reunion!!!!
We had dinner at a fun little Tex-Mex place called, Guero's Taco Bar. It was YUM!!!! I had some really great Fish Tacos and Ken had enchiladas!!! From there, we headed to the famous 6th Street!!!! Chris was kind enough to feed my celebrity craze by taking me to this guy's... bars (Molotov and The Dogwood....both VERY cool)! Do you remember Brad Womack from "The Bachelor"? He's my favorite of all time....He's beautiful!!!!!!!! :)
Sadly, I never saw the Bachelor....just his little brother, Wes, and his twin brother, Chad....but that's okay. I'm sure I would have embarrassed myself by taking MANY pictures! :)

We also went to a few places that had some great music! And, of course, had to get a HUGE slice of pizza on 6th Street at Roppolo's! Around midnight, we headed back to the hotel! More vacation to come!!!! :)