Are you ready for Austin, round two?! (Because I’m ready for Austin, round three. Fingers crossed for September…)
A little background information here (what else is new?): If you’ve read my post about our first trip to Austin, then you know that my friend Tony met a girl named Caroline on Tinder while we were there, and began a long distance relationship with her. What you don’t know is that in November, right around American Thanksgiving, they got engaged (and in March, they got married. In fact, I was the one to marry them! But that’s a story for another time). In the fall, when Caroline offered to fly Holden and I out to Austin for Tony’s birthday weekend in January, we jumped at the chance to return to our favourite city.
I was able to get the Friday off of work. Our flight was at 1 o’clock in the afternoon on January 24th, with a stopover in Denver and landing in Austin around 8pm. Our return flight was at 7 in the morning on Sunday the 26th. This gave us less than 36 hours in the city, but we decided to make the most of it.
Holden and I got to the airport just after 10am, and breezed through security and customs so there was lots of time before the flight. We’d gotten there early on purpose, because last July when Tony and Holden were on their way to Austin, they’d found this awesome bar, Belgian Beer Cafe, in the international terminal selling grapefruit mimosas the size of my head, and I really wanted to have one for myself. (Which I did!)
And then… our flight was delayed. We were supposed to have a one hour layover in Denver, and the flight was delayed over 45 minutes. Since we were in Austin for such a short time, we figured if we missed our connecting flight and couldn’t get on another one that night, we might as well just turn around and fly home, since there was no point in landing in Austin the next afternoon only to fly home at 7am the following day. Luckily, it didn’t come to that.We finally got off the ground, and after the most stressful two-hour flight of my life (a beer was, of course, necessary), we landed, almost got in a fight with the old lady sitting next to me, RAN off the plane and tore through the airport to our next gate, making it with literal minutes to spare.
The next flight was much more relaxed, and we even ended up landing in Austin about 15 minutes early (we deserved a win at that point). Yet another Elle + Holden misadventure!
Can I just say how much faster it is leaving the airport when you don’t have any luggage to pick up from the carousel? I think this is the second time in my life that I’ve travelled with only a carry-on, and if it wasn’t for my obsessive need to feel prepared for every situation at all times and therefore require a full suitcase whenever I go anywhere, I would always travel with no luggage. It’s the best!
Caroline and Tony picked us up from the airport (Tony had arrived the week before I believe) and dropped us off at our Airbnb. This apartment was only about a block away from the place we stayed on 6th Street last July, which we chose on purpose because it’s easy to walk everywhere from there and we were familiar with the area. I got ready to go out, while Holden ran over to the food truck we were obsessed with on our first Austin trip, Cluck-n-Burger in the parking lot of the Violet Crown Social Club, and came back with fries and queso and Lone Star beers. Nice.
After a quick snack (and a beer or two), we walked over and met Tony and Caroline at Easy Tiger Bake Shop and Beer Garden for a few more beverages before the reeeeeal night out began. Easy Tiger no long had the lime gose tequila barrel-aged beer we were obsessed with last summer, so I tried a different beer that the boys were having, and then this interesting sangria-flavoured cider that Caroline was drinking.
We had originally planned on doing a bar crawl of East 6th Street, which the boys were going to take me on last summer before I became practically immobile after drinking a can of Four Loko and ruined the evening. However, Caroline protested and voiced how “cheesy” the bars on 6th were, and suggested we go to Rainey Street inside. We took her advice and walked over to Rainey and she was totally right. The vibe was way chiller, there were less promoters standing out front trying to lure you in to their clubs, and the bars were more unique, instead of the blocks and blocks of interchangeable venues with too-loud music pumping out of them like on 6th Street.
We chose a place called Clive Barto start, where we sat outside at a table on the lawn. In the back corner of the yard, there was a tiny shack. We ventured inside to find a second bar, serving only Mezcal. We told the bartender we were from Canada and were there celebrating our friend’s birthday, and he picked out a shot for us to do. We also tried some dried crickets along with it!
Caroline had been having some health issues that month, so she decided to go home after Clive Bar, and the Austin Bois were left to our own devices. Tony and Holden agreed to go to this place called UnBARlievable that I’d seen on Instagram, a circus-themed joint complete with a slide, alcoholic slushees and a life sized giraffe statue. The fun thing about Rainey Street was that most of the bars had an indoor/outdoor set up, which was awesome for enjoying the only-slightly drizzly weather. (Such an improvement from the snowy -20 temperatures we’d been experiencing back home in Calgary.)
On Saturday morning we woke up starving, so naturally we walked over to Pueblo Viejo for some amazing breakfast tacos and Mexican food. While waiting for the food, we popped into Wright Bros. Brew and Brew for a cold brew coffee as well. We brought our meal back to the apartment and set up the food on the balcony, overlooking downtown Austin, for a very obnoxious, Instagram-style flatlay photoshoot.
Also, can we take a second to appreciate how adorable + eclectic our Airbnb was?!
We spent a good hour that afternoon trying to re-book our flights for a later time the next day, as we were less and less stoked to wake up at 5am to head for the airport. We’d each received a $50 voucher from United Airlines for the delay the day before, so we thought we’d use those towards the difference in price to change the time of our flight home, but we ran into roadblock after roadblock and finally just gave up, frustrated and disappointed.
Later in the afternoon, Tony and Caroline picked us up and we went for BBQ at Stiles Switch. (You basically HAVE to go for barbecue if you’re in Texas.)
I’m not a huge meat person, but the fries and Mac ‘n’ cheese were amazing, and the bit of brisket and sausage that I had were really very good (ya know, as far as meat goes). We also split a “bucket of beers”, so we each got to experience a few new local ones!
Since Tony was also flying home the next day, we figured he and Caroline wanted some alone time that night, and after dinner they dropped us off at the Airbnb and went on their way. Holden and I headed out to East 6th Street. Luckily it was still pretty early in the evening, since we were still planning on that 7am flight the next morning.
Our first stop was Upstairs at Caroline, which I’d put on my bucket list after not making it there last time we were in Austin. We got to sit by a fancy outdoor fire pit and enjoyed a, equally fancy cocktail.
From there, we walked over to the Capitol to take pictures of the back of the building, which I hadn’t noticed last time we were there but had since seen on Instagram and realized it was way cooler than the front. The added effect of the dark sky made it appear even better.
Before going back to the apartment, we went to Shangri-La, another bar right near our Airbnb that I had also wanted to go to on the last trip but hadn’t. We stood outside on their patio as well, despite the fact that it was now pouring rain, and had one last Austin cocktail.
Back at theAirbnb and dreading our early morning flight more than ever, we decided to re-book the flight no matter what it cost us, even if we couldn’t use the voucher, and that is exactly what we do did. We ended up with flights at 4pm the next day instead, which was WAY better. We also both ended up with a second $50 voucher, for all of our trouble of not being able to use the first voucher to rebook the flight. So we now each have $100 in vouchers to use on our next United flight. We went to bed, so excited to not have to wake up at 5am the next day!
On Sunday morning when we woke up, we immediately went for breakfast tacos again, as was our new routine, but decided to stay and eat outside on their patio this time (of course – we knew soon enough we’d be back in the snow, unable to sit outside again for months). We picked up cold brews from Brew and Brew again and brought them back to the apartment to enjoy on the balcony.
We soaked in the last of the downtown Austin vibes before we had to leave the Airbnb.
We had to check out at 11 and still had a bunch of time to kill before the flight, so we walked to Lance Armstrong’s Juan Pelota cafe/Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop, as recommended by my dad. Now I was extra glad that I didn’t bring a suitcase, because I struggled enough walking with just my carry-ons. Holden got another cold brew, but I figured I’d had enough caffeine for the day and tried a White Claw for the first time (I don’t get the hype), then we walked around the bike shop and I picked up a Father’s Day present for my dad.
After that, we walked along a pathway to the river, and sat at the edge and soaked in the sunshine for awhile. It was finally bright and sunny out, and got up to about 25 degrees that day! We were both in shorts, and so happy.
The time came to say goodbye to Austin, and we ordered a Lyft to the airport. We found Tony at the gate next to ours, as a fun coincidence because he was on a different flight, so we all hung out until his plane boarded. Holden and I had time to grab some food before boarding our plane. We were in separate rows this time, and the two hour flight to Denver went by soooo slowly.
After a too-short stopover in Denver, we got on the second flight, and arranged to swap seats with another couple who had also been separated. Holden and I lucked out, sitting in the window and middle seats with no one in the aisle seat beside us! We watched some shows, he had a beer, and this flight went by much quicker.
Our flight landed in Calgary a little late, and Tony’s landed a little early (his stopover had been in Dallas), so we all ended up meeting again upon arrival, and having one last Austin Bois drink at the airport bar before my mom picked us up and drove everyone home (what a nice lady!).
And just like that I was going to bed and back at work the next day. It felt like I’d been gone for a long time, but the weekend had also passed by SO quickly. I started missing it as soon as I got home. I’m still so grateful to Caroline for allowing us the opportunity to get back to Austin so soon (we hadn’t been planning on going again until later this summer, but good thing we went when we did, because that might not happen now…), and all these weekend getaways really make my 9 – 5 office job much more tolerable!
I think we totalled about 44 hours in Austin – so close!
And that, I expect, will be the last of my travels for awhile… Time to dig deeeeep into the archives of my brain for some more content!
There! It only took me 3.5 months to write about this Austin trip – much better than the 9 months it took after the last one!