Austin, Texas Recap Part 2

So after breaking my Austin trip down into two parts, it's time to ante up and provide you with the Recap Part 2. Let's not waste any time.

When I left off, I was on Friday evening, and we were about to go out on Sixth Street. I never got into the Real World: Austin, but I understand that the folks on the latest Real World partied on Sixth Street on more than one occasion. Sarah and Jared mentioned that those guys went to the Dizzy Rooster, and we walked by it, and to be honest, it didn't look all that exciting. Again, can't comment on it too much because I never got into that season of the show. Regardless, to explain Sixth Street...it's basically a zoo. One bar lined up against another bar lined up against another bar. It gets so busy on the weekends, that the cops just barracade several blocks and just let all the drunks wander around. I've seriously never seen so many bars in a 3 to 4 block radius...absolutely amazing. We first went to this place called The Aquarium, because they had - you guessed it - a set of aquariums lined up along the whole back wall of the bar. I also tried one of the Texas beers called Shiner Bock and it wasn't all that bad. Remember, don't mess with Texas. (Just had to throw that slogan in there at some point.)

Highlight of the evening was when we went to Pete's Dueling Piano Bar. Now, I don't know if you've ever been a piano bar, but this was only my second time at such an establishment. (First time being when the Jessica and I went out to San Diego right after graduation in late May 2004. We checked out a place called the Shout House in the Gaslamp District, and after that time, I vowed that I needed to get back to a piano bar - it was that good of a time.) Let me tell you, Pete's didn't disappoint. We walk in and it's wall to wall people, and I'm talking real Texas people. We had cowboy hats, we had people singing and dancing...it was a rodeo in there. (How's that for an appropriate metaphor?) If you've never been to a piano bar, the set up is as such: they have two pianos up on a stage facing each other. Adjacent to each of the pianos is a drum set, and off to the side, there's a bass guitar. So at any given time, there could be as few as two people playing and as many as four. However, they will have like 5 or 6 guys working that night and they're all rather multi-talented and can hold their own with each instrument. So it's a big set of musical chairs. They take requests, playing songs we all know and love, and make up other songs in the process. They love to embarass people with a birthday, and even loved to call out us "Yankees" on occasion. "Y'all Yankees ain't gonna know this one cuz it's a Texas song, ya hear?" is what the singer with the cowboy hat, long gray beard and the "I Heart Dixie" shirt said. (He didn't have that exact shirt on, but I added the detail for decoration.) Regardless, Pete's Dueling Piano Bar was a true Austin spectacle and may have even reached an 8.5 on the Spectacle Scale.

Saturday would be the day that we drove down south to San Antonio. We headed out in the early afternoon down I-35 about an hour and a half. I was picturing rolling hay stacks and desert along the way, since that's what you'd expect there to be outside of the major Texas cities. Instead, you saw fast food restaurants, outlet malls, car dealerships, and even a few more strip clubs along the way. Even Texas sees a bit of suburban sprawl to complement their Ford F150's. Along the way, we made a stop at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Safari, and it was quite exciting. After you get off the highway, you drive about 15 minutes to the middle of nowhere, and the next thing you know, you're in Africa. Well, let me tell you, the safari was an interesting experience. They give you a few bags of animal feed, and you literally throw it out of the car window as you drive along the path, and the animals will mosey right on up to the car. I had never been on one of these safaris before, so I didn't know what to expect, but when a car door and window are the only thing between you and wild animals, it's a little unnerving. Right in the beginning, we almost got attacked by an ostrich. That's right, an ostrich. After it came right up to the window, Sarah thought it'd be a good idea to tap on the window a couple of times. Then the ostrich decided to start pecking at the window, and with some force I might add. It's a damn good thing the window wasn't down, that's for sure. We were almost attacked by an emu as well. I was making crazy animal noises throughout and it must not have liked something, because it came at Jared's window with a fierce look in its eye. Along the way, we saw various types of antelopes, giraffes, gazelles, and many other horned deer type animals that I don't remember the names of. The zebras mistook the side mirror of Jared's car for some food, because it started gnawing on it. Unbelievable. We became one step closer to nature on this day, and luckily made it out alive.

After leaving Africa, we continued south to San Antonio, making it there in the late afternoon. My first impression of San Antonio: Where is everyone? It's considered a medium-sized city that many people would recognize by name, and yet there were hardly any cars on the road in the downtown area, and not too many people walking around at the time. Of course, when we made it over to the Riverwalk, that's where all of the people are. Here's the lowdown on the Riverwalk: The San Antonio River runs right through the middle of the city. A while back, they decided to make all of these manmade extensions and then started construction on buildings and restaurants and the like all around it. It's actually slightly below street level, so you can take a set of stairs down to it from anywhere in the vicinity. The architecture is pretty cool and we heard a lot of the stories from this little river boat tour that we took. What's funny is that there's basically no barrier from the river when you're walking alongside of it. I can imagine it'd be a slight hazard after some genius downs a 60 oz. margarita at Casa Ole, and then decides it'd be a good idea to go for a swim. We enjoyed another Mexican meal and then ended up hanging out at this trendy martini bar for the evening. Good times all around.

On Sunday, it was time to see more of the sites. Jared and I took a trip over to the Alamo as Sarah and the Jessica went over to the Market Square for some shopping. I have to say that I've always enjoyed American history and was looking forward to seeing the Alamo. Jared warned me not to expect much because everyone thinks it'll be like 10 times bigger than it actually is. True story. What we often forget is that the Americans lost at the Alamo and most of the fort was destroyed. The front of it (the facade that many would recognize) sits right in the middle of downtown, and there isn't much to it. We got a cool picture of us standing in front of it the night before, with the Alamo lit up in the background, and as I've mentioned before, I'll get those pics up as soon as I can. So Jared and I walked through the museum area, viewed a short movie on the story of the Alamo and there was pretty much it. Alas, it's something to see. Across town in the Market Square, there were a bunch of Mexican kids performing native dances, which was also quite a scene. Many of these kids couldn't have been more than 5 or 6 years old, and there performing elaborate cultural dances. Definitely impressive.

That pretty much did it for the San Antonio portion of the trip. It's a fun little city, but other than the Riverwalk and the Alamo, there's not much else to see. However, if you're in the Austin area, it's worth the 1.5 hour drive down there.

On the way back, the Mexican dinner from the night before must have stirred up some kinda virus and I began to feel like hell. Honestly, my stomach was about to file a lawsuit against me. Once we got back to Austin, I was pretty much immobilized for a while. However, I had to be a trooper because Sunday night was our trip out to the famous BBQ restaurant, the Salt Lick. Sarah and Jared had been talking this place up for a while now, and it didn't disappoint. The whole trip, I wanted to see some scenery that was true, stereotypical Texas. Now was the time. Salt Lick is located in the remote town of Driftwood, TX on a road that doesn't even have a name, but instead is numbered "FM 1826" (I did some research and found that FM, with regards to Texas roads means "Farm to Market" Road). Three words: Middle. Of. Nowhere. And there was a crowd of people there like you'd not believe. People came from far and wide to get this famous Texas barbeque. Unfortunately, I was under the weather, but still enjoyed my BBQ chicken, which was the safest bet with a weak stomach. It's a shame because I know I would have enjoyed the BBQ brisket, ribs, and sausage. It's also worth noting that the blackberry cobbler for dessert was out of this world. Hey, if so many people come to a place that's in the middle of the backwoods, you know it's for real. Sarah and Jared didn't lie.

On Monday, still feeling like I got run over by a truck, it was time to pack it in and head back to the East coast. The trip to Texas (beside the 24 hour virus) was a complete success and the Jessica and I had a wonderful time. It didn't end up being as much of a different world down there as I thought, and many of the people even lacked thick accents. They have some great food in Austin, definitely a cool college town to be in, with a great nightlife scene. If you like the outdoors, it's a place for you, with the rolling hills, rivers, and so on. Even if you ever find yourself in Houston or Dallas and have a day or two to spare, Austin's only a 3+ hour drive. Thank you again to Sarah and Jared for playing excellent hosts, and I'd like to give Austin and the whole state of Texas the Ross Press Release highest recommendation!

Side notes: Sorry I didn't get a chance to write while I was down there, as you can see we were pretty busy the whole time. Jared and I will collaborate on an article at some point in the future. Also, as I've said about 25 times at this point, as soon as I can a) get some pictures, and b) download this Picasa program to get the pictures up on the blog, I'll do so.

Hope you all enjoyed the Austin recap. I'll be back on Thursday night to catch up on the occurences from this week, and another weekend preview.