Austin Adventures with Cindy

Reg & Cindy at Saturday Market

Our friend Cindy, who has travelled with us many times over the years, came to visit us in Austin during our winter retreat from the snow in 2014. She came just after my birthday in February when, unfortunately, I was sick as a dog with a cold or flu. But we did have some fun and got to some events together -- check out the photo album.

She flew in for a few days; however, her arrival did not start well. We had the right flight number from Chicago but were at the airport a day early on Wednesday. So of course she wasn't on that flight and the front desk folks for the airline are really reluctant to tell you who was or was not on the flight. Back at our cottage we discovered our mistake and laughed it off.

But then the next day, a Thursday, Cindy wasn't on the flight and again we were left waiting at the airport. Back at the cottage we had some email and then a phone call with Cindy. Winter weather conditions in Detroit and Chicago meant that she missed her connection and wouldn't be arriving until late in the evening. Rather than make one more trip out to the airport we encouraged her to take a taxi and we went out for dinner at Guero's. She arrived at about 10:00pm -- I greeted her but went off to bed to nurse my cold. Kate and Cindy stayed up to all hours of the evening talking, drinking and having some quality time together.

Kate & Cindy - Lunch at Sway

Kate and Cindy had a lunch at Sway (modern Thai cuisine) which is one of our favorite restaurants in the area. It must have been a nice day as they ate outside on the patio. It's always a good lunch there and it's so convenient for us -- it's on South 1st very near, but across the road from, El Mercado (of Mystery Monday fame)

We then had an evening down town where we went to "Life After Lubbock" at the Stateside Paramount on Congress. That night Jaston Williams (of Greater Tuna fame) had Jimmie Dale Gilmore (who must have thought we were stalking him!) and Jo-Carol Pierce (who had been married to Jimmie Dale years ago in Lubbock). Jaston read some stories, Jo-Carol and Jimmie did some songs and they recalled their early days in Lubbock. Jo-Carol sang "Has God got us by the twat or what!" from "Bad Girls Upset by the Truth" (1996) -- we are fans and had even weaseled her phone number on a previous visit.

We went for drinks at the Driskill (Guy Clark lyrics: "Stayin' up all night at the Driskill Hotel, Ramblin' Jack and Mahan was cowboyed all to hell..") before the show where it was quite the noisy gathering of young people in cowboy boots and western wear – some in little dresses and big shoes. But we can’t complain as the drinks were less than $5 ($12.99 for 3) – a happy hour deal we tried to repeat another night with Sam and less success.

We walked down 6th Street to El Sol e La Luna (Kate walked about 6 blocks!) where we had half-price margaritas and appetizers -- we each ordered a quesadilla and I also ordered some jalapeno rellenos (Kate and Cindy didn't want to share their quesadillas with me -- bad mistake). The quesadillas were made with two huge flour tortillas with cheese and fillings in between. Each of them was the size of a large dinner plate! We barely ate half of them but will know better how much to order next time! One order would have been plenty, three orders was silly.

Kate's knee is much improved and she was able to comfortably walk 6th Street to the restaurant and back.

We took Cindy to the Saturday market in the morning (that's her and Reg in the photo at the top), toured around UTexas and drove by Franklin’sBBQ (voted best BBQ in all of America) in East Austin to have a look – the line-up went around the block! People were sitting on lawn chairs in the line with coolers, kids, Frisbees and having a good old social time waiting to get an order of BBQ. There was even a guy renting lawn chairs! The irony is that they only serve until the meat runs out so some of the people in line might not get anything.

We went to the Radisson to sit on the balcony looking over Town Lake and the Congress Street bridge (with the cool weather the famous bats were not expected). In part we dropped in so Cindy could see how much it had changed from when it was the Austin Crest when we were first here in 1990. Unfortunately they had renovated and no longer had a balcony. It was quite lovely bar and restaurant with floor to ceiling glass but we wanted to be outside. The only place we could think of with a view was Joe’sCrab Shack – where the food was not so exciting.

Afterwards, Reg was still pretty sick so he went home for a nap while Kate and Cindy went to Gueros to enjoy the music and so Cindy could look in a few shops on South Congress. It is a bit of a mad house on the streets and sidewalks on the weekend though so she didn’t do a lot of shopping.

We went to Barley Swine on South Lamar for dinner on Saturday to show Cindy some fine dining. We arrived early as we could not get a reservation for another month -- it's a popular, but very small spot. Fortunately there had been a cancellation so we got a table. We had been before last year but they now have a prix fixe menu ($70 for 13 courses (sic!)) – still smallish tapas sized portions for sharing but it was too much food and not all of it exceptional. Apparently, the meat dishes (quite frankly rabbit is not that interesting) were not that great – Kate had one or two dishes less than Reg and Cindy because she didn’t get the meat dishes but she got her own and didn’t have to share. There were far too many courses in this dinner. We got to the stage were we didn't want to even see another plate only to then have three (3!) dessert courses. If I were to make a suggestion it might be better if one were able to select dishes from the fixed presentation list. Even as a slow food dinner, we were there from 5:00 until 7:30, it was way too much.

That evening we went to see Ira Glass of "This American Life" at the Paramount itself (the Stateside is smaller and next door). No photos allowed so none taken.  It's essentially a one man show but he did have a couple of dancers with him. He's very funny and we really enjoyed the show where he talked about the radio show and how radio, especially "This American Life", has a unique perspective when telling stories. He's best described as quirky as are the stories on the show. It's a podcast we both enjoy.

Our seats were in the front row of the first balcony which had no leg room and a bar blocking the view (for $77 – we could have gone to see Kinky Friedman at the One-2-One (he's campaigning for office again) or Billy Joe Shaver at the White Horse had we known before we bought the tickets that they would be playing … or even Joe Ely in "Life after Lubbock" next door at the Stateside). Ira Glass was nevertheless really interesting and he had some interesting modern dancers as well.

Cindy flew back on Sunday. A short, but fun visit. Perhaps we can repeat it next year and I'll be in better shape for adventures.

#Austin