~Austin!~

I had every intention of updating this twice a week and I’m already behind!  In my defense, I have been busy J

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to Austin for the first time to house hunt and explore the city and are now even more excited to move there!  It would be an extremely long post to detail everything we did but let me just say thank GOODNESS that Austin is an active city because with all of the amazing food, you definitely need to stay moving!  Here are a few of the weekend highlights:

Rudy’s BBQ:  This ain’t NC BBQ ya’ll… but it is GOOD!  The line at Rudy's is always long, but it moves quickly and while you’re waiting, you wind past long rows of coolers filled with beer and a variety of soft drinks in glass bottles (why is it that sodas are so much better from a bottle?).  When you get up to the counter, you can order by the lb (or half lb) from brisket, ribs, chicken, turkey, or sausage.  They then pull whatever you order from where it’s been marinating/cooking and slice it then and there.  Served with their signature BBQ sauce, a variety of sides (the creamed corn was amazing), and literally a whole loaf of bread per order, this was unlike any BBQ I’ve ever had and I will definitely be back, and will take everyone who visits there to experience it!

Zilker Park:  this enormous (351 acres!) park is considered Austin’s “most loved park” and it’s easy to see why.  Located literally just outside of downtown, it provides hiking and biking trails, sand volleyball courts, a nine-hole Disc Golf Course, 2 Multi-use Fields, access to Town Lake for canoeing, playgrounds, picnic table and Barton Springs Pool.  About the pool – this is truly awesome!  It’s a natural spring-fed pool with a year-round average temperature of 68 degrees.  The main spring pumps an average of 27 million gallons of water a day!  We were walking around on the park on Memorial Day, so it was swarming with people.  There is even a separate area of the springs below the main area where dogs are allowed!  I definitely see a puppy in our future :) You can see a picture of the scene below with the buildings in the background.

702 Monroe:  a.k.a. our new house!!  We looked at houses in a lot of different areas around Austin which was helpful because we were able to get a feel for how the city and surrounding areas are laid out.  We found the perfect location at this house off of S. Congress.  It’s just under a mile outside of downtown and within walking distance to restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and stores.  It’s also about a fifteen minute walk or five minute bike ride to Zilker Park J  We put in our application and found out yesterday that we were accepted! The house is 3 bedroom/2 bath so we are anticipating visitors!  Front and Back views of the house are below...