Austin Yee-Haw Weekend

Over Memorial Day Weekend, we packed up the car and road tripped to the far off land of Austin, Texas in hopes of discovering what all the fuss what about. Ever since we moved to Texas people talk about Austin like it is the promised land - so expectations were very, very high.

And in fact, Austin is pretty cool.  It definitely had a beachy vibe and the atmosphere is definitely more laid back then in Dallas. I did, however, see more cut off jeans and porn star mustaches then I cared to encounter in my entire lifetime.

We started off the weekend by hitting up the famous Guero's Taco Bar, which I have to say, was a bit disappointing (I am now ducking as all you Austin fans throw eggs at your computer screen).  We had bad service and the food was just sub-par.  That's okay though because later that night we had the best meal ever...

Sixth Street definitely lived up to my expectations and we spent most of Saturday playing pool and bar hopping in the local area.  I was determined to get everybody to go into one of Bachelor Brad Womack's bars.  I was sorely disappointed when when we walked into the Chuggin' Monkey it was completely deserted with the exception of a girl with tattoos all over her body idly swaying to the music in the middle of the bar.  Needless to say, we did not stay there for very long.

After a couple hours on Sixth Street, we wandered up to the 24 Diner.  Above is a picture of waffles and chicken, ordered by Dan, which was delicious.  As a non-Southerner, I am not familiar with this pairing, but I was quite surprised at how good it was.  I got an egg salad sandwich, which I know sounds weird, but honestly it was amazing.  It was probably my favorite restaurant we ate at the entire time we were there.

The next day we jumped into our swimsuits and wandered down to Barton Springs to see what all the fuss was about...

{Not my photo, photo source HERE}

Barton Springs is right in the middle of Austin and is cool...but only in theory.  Its a natural water that is partitioned off for patrons to swim in.  See that crystal blue water?  Yea....not so much.  At least on the day we went.  The water was definitely more green then blue and there was a ton of algae and weeds floating all over it. It took a good twenty minutes for me to psych myself up to get in the pool, and once I did I swam across and got out.  That was enough for me.  It felt like swimming in dirty bathwater.  The group concurred, and we didn't end up staying very long.

That night we decided to forgo Sixth Street and instead head up to Oasis, a resort on Lake Travis that is supposed to have breathtaking views of the sunset.  The place was packed and the ambiance was buzzing.  There was an hour wait so we walked over to a nearby bar and got a glass of wine while we waited to get seated on Oasis's patio.  The view lived up to expectations:

Sadly, Oasis (the restaurant) did not.  I don't know if we just screamed "tourist" all weekend, but we got bad service everywhere - and Oasis was the worst offender.  So much so that our hostess seated us at a table that still had yet to get their check, and then proceeded to have us wait at the table until she could figure out what was going on.  The people currently sitting at the table attempting to enjoy the rest of their dinner were not thrilled, and we were highly embarrassed. The good thing was the Oasis restaurant itself was reasonably priced and it was well worth the trip, if nothing more then for the view.

My consensus about Austin?  I would definitely go back.  It was way different then I was expecting but I can see why people love it there so much.  It was definitely a nice break from Dallas, but our next vacation we are getting out of Texas.

Have you been to Austin? Did you like it? Did we miss any must-see sights?