Texcation 2011, Day 1

(I should probably mention that it's 2:00 in the morning as I'm writing this because today was incredible and I'm so moved by the outpouring of love and friendship from our Austin friends and family that I can't sleep.)

The Coopers are traveling in Texas this week for our annual visit to see friends and family.  I had written this funny (no, seriously, it was FUNNY) blog post riffing on the elaborate instructions I left for our house-sitter when I did something...weird and lost the whole dang thing.  Command Z was no help at all and I don't have the heart to try to recreate it now so I am doing two things: sulking and writing something completely different.

We flew into Austin late Friday night--actually, it was technically Saturday morning already.  The flights here were funny.  From New York to Austin, the plane was almost full of New Yorkers flying to Texas for whatever reason.  After we landed, sprinted through DFW airport to meet our Austin connection and managed to get on the last flight out, the airplane was full of baby/tattoo/Birkenstock-wearing people and when another delay was announced after we were already on the airplane and sitting, the people all around us started...

Well...

Chatting with each other.

Just chatting nicely amongst themselves, totally unstressed and laid-back in that way that only Austinites can be.

It was hilarious.  And heart-warming. And a sort of omen for how our visit would proceed.

Like, the hotel had given away our room so they got on the phone and found a sister hotel with a room for us and THAT hotel served free breakfast AND we were still able to use points to pay for it.

(I love hotel breakfasts.)

One of our pieces of luggage, the one with all the kids' stuff in it, missed the connection in Dallas and the airline was efficient enough that, once the bag was located, the delivery guy managed to keep in enough touch with us that he accurately managed the three different addresses we gave him (we were moving through Austin from hotel to various friends' houses) and got our bag to us without mishap.

(I love that kind of competence.)

So, then we started our Nostalgia Tour of Austin, which consisted primarily of visiting all of our favorite places to eat.  (Oh, like that's not what YOU'D do.) (Wouldn't you?)

(Maybe?)

First up, Taco Xpress, which we've always called Maria's Tacos because the woman who owns it is named Maria and has this enormous ...sculpture of herself presiding over the place.  Look:

My daughters and Maria

We met some our first Austin friends and their kids there and then went to their house and hung out on the back porch until it was time for:

Ana happily anticipating her lunch at Thundercloud Subs

followed by a visit to the Great Harvest Bread Store for slices of fresh honey-whole-wheat bread...

Yum.  Just...YUM.

After which we went to our old neighborhood and Jane got to see her best Austin friend for the first time since last summer.



Yeah, THAT didn't make me cry or anything.

(I just received the note from YouTube that my soundtrack might be removed because it's copyrighted material and I'm too tired to find a work-around. If there's no music, would you mind humming "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House while you watch it? I'd appreciate it.)

And then we ate a lot of barbeque from Rudy's:

Mmmm...ribs!

After which, we fell into food comas and thus endeth the first day.