Monday, January 30, 2017

What We've Been Up To

Turns out having a full-time job greatly reduces the amount of free time you have to both blog about life and to do blog-worthy activities. But I'm back! Here's what we've been up to lately:

Last weekend, some of Ali's college friends came down to visit for a long weekend. We had so much fun and got to show them our favorite Austin spots and explore some new ones as well. They arrived late on Thursday evening, and we immediately took them to Torchy's Tacos and devoured a bunch of queso. I've started just ordering one taco so I'm not too full to finish the queso, because it's pretty much the greatest. Seriously, there's guac mixed into the middle of it. On Friday, the girls drove up to Waco to experience all things Fixer Upper while Peter and I worked. We had BBQ and then went out on Rainey Street on Friday night and discovered a cool bar made out of shipping containers, where we stayed pretty much the whole night. Peter drove us around the whole weekend, which basically makes him a saint. At one point he endured a car full of (post-multiple-bars) girls yelling Taco Bells orders at him, so that's what he had to deal with ;).

On Saturday, we explored South Congress and stopped for a drink at Perla's, an oyster bar with a really cute nautical theme. It was nice and sunny when we got there, and then randomly started pouring on us an hour or so later. Typical Autin. None of us minded, though, because sitting outside in January is a luxury for us Minnesotans, with or without some rain.
On Saturday night we ventured to The Broken Spoke, which is a famous tourist destination for traditional country dancing. Unfortunately, there was a special event going on that evening and the cover was $12, which seemed a bit steep to us. While we were standing in the entryway trying to scope out our next move, we started talking to a couple who was originally from a small town outside the area who told us about another dance hall down the road called Dance Across Texas. We decided to give it a try, and it ended up being the highlight of the weekend. There were tons of people who actually knew how to two-step and a few really amazing dancers who were so fun to watch. I asked some of my coworkers how/why everyone knew how to dance so well, and apparently line dancing is taught in Texas schools. Of course it is.

We fumbled our way through most of the dances, but it was so fun and Ali and I have declared it our new weekend hang out. If you want to have an authentic Texas experience in Austin, and potentially learn how to dance from a legit cowboy (Ali did!) I would definitely head here.
 We had to take all of the traditional Austin pictures, of course:

We had tons of fun having visitors, and I just want to throw out the fact that it's currently 77 degrees, so if anyone else needs to escape the winter up north...we have a large couch and an air mattress!

Other than that, I've been adjusting to work life and finally finished training last Friday. I have Sundays and Mondays off, so tomorrow is my first day 'in the wild'. Ali started a new job last week, and happens to work across the street from me! So we had lunch together a few days last week, which was fun. She is working at Nordstrom for a few more Saturdays, so she hasn't had too much time off lately, to say the least. Peter is in Rochester, New York this week for work, so I'm predicting at least a few large bug sightings and probably some appliance breakdowns ;). Just kidding. But really, these things always seem to happen when he's out of town.

I am off to run some errands and make lunch, but now that I'm settled into a routine at work, I plan to blog a bit more frequently, so stay tuned for more riveting tales from my life.

2 comments:

  1. Fun weekend!! I miss Texas food and everything about it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds like the best weekend with great friends! I never knew how to country dance until I went to A&M for school, and going out two-stepping on Thursday nights are some of my favorite memories for college!

    ReplyDelete

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Welcome! I started Laura and Peter Down Under in July 2014 when my husband and I moved from the States to Melbourne, Australia for his job. I blog about expat life, our travels, food, and whatever else comes to mind. Follow along on our adventures Down Under!

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