Sarah’s trip to Austin, Texas

by Sarah Steimer

Don’t squint! Click to see a larger image of this collage.

I took a page from Caitlin’s book and created a little collage to document my recent trip to Austin, Texas!

1. Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) skeletons in a store window on the popular South Congress Avenue (SoCo). Our trip stretched over Halloween and the Day of the Dead, so we got to see some pretty great costumes for both holidays.
2. Deep Eddy Pool: We took a quick dip in this freshwater pool after a long walk/hike one day. The pool was established in 1915, making it the oldest swimming pool in Texas (I assume oldest public pool).
3. Spinach, roasted red pepper, green olive and onion pizza  from Home Slice Pizza: This came after our long walk and swim, so we destroyed this pizza between the two of us and the waiter called us secret fat guys (shoot).
4. Bill and I! I’m no selfie pro, so I didn’t do a great job with the lighting. This trip was actually my gift to Bill for his birthday. And not a half bad treat for myself.
5. Pearl-Snap from Austin Beerworks: You’ve got to drink local while you eat local. These highly drinkable brews washed down our fat guy pizza.
6. Austin!
7. The Austin Motel: This is a pretty popular place to stay, right in the South Congress area. We had breakfast at the adjoining and very retro the Snack Bar restaurant. Breakfast was good and all (I had a fancy rosemary and sea salt bagel with cream cheese and lox), but the highlight was the fact that we ended up sitting next to Sara Gilbert — a.k.a. Darlene Conner from “Roseanne.”
8. A big, funky mural on East 6th Street of one of my and Bill’s favorite tequilas: Espolón.
9. A frozen Margarita Chilanga from El Alma, a restaurant dangerously close to where Bill and I stayed. We enjoyed it so much, we ate at El Alma when we arrived in Austin and the night before we left. We polished off quite a few of these awesomely spicy margaritas and an embarrassing amount of chips and salsa. Bonus: The patio had a beautiful view of the downtown Austin skyline.
10. Breakfast on the screened-in porch where we stayed. Instead of opting for a hotel or bed and breakfast on this trip, I decided to try Airbnb. Our hosts were absolutely fantastic and had great suggestions for what to check out. They left us lots of treats in our room and on the porch, including the quick bread pictured here. The bread was so delicious and the view so beautiful that Bill and I hardly minded that we locked ourselves out of our room (whoops…).
11. East Side Fillin Station: One of the biggest culinary takeaways I had from this trip is that Austin is a food truck town. The Fillin Station, located on East 6th, is one of a few food truck “courts” we saw in Austin. It’s simple: Food trucks park in a lot, tables and lights are set up, and you have yourself a little food fest. My favorite food truck on the trip was definitely the East Side King, located at the Liberty bar. You grab yourself a drink at the bar, place your order at the truck out back and snag a seat at one of a few large picnic tables. Bill and I split Thai chicken karaage, beet home fries and a fried Brussels sprout salad.

Hey — thanks, Austin.