Nathan & Stephany: The Austin Trip, Part I

The title is actually a bit misleading, as none of the pictures on this page actually took place in Austin. Nonetheless, a couple weeks ago, we headed down to Austin during my Spring Break to hang out with some friends!

It was our first trip down there in quite a while. School keeps me busy, and we generally don't get out much, and when we do, it's usually not much farther than Tyler (although our previous trip to Marshall during the first weekend of Spring Break was really great - see previous post).

We stayed at Emily & Charlie Rajeh's house. Jed and Christine were in town, visiting from Germany. We even saw our friend Brooke, also visiting from Nashville. It was a really fun time. The weather was awful - in the 40s-50s and drizzling almost the entire time. We really didn't have much of a schedule at all. We didn't check email for four days. We hung out and ate good food with good friends.

This is a pic from inside the van on a day trip to Temple to have dinner with Jed's older sister Sarah. Jed and Christine were in the front.

We were in the back - making faces at the camera and watching the I-35 scenery.

The four of us also took a day trip (the next day - I guess you can't technically have more than one day trip on any one particular day - unless you're just really efficient, I suppose) to San Antonio. Stephany was last there about five years ago with her friend Alysia, but we had never been there together. I spent a week there for a tradeshow during my time with MIOX, shortly before Steph and I were married. I took everyone to the Fairmount Hotel on the Riverwalk, where I stayed that week - it's a really cool, old hotel. It holds the Guinness World Book record for heaviest building ever moved on wheels - back in 1985, they actually moved it (a 3-story hotel) something like six blocks to a different location. It's a neat place. We stopped in and took pictures.

Then we walked through a park with strange Mexican statues.

The park was near the Convention Center (also, where I spent a good part of that week in August 2006). We caught the Riverwalk there - after stopping for a few more pics.

Pictures of us with an old church in the background.

We stepped very briefly into the Rainforest Cafe to check it out. Stephany orchestrated a quick photo shoot of Jed and Christine at the bar.

And later at a gift shop I snapped a pic of my honey in a blue cowgirl hat. Oh yeah.

What trip to San Antonio would be complete without a stop at the Alamo? Stephany had never been, so we stopped there to check it out. She was a bit disappointed that it wasn't in a more sparse area, set out on acres of land (it's surrounded by hotels, streets, and a Ripley's Believe It or Not). I guess it just shows the way the city has grown up around it. It's cool that it's so accessible though (and free to the public).

We ended our San Antonio trip with a visit to the local Rivercenter Starbucks. This photo just makes me think that German girls know when they're hearing B.S.