Saturday, May 27th, 2017
Courtney and I travelled to Austin, TX for a week to visit Jack and attend Courtney’s professional organization’s national conference that was conveniently in Austin this year. We flew to Austin with no troubles arriving at noon after a brief layover in Dallas. Jack picked us up in the steamy 90 degree heat and we made our way to the AirBNB we stayed in for 3 nights just a block from Jack’s house. The house was very nice – seemingly brand new with two outside patios and nice everything. We went to lunch at Torchy’s tacos and had some fantastic tacos, queso and Texas beer. I had a fried avocado taco that 
was great. We then headed to the grocery store to get some provisions for us and Jack was having dinner at his house so he needed some things as well. My grocery store genes shine through as I love going to new grocery stores to check them out. Nice chiles. Went back to our house and had a much needed siestas for a few hours and then headed to Jack’s for dinner. Jack has been renting a room at his friend Rick’s house for the past year. It’s a great East Austin house, very modern with concrete floors, interesting nooks, chickens in the back yard and best of all a smoker loaded with pork belly, pork shoulder and lamb shanks smoking away. We drank lots of natural wine, beer and had really great tacos with the meat, guac and other goodies. Courtney and I didn’t last that long walking back to our place around 9:30 and falling asleep.
Sunday, May 28th, 2017
Jack came over early and we had breakfast at the house and we drove over to Barton Hills for a walk. We walked four miles along the river going through different terrains. One part called the flats was molded rocks with water flowing through – very prehistoric. We stopped at that point on the way back and put our feed in the water. Nice. It was hot and humid and we forgot to bring water which was really dumb. We stopped at a place called Shady Grove on the way back because we were dying of thirst and needed some 
water. Of course we had to have some margaritas and pulled pork nachos too. Great patio and great watermelon margarita.
Went home and quickly showered up as we were going to a picnic at a friend of Jack’s. We stopped at the beverage store and got a bottle of natural prosecco and made our way about 15 minutes south of Austin. It was fun to meet some of Jack’s friends and see lots of babies. Beautiful, perfect house (of an interior designer) and great food too. We stayed 
about two hours and then drove about 15 miles more south to the Jester King Brewery.
The brewery was a ranch in almost the middle of nowhere with old ranch buildings and great beer gardens under old live oaks. They are know for their sour beers so we sampled quite a few and enjoyed sitting in the shade soaking up the hot Texas heat. We got back around 6:00 just and the rain that was supposed to come the last two days finally arrived. We were all beat after a long day so hung out watching Netflix and ordered pizza and salad from East Side Pies.
Monday, May 29th, 2017
After breakfast we drove to Gruene, Texas a little town 45 minutes south of Austin. It was a block of restored old buildings. Strolled through a nice garden store where we bought some fancy bee catchers for my Dad and checked out several of the antique stores. We had lunch at The Gristmill, an old abandonded mill converted to a huge restauruant. It was a nice spot and filled up quickly. We were smart to go early. After a leisurely lunch we walked over to Gruene Hall which advertised itself as the oldest dance hall in Texas. Had a few more beers and listened to a pretty good country band.
We chilled out in the afternoon and then walked to Hops and Grain, one of Jack’s favorite 
breweries. We kept walking around but struck out at the two food trucks we wanted to 
go to as it was Memorial Day and everything was closed. We ended up back at our place and ended up getting tacos at home at El Chilito – always a good thing.
Tuesday, May 30th, 2017
We got ourselves organized and checked out of the Airbnb around 10:00. We stopped at Jack’s to pick up some picnic tools and went to the grocery store to pick up food for a picnic. We drove out to McKinney Falls State Park – only 15 minutes south of the city. We found a nice spot next to the river/swimming hole and spent the next few hour relaxing in the sun, swimming in the river and rock and having a good picnic. Great spot and good way to spend the afternoon. We recognized the spot from a scene in The Leftovers on HBO which we confirmed when we got back to CLE. Creepy. Jack dropped us off at the hotel downtown where we stayed for the rest of the week. We stayed at the Marriott on Congress and East 2nd. Very nice, new large convention hotel. We relaxed for a few hours and then met up with Jack again at the open air bar of our hotel on the street and Gunny also met us there for a drink. We went to Handlebar bar, a block or so away from the hotel for (another) cocktail before dinner. A nice grungy spot on the roof. We then drove just to the other side of the river for dinner at Odd Duck. We sat on their great patio and had an amazing meal. Best meal in a long long time. Excellent service and excellent waitress who we took all her advice. Highlights: palomas with sea salt foam, pig face stuffed pretzel, and pork belly. We had six or seven plates that we split and had some great gelato and fresh peach cobbler. Great spot.
Wednesday, May 31st, 2017
Courtney’s conference started today so she was out first thing. I got some coffee from the way too crowded Starbucks in the hotel and spent the rest of the morning working. 
Around noon I met Jack at Easy Tiger, combination bakery and beer garden that we have been to before, about a ten minute walk. We sat outside and had some beer and sausages and then walked down dirty 6th. We stopped at voodoo donuts to see what the fuss was about, just an overpriced donut as far as I can tell. A few days later there was a line of dozen of people waiting there at 10:00 at night. We then wandered to a place that Jack had on his radar that happened to be having a free Sicilian wine tasting going on this afternoon. It was at nice little Italian place called Italic around W6th and Congress. We sampled five different Sicialian wines. Very nice. We then made our way back to the hotel but stopped at Mort Subite, a Belgian Beer bar that Jack wanted to check
out. We had one quick beer and then back to the hotel for a rest. We joined a big group of Courtney’s colleagues and went out to dinner at Bangers. We have been there two other times and it was good as always.
Thursday, June 1st, 2017
I went to Cafe Medici, a chee chee coffee shop across the street and had a cappuccino which was 1,000 times better than the Starbucks in the hotel. I then rented a daily bike and rode over to Franklin’s BBQ to get in line around 9:30AM. Franklin’s is the famous joint where people come from all 
over the world and wait in line for hours for the best brisket. We thought we were getting there early but we were towards the end and almost got cut off. 1/2 hour later and we would have gotten the boot. Doors don’t open until 11:00 and we did not get to the counter until about 12:45. It was fun though. Everybody brings lawn chairs and coolers of beer. Jack, Rick and I polished off brisket, turkey, ribs, sausages, beans and Cole slaw with no prob. The brisket truly is something. Jack and I spent the rest of the afternoon digesting by the side of the pool. We tagged along with Courtney to one of the vendor cocktail parties at a bar across the street… Jack and I didn’t last long. We left the ladies to chat away and went looking for a good place to watch the first Cavs/Warriors game. We found a nice outside spot on Rainey Street and snagged a table trying to stay away from the Warrior fans. Courtney and friends joined us later. It was fun watching the game except they lost.
Friday, June 2nd, 2017
Scoped out a coffee place called Alta’s Cafe that was looking over Lady Bird Lake and on top of a boat house where crew boats were going in and out. A nice spot to spend an hour at the beginning of the day. Connor was flying into Austin that morning so Jack stayed at his house to pack/pick up so I was on my own. I walked around the lake/river and crossed back at Congress and walked west to check out the Whole Foods store by their HQ. Crazy amazing store with anything you can possibly need. Courtney called and she was leaving her conference early and wanted to meet at South Congress… opposite direction of where I was. I hoofed it over and caught up with Courtney and Gunny and had lunch at Guero’s which was good. Ate inside as it was toasty outside. I walked back to hotel to relax and Courtney joined me later. Jack and Connor came over to the hotel and we ubered along with Gunny back to East Austin. First stop was Whistler’s on East 
Sixth with it’s super cool retro bar and East Side King Food Truck. East Side King is a group of Asian Fusion trucks run by Tom Chef winner Paul Qui. The boys all had some old fashions, missed happy hour by just a few minutes and we tried a couple dishes that were all great – fried chicken thighs and something else. We then walked down a couple more blocks to The Liberty where the second East Side King truck lives and had beers and lots of different dishes – Brussels sprouts something, pork belly buns and lots of other good stuff. Everything was perfect on a perfect night. Jack discovered in the past that the bartender is a Holzheimer cousin of some sort who we are related to so it was fun to talk to him. We then walked back downtown walking down 6th St. Bars and clubs everywhere. We got down to the Dirty 6th which was just getting started. Walked down the street and went into the Driscoll but decided to go to one of the rooftops instead. Ended up somewhere having another beer, listening to a good band, watching Connor work the crowd and enjoying the ATX view. We headed back and Jack and Connor ended going out to see a band somewhere after.
Saturday, June 3rd, 2017
Woke up at 5 Am for a 7:30 am flight. Got a text in taxi on way to airport that our flight was cancelled. uh oh. Tried to call but couldn’t get through so we decided to just go to the airport to see what we could do. Big mistake. It turned out there were 3 cancelled flight to Dallas, ours were one of them, and there were hundreds of people stuck. We ended up waiting in line forever finally confirming on phone that we had a flight booked for next morning as that was only option. So we were able to call hotel and get same room that we were in and were back in our room by 9:00am. Took a nap and then went to a nice French bistro around the corner for a nice late breakfast. Jack and Connor came back downtown and picked us up and we drove to the Whole Foods to get them lunch and walk around. We hung out at the pool in the afternoon which turned into bachelorette party central. We were kind of fooled out and tired from the last few days so we cooked out at Jack’s house. Good dinner of grilled chicken wings, eggplant, rice and veggies. A nice way to finish up our trip. We flew home the next morning with zero problems… of course.
outside, had two humongous margaritas and quickly relaxed into vacation mode. The food was excellent – chips with roasted tomato/tomatillo salsa; I had roasted pork loin with two different mole sauces served over a tamale; Courtney had talapia roasted in a tomato, olive and caper sauce served over cilantro rice. Everything was very good. We strolled around the Riverwalk which is lovely in the evening and stopped at a bar on the river and had one last beer. We made it back to our hotel around 11:00 and quickly crashed.
and a side of bacon. The deli has been their since 1917. It turns out that San Antonio was originally populated by Americans of German descent. After breakfast I walked around downtown walking toward the market square, past the San Antonio cathedral and other interesting buildings. Unfortunately market square – originally a large hay market and downtown market is now a bunch of awful tourist trash. So sad. I walked back along a different leg of the Riverwalk that I hadn’t been on enjoying the beautiful landscaping and bridges. I relaxed at the pool for about an hour and a half until Courtney was done. She was taking a two and a half hour break so we walked south towards the King William District that we wanted to check out. We stopped at 
already packed by 11:50, lots of locals and business people and we had to wait a few minutes. We had more chips and brown spicy salsa that I wish someone would bottle. I had a Dos Equis on draft and a bowl of roasted tomato soup with shredded chicken, avocados and cilantro. Courtney had a chicken enchilada with peanut mole sauce and rice and beans. We then walked around the King William Neighborhood which was full of late 19th century huge mansions – many decrepit and falling apart, many under major rehab, many in very nice shape with great gardens – but all beautiful. Three cheers for preservation – you can’t help but think what Euclid Avenue in Cleveland might be like today if they preserved those mansions that were in this same time period. It’s truly heartbreaking when you see what could have happened like this neighborhood in San Antonio. We discovered that the Riverwalk was right behind us so we walked back that way – learning quickly that everything is so much nicer away from the touristy downtown section. Courtney headed back to her conference and I took a nice little siesta. I headed out towards the San Antonio Art Museum around 3:00 walking along the Riverwalk again for almost 40 minutes – quite a hike but a nice one. The San Antonio art museum was built in the late 1970s from an old Lone Star Brewery. Another preservation success story. I only had an hour and a half to explore the museum but enjoyed my solo expedition especially that I was practically the only one there. Unlikely I really enjoyed the Asian and roman galleries the most. Lots of interesting stuff in interesting settings. I read later that the museum is known for its large collection of Asian Art. I closed the place 
down and then walked about a block to The Luxury that is an outside bar/food place made out of semi truck carriers. I had a beer, sat on the river waiting to hear from CBH. We decided to go to The Pearl Brewery District – a 15 minute walk from where I was and a quick cab ride for Courtney. I found the 
specialized in cured meats. We had a beet salad and a platter of different cured meats, sausages, vegetables, breads and crackers. All very good and perfect as we were getting a bit fooded out. It will be very interesting to come check out this area in a few years as there is lots of construction. We walked back downtown which was a good 40 minute walk – but beautiful along the river as it was getting dark and the sky was beautiful along with all the flowers , lights and plants. We stopped at an Irish pub on the busy part of the Riverwalk and watched the NBA semifinals that was going on – San Antonio won and the city was loud and excited. We ended up staying longer than we thought we would as they has a fun band playing also that were kind of cheesey but playing fun 80s and 90s music. Very successful day. Had drinks at Five very different places. Walked 13.28 miles!
was probably the best thing I ever tasted – I think I was a lot more dehydrated that I thought. Lunch was good – Courtney had a burger and I had pulled pork and we tried some of their beer. We hopped back on our bikes and had no trouble getting back to our hotel. Quite a journey. Courtney was a trouper and went to the last sessions of her conference and I took a short siesta and then spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. We had no plans for dinner so we went out pretty late, 
wandered around looking for something and ended up at The Esquire Tavern that looked promising and billed itself as the oldest bar on the River Walk. It was a cool place – dark, retro with a big long bar and booths. I had a tall can of Lone Star and we weren’t too hungry so split an order of fried avocados and something else – I don’t remember. We meandered back after a leisurely meal and quickly crashed after a long couple of days.
different restaurants, bars, food trucks and we stopped at a place called 
Eat On Edgecliff 