austin

Austin is so darling.

After being on the road for so long, it was nice to finally eat really good food.

We blew into town late, and had Mexican for Dinner. The food was amazing, but the space was ridiculously loud.
I spent the time while waiting for our food in the parking lot trying to secure a hotel room.

We slept well, having arrived around midnight. Breakfast the next morning was amazing and comforting. It felt a lot like Cup and Saucer a decade or more ago.

Our server was a darling Portland-esque hipster that gave us tips for a where to find thrift shops and boutiques. She even gave us googie-ful organic locally-made chocolate treat.

A Texan-born friend texted me a referral for our late lunch on the way out of town.

We found a couple of super darling stores.
The most beautiful one was Stag, a men's store.
(more about Stag & Mercury later)

The owner of Stag recommended another store, Mercury, his partner's store. We had to check it out.

We walked into Mercury and were chatting about this and that and topic turned to Portland.

The man working said how great Portland seemed, except that it rains all the time.

Somehow, in that moment, it seemed like the craziest thing anyone had ever said to me. I actually whipped my head around involuntarily in his direction and said how Austin would be so great if only it were raining.
Wow, defensive much?

It was a relief in a way, knowing that awesome people such as this guy I was chatting with would likely never move to Portland.

I am all about understanding that everyone has their own beliefs and cultures, likes and dislikes. I know that what I believe and ascribe to is not the same as everyone else. But somehow with regards to our fair city, it is difficult for me to think that it is not the most perfect city for every open minded artsy type, free thinking person.

I was slightly offended that our rainy, beloved city, would be disdained and even more so, I was relieved.

Our city is not for everyone.

And Austin is certainly not for me.

Austin was amazing, but damn, if it wasn’t just the hottest thing ever.

We were in and around Texas for three days and from morning to night it was 95 degrees or more.

Midday in Austin was 103 degrees.

We walked up and down congress avenue and ran into my darling-ist girls who were looking all glassy-eyed. One of them said “we’re all done with Texas” the other one in quick reply said “yeah, we’re thirsty."
It seemed as if the Texas heat had melted them into one.