Texas, home of monolithic tennis backboards & fried tofu

Robert and I just returned from a relaxing trip to Austin, TX.  I've always wanted to visit, explore its plethora of hiking, soak up its artsy vibe, and divulge in its surprisingly diverse array of vegan food.  It's not at the top of our list of cities we want to return to, but we had a lot of fun.  

We started our trip in Dallas, where we spent a fun afternoon with Robert's sister, Abby and her fiancé, Joseph, who are even more excited about food than Robert and I.  They always have about ten food places to choose from, and after walking around a cute festival in downtown Carrollton, we went to a hole-in-the-wall place, Canton Express.  I ordered the crispy tofu thinking I was getting a tofu dish in the typical brown sauce.  Nope!  It was a pile of fried tofu with fried garlic and onions and absolutely no sauce.  I was initially skeptical.  Thankfully, I was wrong!  That ended up being the best food of the trip, and to my profound delight, I found an almost-identical dish while Robert and I were in Austin.  I saw crispy tofu on the 1618 Asian Fusion menu and didn't hesitate.  It was the same tofu with a thick crust of salt and garlic, and loaded with not only a pile of onions but also peppers and jalapeños.  

So yes, we had a fantastic time with Abby and Joseph, and we didn't get a picture with them.  But we did get pictures of the food we ate with them.  As foodies, they completely understand this, which is one of the reasons we love hanging out with them.

This is a post about our trip to Austin, and not this wildly amazing tofu dish however, so I will return to Dallas, where we ended our evening with Abby and Joseph with Jeni's, one of the best ice cream places we've ever been to and are always excited to return to.  

I had a scoop of lemon bar and a scoop of hot toddy sorbet (my new number one sorbet in a ridiculously tough-to-beat list of frozen treats).  It was like an orange sorbet with a bit of whiskey and cayenne pepper.  

We also spent the next morning with Abby and Joseph and had a lot of fun exploring another craft/food fair with them.  The dogs found many friends.  One lady started petting Margo and then said, "this is how dogs like to be pet."  And then she burrito-wrapped herself around Margo!  Another time, a kid wrapped a blanket around Josie and laid on top of her.  These Dallas folks love their dogs!  After the fair we walked to the Central Library and enjoyed browsing their eight floors of library awesomeness.  They had a piano on the fourth floor, and someone was playing it!  We finished our downtown adventure with a sushi tower from Ginzaro Sushi, which was literally a tower of fish and rice.

Robert and I drove to Austin and settled in for a week of hiking and eating and librarying.  Unfortunately a couple days into the trip, I came down with a cold I couldn't shake so we moseyed on home a little early.  

The good news is we somehow did everything on our list at least once, which is incredible even for us.  We went hiking, visited a library, dropped into three bookstores, enjoyed some swimming, ate some thrilling food including a couple vegan places, and I even got to play a little tennis on the largest backboard I've ever seen.  

Here are the rest of our pictures!

We are often asked how it works to sleep with two battle tanks.  Mostly because someone, usually Robert, is barely hanging onto the bed.  Something that Robert and I do on vacation is "sleep in" a little, which translates to reading in bed with the battle tanks for as long as we please.  Josie Pie has been doing this adorable thing recently where she gets on and off the bed a few times during the night.  She used to get into bed with us, stay with us until we fell asleep, and then hopped down for the remainder of the night.  Now she's up and down, up and down, but thankfully pretty stealthy about it.  Usually one of us wakes up enough to know she's back, and sometimes we only know when we go to turn over and there's a golden lump in the way.

Austin reminded me a lot of Paris, where everything was covered ten times over in thick, grotesque graffiti.  I felt so much anger and despair everywhere.  The toughest places to look at were the buildings where there had been signs of intentional care and thoughtfulness, but they were being devoured by graffiti.  But occasionally the spirit of Austin flashed through in places, and Robert and I enjoyed the small and sometimes giant pops of art.

Two words, folks: Rex Hamilton.

We visited both the flagship Whole Foods and Central Library.  Both were a lot of fun to explore, but we didn't really see anything remarkable about either place.  Unless you count the cart escalator!  So much fun!  Robert says we have one of these at Ikea, so now I may need to add riding the cart escalator to my list of things to do when I get in a funk.  

And the Rosemary Wells wall at the library.  Getting up close to her original artwork was thrilling.

We went hiking at McKinney Falls, where we were almost blinded by spring.  So much green!  We waded through Texas Bluebells and soaked up the heat.

I also played on the biggest tennis backboard I've ever seen, and it was a cinderblock wall, which was unusual.  I was defeated in seconds and spent more time laughing than anything else.  Naturally, after playing on this backboard, we saw another one that was the same size! Texas really is all about that saying, "Go big, or go home."  If only I could have both! 😂 

We tried a couple vegan places that were on my list - Community Vegan, where I got the "dime bag," which was a bag of fried mushrooms and cauliflower, and Mr. Natural, which has a ridiculous amount of sweet treats..  Both were delicious.  We also balanced the vegan food with some of the best BBQ of our lives at Terry Black's.  Sorry not sorry KC BBQ. 

I was also super excited to visit the Austin Creative Reuse Center, and I walked around in stupid bliss, marveling at all the wondrous junk.  I'll be set for a while trying to figure out what to turn all these beads and fabrics into.

On the last full day, when I was moving around in a cold-induced fog, I scrounged up enough energy for a walk through Zilker Botanical Garden, where we did more flopping than walking.  Zilker Botanical Garden wasn't even on the list, but it's a gem.  They even had a story walk for families! 

 

Robert was very sweet when I told him we should probably head on home.  I've never been one of those people who can soldier on through a fever and face full of snot like nothing's amiss.  We have a couple things left on the to-see list, but are saving them for another day.  Overall, I think we had plenty of time to relax with the dogs, spend a few moments with family, cavort through the bluebells, and bask in the bountiful fried tofu Texas has to offer.