travel diaries: throwback to Austin

Okay, we are going a little further back today on the blog.

Among other reasons, a big factor of my blogland absence was the overall busy feeling April brings. Mark and I happen to be blessed with 7 immediate family birthdays in April. When we aren't running from party to event to function, April seems to fill up with other things - like spontaneous trips to Austin.

I had a close knit group of girlfriends for my first few years in Dallas. Last year within 6 months of each other, all 3 of my closest friends up and moved away. Insert sad face here.

Brittany moved to Arkansas with a job transfer, Heather moved to Houston with a job transfer and the appeal of being close to home, and Emily also moved back home to Houston and has since moved to London, England for a 6 month stint. 

We still keep in touch randomly depending on the day, and I happened to be chatting casually with Heather on a Wednesday in April. We were discussing weekend plans and she asked me if I wanted to go to Austin. She and Brittany would be there from Saturday-Monday to attend a college friend's wedding. It took me about 5 minutes to agree to meet them on Saturday, spend a whirlwind 24 hours together, and come home on Sunday. 

I left about 9am on Saturday and got to Austin at noon. The other two moseyed in between 1pm and 3pm and we got dressed and headed out for a mid-afternoon Mexican snack. We met up with Kassie and spent the rest of the night catching up, laughing, and making memories!

After a little adventure and an early night back at the hotel, we got some good sleep and headed out for brunch on Sunday morning.

We happened upon some wisteria that was too perfect not to get a photo in front of!

Brunch of choice : Bacon.

Yes, this restaurant's main focus was bacon. It was a fun, typically Austin place and we loved it!

After brunch, we decided to be extremely touristy so we headed to the Austin sign to take some pictures. I did my college internship in Austin in 2009 for a couple months but never found this sign, so I really wanted to make it happen!

A random shot of Austin beauty.

Heather was being slightly grumpy pants that day...

...but then she and Brittany provided me a candid insight into what I think can sum up our emotions of the weekend:

*note coolest family ever pictured in the background

These girls were so much fun and what seemed like a pointless trip to Austin turned into a fun weekend of nothing but a fun and relaxing trip with some great girls!