Easter Weekend

Saturday finally came – my first real weekend in Austin and I had plenty of plans. I didn’t count the previous weekend as really, with Geoff working, it wasn’t a weekend. And of course, it was Easter Weekend. Easter is a bit of a big deal in Austin as we are on the Bible Belt, even though they don’t have Good Friday or Easter Monday off from work. So, after Geoff had made a conference call with work we went furniture shopping again, still just looking. We started at Wal Mart in which the kids got to sit in a trolley, which was like a car. Then we went on to Ikea, which was huge! It was really good, too, as it took the kids into mind and provided an area where the kids were safely tucked away for an hour, with a play area, a big screen with a kids movie or cartoons on, and lots of carers. Unfortunately there was a height restriction, and a toilet training policy, and the Twins didn’t QUITE make it! They had to run around the store with us after all. We had lunch there and then I went SHOPPING!!!

Highland Mall was my first experience of an American Shopping Mall. It seemed massive and I’m not ashamed to say I got lost in the car park trying to find Geoff when he picked me up. It had a huge food court, too, I’d be quite happy to spend a whole afternoon there! I have since been told that there are 2 other malls in Austin that are better, and more impressive, with nicer shops – Bring it on!

That evening I had my first night out in Austin. I met up with a pal from Plymouth who had come to stay for a few days. She is moving out here permanently in the autumn time. One of her friends and Goreti also joined us. We started at IHOP for some food, and then went on to 6th Street for the serious drinking.

The first bar we went to was The Dirty Dog, which is a ‘rocker pub’, a bit divey and basic, but it had a good atmosphere, good cocktails and they sold ‘Smirnoff Ice’, so I was impressed.

OK folks, you KNOW it had to be done ... I got talked into having this picture taken!

From The Dirty Dog we went to The Blind Pig (great names these?), which was my kind of place. It had three rooms, which played different kinds of music. In the main bar they had some live music, upstairs on the roof, where you could see down 6th Street, there was a guy with deck playing all kinds of stuff (he played Kylie when the girls asked me to go and request it, though not before clarifying WHICH Kylie!). Then downstairs there was another room, which we discovered later, I don’t know what exactly it played but when I went to have a look it was playing Bon Jovi. We stayed there for quite a while – it was a little bit busier than the previous place. To be honest the whole of 6th street only started buzzing from about 11pm. People were walking down the middle of the road as if it was the sidewalk, there was no traffic to be seen, and even the police were on horseback!

Views over 6th Street

Hello World!

Here's to the future!

Those horseriding Police

I really wouldn't ask............

All the girls together

Then we went to Maggie Maes, which is very touristy, but we weren’t sure of the atmosphere in there. It was a great night, lots of fun, and it was really good to make some new friends! Also, we wanted to prove that we Brits knew how to drink, and we drank the one girl that was from Austin under the table. Success!!! ;-)

Easter Sunday we went to Anne Marie and Stuart’s for dinner, along with Goreti, Tim and Agnes. Anne Marie cooked a gorgeous meal with a ham, split green beans and scalloped potatoes. It looked very formal but the atmosphere was very relaxed. The adults had dinner while the kids were all playing (Zoe and Agnes being ‘Big Sister’s’ again) and then we got the kids fed. We did it that way as we knew it would be hard with 6 kids under the age of 7 in the house and chocolate everywhere!! After everyone had eaten there was an Easter Egg Hunt in the garden! I was busy helping Thomas look for Eggs so unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this.

It was a lovely day, we sat around gorging on chocolate and sweets, and left very late in the afternoon. And we are now 2 weeks into our new lives in Austin!