There must be something good in the water in Austin, Texas.
I say this because I just noticed that several of the blogs I love such as I’ll Sleep When They’re Grown and A Rich Full Life are based out of Austin. Indeed a cool town with some cool people.
If you sleuthed around for about 20 seconds, you’d discover pretty easily that my last name is Austin. I took it when I married my husband, so when we decided to go to Austin for our honeymoon, I enjoyed notifying everyone we encountered on our trip of the “hilarity” of this. “The Austins in Austin! Can you believe it?! Want to give us a discount?!”
We first went to Austin when we were dating in college. My friend Martin was going to graduate school at UT so on Spring Break we drove to visit him. B and I had only been dating for about five or six months, so our trip there was the first time we really spent a prolonged period of time together. Going there was such a great experience that when deliberations about our honeymoon location had gone on and on and on for what seemed like months, we eventually were both like, “Hey, we both love Austin. Let’s go back.”
Which we did.
The motto of the city is “Keep Austin Weird.” Is it weird there? No, not in a Twin Peaks way. It’s just cool. If Fred Armison and Carrie Brownstein had really wanted to, they could have made Austinsia instead of Portlandia.
In a little Sunday night tribute to Austin, I thought I’d share with you some photos from our honeymoon in Austin. It’s not our anniversary or anything. I’m just in the mood to give props to a cool little city where we started our marriage.
Hotel San Jose, where we stayed on our trip
“Corridor” of Hotel San Jose
At the Texas State History Museum (B is on the far left wearing a white shirt.)
To. Die. For. ICE CREAM!
Everyone should include a round of putt-putt on their honeymoon.
Costume shop
Found in an antique store
Prehistoric grackle
The ceiling at one of the many locations of Baby Acapulco’s
Wuv.
The Waiting 
Great pics! I would love to shop in some of these places…and I’m not a shopper-type. What an interesting post…thank you for sharing the fun pictures. And, as always, your humor.
There were definitely some cool shops we stumbled in to! I’m not a buyer either; more of a window shopper. Cool stores are like free museums.
Looks like y’all had fun! I’ve never thought of Austin as a honeymoon spot, but it makes sense. There’s so much to do and it’s very affordable. And of course there’s some great people watching. I’m only a few hours from Austin…maybe I should go down for a mini-vacation soon.
You should for sure check it out. It is indeed extremely affordable and there is a plentitude of fun things to do in the area (not to mention no shortage of delicious food.)
BUT, what about the Peabody Hotel !
Ooh I’m saving an entire post for that alone! Magical!
Love this post for many reasons! Austin is an amazing city! We love it here but we are not doing our part to keep it weird I don’t think. Amy’s is the best ever. I try to stay out of there because I get the largest, most fattening thing possible everytime we go. I did not know your last name is Austin but that is awesome!
Ah! You live there too?! There IS some merit to my theory that all good blogging begins in Austin! :) Amy’s was AMAZING. Our hotel was across the street from it and we ended up probably gaining 10 pounds apiece from going there every day. To this day, B is not a fan of ice cream and I think it’s bc since he was exposed to Amy’s everything else is so sub-par. Eat some for me, OK? :)
You don’t have to ask me twice!! I love their ice cream so much I will eat some for both of us! Next time you come to Austin we will meet there for some ice cream and so the babies can meet one another. And, you are supposed to gain weight on a vacation – it is just a part of the experience. I gained a lot on our honeymoon also. It was not pretty afterward but I enjoyed every moment of it.
Austin has been on my list for a while. Must go! I’m convinced it’s one of the few things in Texas to really love. (It’s a NM-TX thing.) Cute pix!
That’s what a lot of people say! I haven’t really spent time elsewhere in Texas recently, but I can indeed vouch that Austin is awesome.
I wuv this ~~~
I wuv YOU :)
I have a feeling I am going to fall in love with Austin and never want to leave.
We certainly didn’t want to! I want to move there.
Laughing with you on the last name punchline. My own also provides groaners such as “Yellowstone is my brother.” Thanks for sharing the pictures of Austin. Hope you get to visit it again soon.
Me too. Thanks!
I’ve heard Austin is a great city. It’s on my list.
It’s kind of a hot version of Portland, is what I’ve heard. If I actually lived there we could do a city swap. B and I want to live in Portland based on the show alone.
You know, I’ve never even been to Hotel San Jose. I have a friend that worked on the grounds there, and have had several requests to design landscapes like theirs, but I’ve never even checked out the bar.
I’ve always wanted to send a pic of the Peter Pan golf statue to Conan O’Brien b/c don’t you think there’s a resemblance? Just creepy enough for him to appreciate it, I think.
Yay Austin! And we’re getting a rare dose of torrential rain right now. It’s even kind of cold (low-70’s).
You know, there IS a bit of a resemblance. You should send it in to him!
We went on our honeymoon in the middle of July and it was surprisingly cool when we were there too. It rained almost every night so during the days it never got warmer than like 85 degrees. It was really nice.
That “Wuv” pic is the best!
I like it too!