We had a smooth drive from Houston to Austin, and on the way arranged to meet our friends at the Salt Lick Barbeque in Driftwood, Texas, which is southwest of Austin in the hill country. John was a high school friend who we reconnected with a few years ago - and not through Facebook. He was living in Georgia, and was the photographer at my Georgia sister-in-law’s brother’s wedding, and somebody made the connection that he and my brother came from the same town in NJ, and Pete realized he was in our class and gave him our contact information in Belize. We’ve stayed in touch the past few years, so we decided to visit on our swing through Austin.
After genuine delicious Texas barbeque, we went back to their house in Buda, which is an Austin suburb. We spent two nights parked on their side street in a very quiet neighborhood while John and Dawn Marie introduced us to their family and gave us the ten cent Austin tour. Austin is the capital of Texas, so we were able to check our first state capital off our list of capitals and National Parks. Austin is a beautiful bustling city, and we visited some of the city parks along the river as well as the capitol itself. We grabbed dinner at Whole Foods and ate in their wine bar, which probably isn’t a big deal to US residents, but after 15 years in Belize it was the height of luxury to us.
After genuine delicious Texas barbeque, we went back to their house in Buda, which is an Austin suburb. We spent two nights parked on their side street in a very quiet neighborhood while John and Dawn Marie introduced us to their family and gave us the ten cent Austin tour. Austin is the capital of Texas, so we were able to check our first state capital off our list of capitals and National Parks. Austin is a beautiful bustling city, and we visited some of the city parks along the river as well as the capitol itself. We grabbed dinner at Whole Foods and ate in their wine bar, which probably isn’t a big deal to US residents, but after 15 years in Belize it was the height of luxury to us.
The next day we left around lunch time and drove to North Austin to meet our friend Becky. Becky is born and bred in Texas and took us to Jack Allen’s Kitchen, which is apparently an Austin institution, but was delicious whether it’s an institution or not. We took advantage of the relatively quiet Sunday to spend a few hours catching up. Becky is an archeologist, and we met her in Belize shortly after we arrived there but haven’t seen her since she was last in Belize 9 years ago, so we had lots of catching up to do on both sides. Becky asked us where we were going after Austin, and when we told her we were heading towards Dallas to visit friends but weren’t looking forward to the Texas interstate traffic, she suggested an alternate route through hill country that avoided the major highways until we were almost in Dallas. And, she recommended a brewery that’s on Harvest Hosts for a night’s stop, as well as a visit to the Dinosaur Valley State Park which was so cool it’s going to get its own blog post.
We said goodbye to Becky and headed for the Jester King Brewery. That Sunday night was the first night we didn’t have a planned stop, so we had just joined Harvest Hosts that morning. After Becky gave Jester King two thumbs up, we made reservations and headed that way on the back roads, which took a little over an hour. We arrived at the brewery, found out where to park, settled the dogs, and headed into the open pole barn where we enjoyed a couple of flights of sample beers, and a good 3-person bluegrass group. We spent a delightfully quiet night in their back parking lot, and in the morning took advantage of their nature trails to walk the dogs. They’re way out in the country, so we actually saw nature on our walk - lots of birds, bugs, squirrels, and even a snake.
We said goodbye to Becky and headed for the Jester King Brewery. That Sunday night was the first night we didn’t have a planned stop, so we had just joined Harvest Hosts that morning. After Becky gave Jester King two thumbs up, we made reservations and headed that way on the back roads, which took a little over an hour. We arrived at the brewery, found out where to park, settled the dogs, and headed into the open pole barn where we enjoyed a couple of flights of sample beers, and a good 3-person bluegrass group. We spent a delightfully quiet night in their back parking lot, and in the morning took advantage of their nature trails to walk the dogs. They’re way out in the country, so we actually saw nature on our walk - lots of birds, bugs, squirrels, and even a snake.
We packed up and headed north on the route Becky had outlined towards Dinosaur Valley State Park.