The Wonderful Wonderful Weekend

The rain did not even think about going away on Saturday, so I was given the car keys and my cousin Christian and sent to Main Event to play arcade games and laser tag. He insisted on being on the opposing team so that he could shoot at me as much as possible. Our points? Christian: 9,236, Laura: 2,100. This could be due in part to the fact that I didn't listen to directions and therefore wasn't properly operating my gun for a quarter of the game. Doh! We took the scenic route home through all the beautiful rolling hills, and I tried to soak up the loveliness of it all. Tried to do it without remembering that The Texan was staying in the very neighborhood I was driving through. Tried unsuccessfully.

Crit and I were not ready to head home just yet, so we hung out at the nearby mall for a couple of hours. He was determined to find something for $1 that I could buy him, because that was all the cash I had in my wallet. Confident he couldn't do it, I was shocked to hear the salesperson at Journeys say "That chain is 99 cents." Oh, the look on Crit's face!

Dinner that night at Central Market was delicious, much moreso than I expected, and we each grabbed our choice pint of Blue Bell (mine: chocolate brownie overload) and bulk candy for another movie night at home.

*You could stop reading now since I'm simply relaying nearly each and every detail of my vacation, but you'd be missing out on the fabulousness that was Sunday!*

Pink and I had planned to get together ever since we knew I was coming to Austin, but meeting up was even easier than we expected. It turns out that she attends the same church that my cousins do! We met in the foyer after the service, and it was easy to spot her across the room. Her family was just as adorable as they are in their pictures. After a deep-dish pizza at BJ's, we went ice skating downtown on top of Whole Foods headquarters. The day was perfectly chilly for it, and we warmed up with some hot chocolate afterward . . and a fruit tart. They took me up to Mount Bonnell to see some breathtaking views of Hill Country and Lake Austin, and her husband willingly snapped some excellent pictures of us. :) Thinking our time together might be over, I was excited to hear that he was willing to hang out with their boys while Pink and I went out, just the two of us! We worked up an appetite getting lost on our way to Salt Lick (out in the boonies), but the meal was more than worth the drive. It had been ten years since I'd tasted that bar-b-que, and it was every bit as amazing as I remembered. The brisket, the pork ribs, the potato salad, the bread, the beans, and the best bar-b-que sauce of my life! We sat on the old wooden benches next to the fire and ate to our hearts' content. And there was no way we were leaving without some blackberry cobbler and pecan pie a la mode. From there, we headed to The Continental Club, the only place playing live music on a Sunday night. What a perfect Texas experience though, as the well-known old hole has been around since the Fifties. The honky-tonk music put a big smile on my face, and I was able to do some two-stepping with a pretty talented dancer, fancy spins and all! Pink and I had a great time talking and sipping the Shirley Temples provided by my dance partner, and if the band hadn't taken a break, I'm not sure we ever would have left!

I feel so blessed that we were able to meet and spend such a great day together! Another testament to how rewarding blogging can be! Like I told the guy at the club, "We're not strangers. We've known each other for two years!"

*Pink wrote about our time together, too, and she caught some things I didn't mention in my post.*