Ever since my friend moved from Seattle to Austin two years ago with her accommodating husband and two small children, all I've heard is how wonderful Austin is. "Austin has fabulous weather, Austin has great parks, lakes and nature, Austin this and Austin that. You must move to Austin." During Seattle's miserable rainy, cold winters I'd get daily updates on her whereabouts and wardrobe, "It's 85 F, I'm at the pool in flip flops and bikini!" Anyone I've ever spoken to about Austin insists that it's a marvelous, hip, and liberal minded city. I'm not really doubting that, but my only concern is that it's surrounded by TEXAS.
As an unaffordable, yet seemingly necessary research project, I finally went to Austin to see for myself. On Tuesday afternoon, my friend and her two year old met me at the airport and whisked me off to the beautiful Steiner Ranch where they live. Actually, it's where they live, play, work, go to school, shop, eat out, drink. It's a self-contained community which offers so many amenities no one ever leaves. Seriously, they even have more than one liquor store, and one is a drive-through! How convenient is that for those stay-at-home-moms? My friend assured me she'd show me around and we'd get downtown where the single folks hang. I wasn't worried...yet.
That first afternoon, she gave me a little tour of the area on the way back from the airport, then a tour of Steiner Ranch with a stop off at one of the liquor stores. We headed back to her home where her new pool is currently being built, located inside a gated development amongst other ginormous homes with fancy wancy pools. She and I began with a celebratory cocktail on her balcony with an expansive view of lush greenery (Who knew? In Texas?) and started gabbing. We left to go listen to some of Austin's live music at a local joint in Steiner Ranch, then stopped by one of her friend's homes for a nightcap. One gin and tonic and three bottles of champagne later, we staggered back to hers and tucked ourselves in. We'll start again tomorrow.
The next day was a bit of a slow start. Although the kids were up early and off to school, my friend wasn't able to peel herself off the sofa to go for a morning walk around the neighborhood. I left her to nurse her hangover and went exploring on my own. At 9.30 a.m. the temps were already climbing, but still pretty comfortable for a power walk. When I returned, she was feeling much better so we went for a drive and landed at an exceptional lunch spot, The Oasis, which overlooks Lake Travis.
From there she showed me Mt Bonnell, where we hoisted our very full bellies up a long fairly steep set of steps to see the views of Lake Austin. And there, in the distance, I saw downtown Austin. "We'll get there," she promised. Heck, it's only day two. I'm not worried. Although I did take a picture, just in case.
After our excursion, we went home to prepare for a night out with the girls, live music at the Steakhouse in Steiner Ranch. It was a lovely setting with the sun set in the background, good music and her friends were great fun. Being around all these gorgeous, thin, wonderfully dressed mommies was beginning to give my self-confidence a workout, but I just pushed on and tried not to fret. My friend kept assuring me there were women of all sizes and shapes, but I only saw fit stunning women everywhere we went.
Day three's schedule was to include renting wave runners on Lake Travis, Bunko with the girls and then on downtown for nightlife. Uh oh. Bunko? I'm starting to get concerned now. I know what happens at Bunko and I'm not seeing a trip downtown afterward being too likely. However, I don't want my friend to completely cater to me and give up her entire life just because I'm visiting. She already re-scheduled her kids' school pickups, had friends and family help out with watching them so we could go play, and she had been paying for everything. I offered to go downtown one day on my own so she wouldn't be inconvenienced. She insisted she really wanted to go downtown since she doesn't get to very often. In the end, she decided to skip Bunko altogether. I'm sure her friends were disappointed.
Our night out downtown was fun and included the typical night out activities of music, drinking, dancing, a lot of laughs and 2 a.m. pizza in the cab ride home. I was woken by two little children jumping on my bed giggling and playing. Who can be crabby with that going on? After hauling them off to there perspective schools, we 'napped' for a couple more hours before packing up and heading out. We returned downtown for lunch, a tour of Zilker Park, and a walk around town before my very long flight home (flight delays and layovers turned a seven hour trip into ten hours. Better coming home than going!)
So what do I think of Austin? Well, the homes are big, the cars are big, it's pretty sprawled out, the tempuratures are hot and the women are beautiful, but other than that, it's not really Texas.
It is actually quite beautiful, the people were very friendly. Unlike Seattle where getting a greeting from a passerby can prove challenging, total strangers wave to each other in Austin. I'm sure I could live there happily enough if I had a job. Frankly, if I had a decent job, I think I could live anywhere happily enough at this point.
