Weekend in Austin

We drove to Austin in February to meet family who flew in for the SXSW festival. Despite it being a short trip, we found a lot to love in Austin.

We kicked off our trip with the SXSW playlist. We visited the recommended hot spots from seasoned visitors (and fell in love with Joe's Coffee). Darryl especially enjoyed the food truck culture. We're excited to return to Austin this summer and potentially in the fall too!

Walking around downtown and South Congress, I discovered the graffiti artist culture. Enjoy a few snapshots below.

Location: Downtown by the Mexican Art Museum

Location: Downtown. Part of a larger mural.

Location: South Congress

Detail from the photo above

Location: South Congress

Location: South Congress

Baby I Like It

I want to say it was 2002 when Monica and I won tickets to see Enrique Iglesias from a radio station. We were giddy as school girls and we didn't care that they were lawn seats at the Shoreline.


One day in January, I was scanning tweets and discovered a contest to win a trip to Miami, meet Enrique Iglesias, and see him in concert. I dared Monica to enter on a whim. The contest closed that day.


Monica later tells me she received my text in a theatre waiting for a movie to begin. She entered the contest. Why not?


And guess what?

View from our hotel room



Getting ready to meet Enrique



At the meet and greet

Enrique and Gina

We feel the Euphoria (name of his tour)

Concert photo courtesy of Monica

Concert photo courtesy of Monica

Pitbull cameo, photo courtesy of Monica

It couldn't get better right? Oh it did... Karin docked in Miami the next day and I hung out with her while we exchanged trip stories.

Northeast and American Southwest

December was a whirlwind of holidays and travel. I was in Boston for work, then we travelled to Connecticut to visit family. We were very lucky to enjoy a private tour of ESPN available to family and friends of ESPN employees.

We ran around on the set for SVP Show which is the same as College Countdown, NFL Countdown, NBA Countdown, and the ESPN in game updates set. (Click on any photo to see hi res version.)


Darryl on set

We saw Scott Van Pelt and crashed the set... 
 



Gina on set

 We met the people from SportsNation.

June, Darryl, Michelle Beadle (host), Gina and Brenda



June, Darryl, Marcellus Wiley (Guest Host), Gina and Brenda

And we hung out in the 2010 World Cup Soccer Room.

All chairs were "fitted" with national jerseys

The closest Gina has gotten to Tim Howard... so far...

Next, we were off to Tucson for some desert fun. We enjoyed the butterfly exhibit at the Tucson Botanical Garden.

And a few of the butterflies enjoyed us...

Jay

Gina

It was a gorgeous day, so we spent considerable time in the gardens.

Claudette, Jay and Darryl

Mini cactus

I swear this cactus is giving shakas

When Opa meets Dallas

Since we arrived, we spent time exploring Dallas on our own. Monica was our first visitor to Dallas. To honor her visit, we took her to Aphrodite's Palace.

To redeem ourselves, we also went to a Cowboy's game.

Darryl and I volunteered to plant flowers at a local park.

We also checked out the very first Neiman Marcus and their inspired"out of this world" holiday window displays.

Talimena Scenic Drive

Darryl frequently teases me for not knowing "the states in the middle", as I like to call them. But I was the one who suggested we spend our Sunday on a 12 hour drive through 3 states to see the beauty of the Talimena Scene Drive. The byway itself is approximately 50 miles between the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders. The drive boasts beautiful fall foliage, reminscent of my New England childhood.

We started out heading north for about 3.5 hours to Oklahoma. Most of the area reminded me of driving up 101 North once it becomes a two-lane freeway. At some point we stopped at a Walmart for a potty break. Sighting: An entire family dressed in hunting gear (camo and orange). Coincidentally, Walmart is known to be a huge gun retailer.

The scenic drive was amazing and we stopped for many photo ops. Towards the end of the Talimena trail we hit some pretty dense fog, worse than the likes of San Francisco fog. Visibility got to be less than 25 feet, which made for a very slow drive.

Arkansas was my first time seeing real rural America. There were lots of chicken farms (Tyson's) and now I know where most chickens come from. We started to spy some pretty amazing lightening storms to the East.

Texas welcomed us back with an impressive and incredibly scary hail storm. Visibility turned to zero and we had to pull to the side of the freeway until it passed. The hail was huge, but our car thankfully survived without any dents.

Ouachita Mountains and valley below

Change of leaves light up the hill

Neon-like bursts of color along the drive

My favorite was the fiery red leaves

Another favorite were the limbs turning green to orange and yellow

Dallas food finds

"There’s a scene in “The Hurt Locker,” right after Staff Sgt. William James (played by Jeremy Renner) returns from Iraq, when he goes to the grocery store with his wife. She asks him to pick out a box of cereal, and in the absurd contrast of a combat zone and a cereal aisle, he becomes paralyzed by the choice." by Josie Cellone  Watch the scene here.


While there are many grocery stores in Hong Kong, nothing compares to the abundance in a US grocery store or warehouse store. Darryl and I were simply in awe during our first few grocery store visits. We spent an hour inside Whole Foods just walking the aisles, looking and appreciating every item. After the initial shock, we became giddy with joy over the things we'd cook and eat.


And of course we wouldn't be us if we didn't photograph some silly food finds...

What the what?... Found at Ranch 99

Longhorn Vanilla... Found at Sprinkles (Hook 'em horns)

Fried butter... Found at the State Fair

BBQ Baked Potato... Found at Whole Foods

Ono grinds... Found at Ranch 99

For more, check out Things I did not eat at the Texas State Fair.