Austin is Awesome

Hi y'all. I'm a down here in Texas visiting my sister. Everone is just so nice. Really. They're thoughtful, helpful and cheerful. Today my sister's friend said to me,"Hope y'all have a great time on the rest of y'all's trip." I didn't know you could put two y'alls in a sentence. Wow.

It's spring in Texas. The air is sweet and warm and smells like cherry blossoms the minute you step outside. The brown tree branches trees are getting those bright green leaves on them. I love their color when they first come out. As it gets hotter they fade to a calmer green, but right now they're absolutely shouting, "Hey y'all out there, look at me! It's spring! Didn't y'all know?" And it's about 70 degrees, the perfect temperature in most people's estimation.

The first night we arrived we ate dinner at this great Southern comfort food restaurant called Thredgills. It's the kind of place that bills macaroni and cheese and grits with gravy as a "vegetable." So you know you're gonna feel like you died and gone to heaven with every bite that goes into your mouth. You can practically hear your arteries saying, "Brace yourselves, pecan crusted chicken is on it's way down!" That's what I had, by the way. It was a divine dish. I love anything with pecans (or as Texans say it PECAAAAANs). So I was in the right place. My nephew Sam ordered fried catfish and my brother in law was in heaven with his meatloaf and "vegetable" sides of mashed potatoes and gravy and San Antonio squash, which was doing the backstroke in cheese and butter.

When it came time for dessert, we all declined because we were so full. Later my sister told me that the peach cobbler at Thredgills is legendary. It's the most delicious dessert ever, mostly because it's made with six (yes 6) squares of butter. Yee haw! Plastering your arteries with cement would probably be better than eating that peach cobbler. It would have been nice to try one bite. Just to say you tasted the best peach cobbler on the planet. Needless to say I did my sister's workout DVD called "The Firm" this afternoon to counteract any damage that delightful dinner may have done.

Austin has a great night life, so my sister tells me. Bands were playing all around and people were just sitting outside in the beautiful weather enjoying the breeze and the music. Tonight we went to a great Mexican restaurant called Curros. My brother in law was again in heaven with his chilis rejenos. He said, "Thanks so much for coming so we can go to all my favorite restaurants!" I loved my vegetable enchilads and black beans and rice. Guess what? The enchiladas were stuffed with tons of vegetables like zuchini, yellow squash, mushrooms and onions. There was no macaroni and cheese in sight. Another wonderful dinner.

Then we went to the Whole Foods Market where I was astounded by the assortment of incredibly attractive looking foods. What's so cool about it is that all the clerks are sort of hippie/granola types and I had just as much fun looking at them as I did the very attractively displayed foods and other organic goods. The coolest thing in the stores was a huge wheel of organic cheese--some sort of fancy French cheese--for $279.00! It was literally the size of a wagon wheel. Antother bizarre thing was the Adriatic fig cake that looked like a Christmas fruit cake that had healthy things in it like, well, figs and other brown things. One more cool thing was the handpainted cookies that cost $10.99 a pound! I could have stayed in there all night, but it was off to the Bookpeople bookstore. Wow!! Another place I could have just moved into and felt very comfortable for at least six months.

So that was my first 24 hours in Austin. I'm having a great time. Leah is enjoying playing with her cousin Sam (the one who ate catfish at Thredgills) and his brother and sister. (They had salmon and chicken fried steak, respectively, by the way.)

Tomorrow it's off to do more fun things in downtown Austin. Until then, hope y'all have a great night tonight, OK, y'all?