Austin made the top three. Which in case you haven't been tallying up for yourself, now reads: #1. Chicago
#2. Austin
#3. Minneapolis
It's a close call between Austin and Minneapolis, but I think Austin may take the cake. We were only there two days, but we stayed downtown so we could take it all in. Our hotel was a short walk uphill to the Capital building, which is beautiful. We got in early in the afternoon, and were able to take advantage of the sunny day and sixty degree weather. After skimming a few plaques on statues, we decided to head down Congress Ave to the legendary Sixth Street that everyone kept mentioning. It made me think of a more spacious, less Asian-influenced St. Marks Place. Lots of bars, tattoo shops, a couple bodegas and more than a few sketchy characters hanging around. But definitely very cool looking. We were clearly there far too early, so we made our way back to Congress and got some Mediterranean food. Austin was trying to pull an "Abilene" by not keeping a lot of its restaurants open in the afternoon, but we nabbed a Greek woman and demanded hummus and grape leaves. She sat us down, cooked the food and then served it to us without any one else's assistance. It wasn't stellar, but it was good enough and a very pleasant atmosphere.
From there, we accosted a couple of well-dressed college girls and asked where the boutiques were. They directed us to South College Ave which is over a bridge where you can spot bats between March and November. Tragically, we only saw birds but being actors, we were able to take some photographs in which we acted like we saw bats (see above). The shops we found were indeed very cute, but a bit pricey. I did find something I believe my boyfriend will quite enjoy, and this is a little trick to determine if he is reading. We were given a recommendation to one thrift store that turned out to be a little more Carol Channing than Jennifer Margulis, so with that we called it a day. We found a great burger place called hopdoddy that made a mean veggie patty and had a pretty crazy but efficient setup. We tried to blend in and not out ourselves as tourists, and I imagine it was successful. After filling up on burgers, we walked back over the Congress Ave bridge to Ballet Austin, where a few of us took a Jazz Funk class. Apparently, we were pretty funky, because one of the regulars asked if we were professionals. Oh yeah! To cap off Day 1 in Austin, we hit Pete's Dueling Piano bar, where we were about half the age of anyone else in there and the only people who knew the words to Sublime's "What I Got." There were other stops afterwards that included but were not limited to very cheap shots, discovering sweet tea vodka, dancing to live country music and befriending one of Austin's elusive cab drivers.
Day 2 we actually had to work. But that did not put a halt to the exploration. I ran over Congress Ave bridge in the morning and discovered a small pedestrian bridge a quarter mile out on the dirt trail by the river. It was really pleasant, though quite a bit colder and windier than the day before. We had two packed shows in the Frank Erwin Center, and managed to squeeze in some delicious Indian food in between. After the second show and some freshening up and bundling up, we walked about forty-five minutes across the campus of the University of Texas. The campus is huge and stately, and the main strip is pretty funky. Finally, we arrived at the Spider House, which had been raved about by several parties. And with good cause. It's an old house converted into a restaurant/coffeehouse/bar/chill spot for college kids. We had spiked hot beverages and delicious hot food. They make a veggie philly cheesesteak which is one of my favorite dishes in the entire world. We stayed for a while before fighting a long battle to track down a cab. Once we did, we directed him to Fourth Street to meet up with some friends and hit the gay bars. The first one was very nice until I was told I had to pee outside because I'm a girl! After that, I just went in the men's room - it's not like they were checking me out. We hit a few more clubs on the strip and I tried my hand at being a wing-man. It was a pretty awesome night.
We were sad to leave Austin the next morning, especially because it meant an eight-hour bus ride to Baton Rouge. Which is actually turning out to be quite lovely. Our venue is downtown on the river, so we took a stroll to the water between shows. They have a giant statue of a red stick that is meant to symbolize the town's namesake. We read that the French explorers spotted a bloody stick that was used to indicate hunting quarters and thus the town was named Baton Rouge. The waterfront is very pretty, and the venue was fantastic. Two good cities in a row -- that's a pretty good week.
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