Tour Texas - Bastrop & Austin

hey guys! today i am continuing our tour texas spring break adventures throughout texas! how fun is that? my first post on that vacay is here so click it to catch up!

after spending 3 nights at a beautiful limited-use cabin at buescher state park, we made our way through bastrop state park and all the way into downtown. after a quick museum and restroom pit stop, we browsed a bit of downtown bastrop to find a place to eat. i absolutely love finding a hole in the wall type of place, but Gary always feels places like that are sketchy and not worth it. so my opinions are always thrown out the window trash. and if you throw in an extra couple of picky eaters, my opinion matters even less. 

that's why i would never be a very good travel/food blogger. 

the boys protested and demanded pizza. so we went in search of this little place because people kept telling us they had new york style pizza...

after a brief walking excursion of empty bars and little businesses, we finally found Neighbors -- a new place with a ton of charm, not to mention, delicious pizza! 

while our pizza was bakin', i asked andrew if he would take some pictures with me. he agreed only with the condition that he would take the pictures. so off we went to explore this cute little area of Bastrop.

i won't post the pictures he took because i seriously am cringing at my 4 day old cabin hair and my choice of jacket. let's just say we were running really low on clean clothes....

outside was gorgeous, albeit cloudy, but everything was so friendly, as if you'd want to hang out there every lunch and dinner! the inside was equally gorgeous. completely mismatched table sets and the coolest atmosphere imaginable to me. 

we ordered some garlic knots which were so delish and then we had the grease bucket pizza and a pep for the boys. our pizza was so good i didn't even take a picture of it...! 

after our bellies were full, we headed out the establishment with every single person commenting how cute & adorable & smart & talkative elena is. 

i know people, i am the luckiest person on earth and i don't everrrr take it for granted.

we scaled down i don't know how many sets of stairs to get some energy out by the Colorado River...and the boys just --- took off ---- running and running as if they've been captive for 4 days. 

apparently he ran out of gas on the way back because he had to 'take a break'.

when we finally made it back to our van, we packed up and made our way to austin. i totally wanted pictures at some 'internet-worthy' walls around that town, and by golly, we were gettin' them!
thank you husband for never ever complaining about my needs as a creative. i love you so much for it which brings me to....

our first stop: the 'i love you so much' wall at jo's coffee in SoCo...

when we showed up at this wall, it was empty. *gasp* this place is NEVER empty. so i went ahead and started snapping my pictures of the kids not wasting one single second. and then i let Andrew take pictures of his mommy & daddy. slowly but surely, there was a massive crowd in less than 2 minutes--and a really nice girl offered to take our family picture--thank you, you were more than kind! you guys should have heard all the oooh's and awww's from all the strangers. my kids were like rockstars! 

the moment was so freakin' perfect, i will forever treasure these pics. 

and then of course i had to take one by myself to post on my instagram.

ok, i may have over done it on the 'i love you' wall but i'm never going there again (probably) so just hold on to your panties.

we roamed around the streets that were so lively with all the tourists and weird austinites and i absolutely loved the san jose hotel that was just up the road...i mean like, in love. i would have stayed and photographed everything if i wasn't carrying my family of five.

everything was covered in green. i need some landscaping tips from those people. 

and across the street we found heaven, you guys!!! well, not really. it was a cute little RV selling cupcakes. and gary decided we all needed cupcakes. 

andrew, by this point, was having a hard time being my little model. he didn't want his picture taken anymore...

or maybe he just didn't want his chocolate lovers cupcake. i forget which it is...Elena didn't have a problem eating some of daddy's, though.

we piled up in our van, drove a couple of streets over to go take a picture of the 'greetings from...' wall. isn't it cool? i love it so much!!!

the boys were 'camouflaging' with the mural.

we had so much fun browsing streets in austin! they had such cool backdrops to have photoshoots with...

and don't even get me started on the cool houses around those blocks and that landscape!

things i never wanna forget were:

•the fights we had about trucks as backdrops

•the red bathrooms at Jo's coffee that disoriented me and made me dizzy but was the most amazing sh*t ever for a bathroom!

•the kindness of yet another stranger who bravely gave us a shopping bag from her stash upon our checkout at HEB because the city of austin does not allow plastic bags. gary now officially hates austin. 

•the feeling that i love home most of all because austin really scares me. and my inner 20-year old really hates the current 30-year old for saying that....

•i don't wanna forget the inspiration the city gave me for that said home. i don't have to live in austin to be 'weird'.

•i never wanna forget my dedicated husband driving our van while he listens to his audiobook, my feet pressed firmly against the windshield under a blanket and my sleeping babes with hanging heads to the side because they're absolutely exhausted...those are the days i will never want to forget.

so there you go! our austin-in-a-day trip was amaze-ballz. we so wish we could have eaten a meal there but honestly, after our late lunch in bastrop and snacking on cupcakes, we just felt the need to not stuff our faces anymore for a little while.

maybe next time, austin!