My dear friend Simone and I were in Austin for a few days. She flew in Thursday from Toronto and we headed to Austin directly from DFW. We left Saturday morning since she headed back to Toronto this morning and needed cuddle time with her favorite G, Guinness, and her favorite shoe-a-holic Bruce so they could clean out DSW (Designer Shoe Warehouse) before she left. Just doing her part for the US economy!

It’s only a three hour drive to Austin from Dallas and now that the highway is vastly improved, it didn’t really seem like that big of a deal. Besides we spent the whole time gabbing and catching up, eating lunch and looking for signs for the huge outlet mall in Round Rock (if you are in search of bargains on summer clothes, I highly recommend it.)

Besides horseback riding with our pals Topper and Julius on Friday evening, Simone and I made sure to do plenty of touristy stuff (including more shopping on South Congress Avenue):

Food truck on South Congress! And yes, the cupcakes are delicious.

We bought t-shirts (although not these exact ones)

We ate the best pizza in the universe Friday night after our backcountry adventure—and I am not kidding. I’ve eaten a lot of pizza in my life (hazard of late nights in the advertising world) and I would drive three hours to Austin just for Home Slice Pizza.

the queen of pies neon sign

One of their amazing pizzas and their awesome caesar salad

they make me feel special

Don’t worry, we’re bringing Bruce our leftovers and a little gift so he doesn’t feel so bad missing out on the deliciousness. He was so jealous!

A major touristy thing: Austin Duck Adventures! This bus is also a boat.

We even went on the Austin Duck Adventures city tour on Friday morning (it leaves from the aforementioned Visitor’s Center). Our driver/guide Vic was hilarious. I highly recommend this tour just for the novelty of it since you drive all around Austin and learn the history, then drive around Lake Austin and feel the cool breezes coming off the water. But if you don’t appreciate little kids blowing duck calls along to funny songs, don’t bother. It’s a little noisy. I loved it.

this is the gift they give you with the tour: a beak-shaped duck call

Splash down into Lake Austin

Did you know that the Texas State Capitol is taller than the US Capitol building in DC?

When we got back to the visitor’s center where the tour starts, I heard a couple asking where to buy cowboy boots. They looked like fashionable people with a little bit of discretionary income burning a hole in their pockets.

Simone at Austin Visitor’s Center

The cashier recommended Allen’s but said, “it’s really expensive,” which is true, but not if you’re in the market for perhaps the only pair of cowboy boots your East Coast self might need for an entire lifetime. She also mentioned that it’s far from the visitor’s center, which it is not if you are fit and sporty looking which they were.

They looked sad so I said, “do you have a car? You could try Cavenders, it’s where I got my boots.” (Yes, both Simone and I purchased cowboy boots a couple of years ago when she was visiting. They came in handy for horseback riding.) Again, they looked sad and said no. So I said, “You should check out Allen’s. They actually have boots in a variety of price ranges and if you’re only thinking of buying cowboy boots once, it will make a good story.”

They perked up and I said “It’s not that far, but we’re going that way, so we can drop you off.”

They were surprised, but thankful I offered. So we drove them over even though they said, “we never accept rides from strangers.” I said, “we’re not strangers, we’ve been on the duck tour together for the past 2 hours.” They laughed.

They were nice people from Binghamton, NY (him) and NC (her). Seemed like they were old friends, on a fun getaway, just like Simone and me. After making a couple of jokes about the potential of two Canadian ladies being serial killers and asking us to at least have the courtesy to call their parents and let them know what happened, we headed out. We chatted about Toronto and the CN Tower, how awesome Austin is, and how my Prius reminded the guy of an Alero (I think that’s an Oldsmobile, but I’m not sure). We drove them through the back roads of the South Congress neighborhood so they could see the cute little cottage houses and beautiful landscaping and told them a bit about Verde Camp, the place where we stayed and where Bruce and I stay every time we come to Austin. (more about Verde Camp tomorrow)

It took us all of 15 minutes to leave the parking structure and get to Allen’s by car. It was hardly out of our way since our next plan was to walk around on South Congress after we dropped off the purchases we made at the Visitor’s Center.

They thanked us when we dropped them off and waved bye to us. Hopefully they got the boots. Maybe we’ll run into them again on another adventure.

Yes, I did my part to keep Austin weird during our weekend, but so did Simone. And she started early.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, on the way down, we stopped at the giant outlet mall in Round Rock for a little retail therapy. We both were looking for stuff to wear to work as the weather got warmer. Well, Simone is a good shopper and has a knack for helping people find the perfect outfit. That is why I have a huge bag of work clothes to bring back to Dallas—I managed to find nearly all of the things on my shopping list and my spring/summer/fall wardrobe will look awesome.

Not only did Simone help me, she also helped a lady that we met at the Loft outlet find a dress for her son’s upcoming June wedding. Anna was really unhappy and hadn’t found the right dress even though she had been shopping for days. She had friends, the bridesmaids, her kids, her future daughter-in-law help her to no avail. And the wedding would be outside which is going to be surface of the sun hot down in the Austin area. Lots of roadblocks!

After unsuccessfully trying on dresses at Loft, Simone convinced Anna to follow us to Ann Taylor and try on a few things. She started to protest that it wasn’t the kind of store she shopped in and they would have nothing for her. Simone wasn’t having any of that. She told Anna if she wanted to find a dress she needed to come along.

Well, like usual, Simone was right. Anna left with a beautiful sleeveless blue dress that really flattered her body and made her look like the mother-of-the-groom. And we gave her another friend’s contact info so she could get jewelry help (she sells it online).

Simone even told her what shoes to get (nude or black) when she went to DSW—Anna is a fan also. She was so happy she wanted to pay Simone or give her something, but Simone said to just pay it forward and help someone else.

It was a great trip. And we lived up to the Austin vibe.

One of the official beverages of Austin

And here is your gratuitous (and funny, at least to me) dog photo:

Gidget, mid-bark