Tugboat's Texas Trip - Day 4, Austin

Despite the raging madness of SxSW we still wanted to get downtown Austin and experience some of the city. I was apprehensive from the start of the trip about our day in Austin, feeling it was more something to get through than it would be something to relish. My concern of course lying with the fact that everything we'd want to do, there would be hundreds already doing it and we'd get left in the cold. However, cold was not going to be an issue this day. It was well over 30C! I doffed my shorts for the first time in the trip, although I was careful to also put my jeans in the day bag in case we needed to eat somewhere that required long pants. Such establishments exist where I come from. Chef wore jeans so he could sport his new boots. We didn't have as defined a plan as on the previous days for this one but had a list of things to knock out so we took some time, and enjoyed the VIP lounge of the hotel, as we had access due to Chef's fancy credit card, before tossing our bags in the back and shoving off. Traffic was predictably a nightmare as we got deeper into the city. I jumped out at an intersection and Chef got us a parking spot right across from the Austin Visitor Center in a premium lot that sported an attendant, something not usually seen so far in Texas. I had to jump out to run into the aforementioned Center to book us a bus tour of the city. The one we had our eye on wasn't running because of SxSW so we got on a more extensive tour. We had some time to kill before departure so we walked for lunch. We had decided to go to Stubbs BBQ, which wasn't far off.

I enjoyed the meal, especially the okra but looking at the ratings, it wasn't even close to a highly rated BBQ joint. For instance, as we drove into downtown we re-routed to fly by Franklin BBQ, the top rated place. There was a lineup of over 100 people outside well before they open. We heard stories about people camping overnight to get a taste and also about people selling spots online or taking orders for money. We were warned that we'd never get in there but Chef wanted to see why. Lunch was quite filling so we decided to go for a walk. We checked online and saw that tours of the Texas Capitol Building were free, thirty minutes, and within walking distance. All things that worked for our tour schedule. We struck off for the giant dome on the horizon. The building was very impressive, the tour was also a smart choice. We learned a lot about the history of the state. We took advantage of some fancy bathrooms, toured the gift shop and made our way back down the main drag of Austin for our tour. 

The tour itself was very illuminating. We learned more about the history of Austin itself but also the surrounding area and a lot of question we never thought of were answered. Neither Chef nor the Tugboat realized that Austin was on an escarpment and that elevation was the dividing line between a green Texas and a brown Texas. The Hill Country was cool for more reasons than that though. We saw some lakes, million dollar homes, toured through UT and got a taste for the culture, all in 90 minutes! It wasn't a cheap tour but we got excellent value out of it. After the tour ended we slipped into a bar that Chef had heard of called Moonshine Grill because it was across the street and we wanted a beer. We settled for two beers, planning to have an early dinner and try to get into the Rodeo. Those plans went awry when we got approached by a guy who wanted to talk about Canada. It was a really fun chat, eventually including a dude from Columbia University somehow. We ended up being given free Bellemeade bourbon to try and it all went on longer than planned. This spelled the end of the rodeo for us. We still planned to get dinner, although the location was well out of downtown. We decided to leave the car where it was, since we'd paid so much and had had a couple of drinks, and to take an Uber up there. We got to Black's BBQ around 6pm and were pleased to find a short line. This BBQ was closer to top 10 for the state. I let Chef handle the ordering, which was a mistake. He basically ordered a half pound of everything on the menu! When in Rome I guess. We got our food and settled in for a feast. I snapped a couple of pictures. It was amazing food.

After we decided we could contain no more BBQ, we waited, primarily because we couldn't get up. I'd like to give some advice here, try to avoid eating big meals of BBQ twice in one day unless you are trained to do so. Once we were able to move again we chose to walk partway back to the car to help with digestion. Eventually we got an Uber going. Somehow that walk must have made some space because Chef tricked me into going to Voodoo Donuts with him for a special dessert.

I made short work of the surprisingly light pastry and we stepped outside into the hot night to wander back to the car. We ended up walking through a big part of SxSW. I've been to Mardi Gras in my time and this festival was much crazier. The sheer volume of people was impressive, the number of establishments involved was staggering. We only went through a corner of it. The numbers of people that come for it were starting to make sense. We were bloated and exhausted from the heat at this point, planning to get back to the hotel and maybe have one more beer somewhere before bed. I'm going to continue the story in the next post.