Last weekend, Tamie and I met Tony and Alice Elkins in Austin, Texas, for his 49th birthday weekend. We stayed at the Barton Creek Spa and Resort. Five minutes after we got to our room, a storm descended on the resort. You can see from the pictures how the valley disappeared when the rain hit.
Friday we spent the day ziplining - WHAT A BLAST! We had never been before, but we all had a great time. We had such a good time that we went back that afternoon for the more challenging course. During that time, we zipped with the Fluke Family from Beaumont, Texas. Come to find out, we are almost related. He is a lawyer. Their oldest son, not on the trip with them, is a JR. at BAYLOR, and he's pre-dent. The oldest daughter, Erin, is about to be a Fish at ATM. We invited her to join us for Thursday night dinners. Caroline, the younger daughter will be a high school freshman. Maybe we can influence her to follow her brothers better example. Friday night was dinner at Gumbo's. GREAT New Orleans style restaurant in downtown Austin. As long as you didn't look outside, you would thing you were in the French Quarter. The Blackened Shrimp was served over etoufee. Magnifique!
Saturday we split up. The Elkins went hiking on Barton Creek and saw Mama Mia. Tamie and I went to downtown Austin and hung out on SoCo, or South Congress to the un-initiated. Had a great lunch, did some shopping, and hit Amy's Ice Cream. Woohoo! ( you know Erratts and their ice cream) We found a shop called Ten Thousand Villages. It's a store that features fair trade articles from around the world. If you need a present for "someone who has everything", buy them a "singing bowl" from 10,000 Villages. I got two pounds of fair trade coffee and Avery's birthday present. Tamie found 4 necklaces she had to have, together with several sets of earrings. She also found a necklace for Alice. Which she wore to dinner at III Forks. Which was also wonderful. The rest of 'em had steak, but I had the Lamb Chops. Tamie and I shared a spicy Lobster Bisque which was quite different and very good. In case you wondered, yes we do travel on our stomachs.
After dinner, we took a walk down 6th Street. It was almost as much fun as Bourbon St., but much cleaner and not as many drunks. Found a good jazz bar and hung out for awhile. Tony's co-worker, aka the Camera Stealer, was in the bar and even had "my" camera. I'll explain later, if you're interested. The punchline is that I ended up with my Nikon D70 with 4 lenses for about half of what he paid for his camera and 3 lenses.
Sunday, we had a brunch buffet at the resort, packed up and departed for home. We picked up Mrs. Honea on the way and dropped her off in Hempstead with Uncle Sonny. Saved him a drive to Austin and back to pick her up. She and I had a wonderful conversation while Tamie napped in the back. We didn't talk about her, though. Just in case she was just pretending to be asleep.
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