Austin
Dodgies or not… that is the question….
Wow where to start.. I guess the beginning makes sense.
My birthday was coming up and I needed to get away, my girlfriends (The Dodgies) couldn’t make this trip, so I decided to fly solo and head to Austin anyway!
I stayed at The Driskill hotel the Driskill had a rich history.. by that, I mean as you enter it feels as if you are walking back to a time of pure decadence with all its spectacular decor. This hotel is beautiful and ideally placed near music and great food, for me it was all about the service which was as well as the hotel, outstanding!
Service..
All of the staff were extremely tentative and went above and beyond, especially when I needed ideas of what, when and where to go for the day. I am not, nor have ever been the person to follow a strict schedule when on holiday, but I needed some key places or at least starting points to plan around. I suppose you could call it a schedule of sorts.
- Where to shop to purchase my first pair of cowboy boots “Allen’s Boots“
- Restaurants for my favorite food being Italian, oysters which were a must for my birthday, and of course sushi.
Now…. don’t hold it against me, I know I’m in Texas and should be eating great barbecue, and YES it was on my list of food to have before leaving Austin. So to all those haters out there, I found Lamberts a fantastic barbecue joint on the corner of West 2nd Street and Guadalupe Street. I loved it, ok, maybe not as much as sushi or a really good Indian, but yes I did LOVE Lamberts.
South Congress
On the first night (my birthday) I went to Perlas, an oyster and seafood restaurant and was greeted by a wonderful waitress named Aly. After being seated, Aly came to take my order. I knew I wanted oysters and ordered two of every kind, east and west coast, and as usual the east coast were my favorite. The rest of my birthday meal I left up to Aly to choose the menu and surprise me, and she did not let me down in any shape or form. Aly served me the best birthday meal ever.
After eating, I headed over to the “Continental Club”, for a night cap. The Continental club is a small bar with live music, and a great place to end the evening. I then sauntered back to my hotel, before I got myself in any kind of trouble….
Now, one of The Dodgies suggested I meet up with some friends of hers while I was in town. So why not, I thought, it couldn’t hurt so we exchanged numbers and much to my suprise they reached out, which to be perfectly honest I didn’t expect. I am after all, a good 20 years older and they didn’t know me from Adam, (who is this Adam people always reference anyway?).
We arranged to meet up for dinner and they were the most authentic, fun and OMG so in love couple you could ever meet. I hope that if I work out what love actually is some day, that it would look something like the way these two were together. We ate, talked and even shared a blanket as it was a little chilly out. After a great dinner, they asked what I would like to do next? WHOA… THEY AREN’T BORED WITH ME YET. They suggested perhaps more food, music, and wait for it, a drag show. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been to a drag show so I jumped at the chance. Now, Let me tell you these performers were fantastic, and their makeup was immaculate, don’t get me wrong I did expect to be, but after being shown a picture of one performer before makeup, I mean you would not recognize him if you passed him in the street. The whole evening was fabulous and the company even better. Thank you guys!
I had only a couple of other things that I knew I wanted to do, those were to visit the Texas State Capitol and the LJB Presidential Library which still had the “Lady Bird: Beyond the Wildflowers” temporary exhibition on show until Aug 23, 2023. It did not disappoint and was well worth the visit.
Now, even though it was empowering traveling alone and I had a lot of fun, met some amazing people and made new friends, with all that said.., I miss having company on a trip and so it begs the question posed at the beginning….
Dodgies or not?
