Margaritas & Cupcakes

     So where did I leave off.....oh yeah, so after we got soaked by the monsoon that decided to hover over Austin we drove over to Guero's Taco Bar for some more snacks and margaritas. It was so good, we just had to have it again.  It was nice to sit out on the patio with my man, listening to the dripping rain, watching people pass by, sipping on some tasty margaritas, and dunking our house made tortillas into some awesome queso!

     After our Mexican fiesta, we walked across the street to Hey Cupcake a cupcake truck.  We wanted to bring home some cupcakes for the family.  We got a mini half dozen cupcakes to go.

With our cupcakes in tow, we headed out to Driftwood, Texas for lunch.....

Visiting the Capital

     With our bellies full we thought we would take in some sights.  But where to go?  Why....downtown to see the Capital Building, of course!  I've never been down there, neither has the hubby.  It was nice to drive through the tall buildings and act as tourist for a bit.

We are getting close....

Before we headed inside, these crazy little squirrels came right up to us.

I guess they must have been used to all the people visiting, they weren't shy at all.

Such a pretty building, so much detail was put into it.

There's a lot of history in Austin.

I didn't know you could actually tour the inside. 

After going through some metal detectors, these two statues of 

Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston greet you.

It was so big and beautiful on the inside, so many things to look at.

My favorite was to look up at all the balconies.

And looking down from the top balconies.

We even found one of the elevators that had doors made out of gold, well it looked like gold.

Since the Representatives weren't in session, 

we got to see the inside of the House of Representatives.

We would've checked out the Senate, but it was under construction.

Here's looking from the top balcony.

When we were done looking around, we went to leave and halted in our tracks....

there was a HUGE thunderstorm outside waiting for us.

We waited a bit till it died down, then bared it and ran in the rain back to the car.

We were soaked!  We got a good laugh when we got in the car.

So, in soaked clothes and smiles on our faces,  we drove off in the rain through the puddles to go find those awesome Margaritas we had yesterday!

Cheese? Why yes, I have a bite or two or three....

     So, if you read my last post you know that we stuffed ourselves full of Austin's best and yummiest savory creations all down South Congress Street on our Austin Food Tour.  Well, we didn't stop there!  After enjoying our slice of pizza from Home Slice we furthered our culinary journey to Antonelli's Cheese Shop.  Our friends told us we just had to visit this place, and boy were they RIGHT!  The hubby and I are big cheese heads so for us, we were like two kids in a candy store.  There were all sorts of specialty salamis, prosciutto, peppers, olives and of course CHEESE....We started with the meats and took us a few samples, ok, A LOT of sampling, to finally decide on two really yummy ones.

   
     With the meats chosen we finally headed over to the cheese cases.  Oh man, we didn't know where to start.  Good thing we had our very own Cheese Monger to guide us through the many wheels, wedges, logs, and spreads.  We got to try all sorts of cheese.  Just when I thought I couldn't take another bite, I did, over and over again.  They were just too good not to try!

 

So here's all the scrumptious treats we picked out!

I also picked up a couple of chocolate bars from Lolli and Pops

I really liked the Honeycomb bar by Chauo

     We picked up some strawberries, olives, and wine from HEB and a baguette (from Easy Tiger), then went back to the hotel to put our goodies away and get ready to go to dinner.  We asked some of the local Austinites where a good place to go for dinner and many suggested Vino Vino.  So that's where we went.  I really enjoyed my stuffed quail and barley risotto.  We happened to go on the night they served up big batches of Paella, the hubby tried out the seafood one.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to enjoy our 

tasty tidbits while watching the World Cup.  

WOW! We had a very eventful day of eating and eating and eating!

And the next day we planned on doing more!

Touring Austin One Bite At A Time

     The next morning after that long baseball game, the hubby and I woke up early, packed up the car, then headed up north to Austin (leaving the kiddos with MeeMaw & PapPaw) for a mini vacation within our vacation.  Before leaving for Texas I did some research on Austin and found Austin Eats Food Tours.  This was right up our alley!  We are such foodies and it was perfect!  I secured our spots on the tour online and printed our itinerary.

     We drove into Austin and to the meeting place for the South Congress Walking Tour.  We started our tour at Jo's, a local coffee shop known for it's Turbo Iced Coffee.  The tour guide Chris, brought us some Morning Buns from La Patisserie, which were sooooo AMAZING, to enjoy with the coffee (which I didn't drink, it was WAY too strong, since it was straight up without all the cream or sugar, how I drink it.  I mean, I order white chocolate mochas from Starbucks which is a little espresso, and tons of the other stuff).  After we all (there was about 12 of use total) finished our, well their coffees, and our morning buns, we walked down the street to our next stop on the tour......

   
     Our next stop was Snackbar, a local restaurant attached to the historic Austin Motel.  The owner came out to talk to us about her culinary adventure of opening up her restaurant and the vision behind it.  She was very sweet and shared her favorite and most popular dish, the Tamago Yoko, which is a shrimp, bacon, cabbage & leek hashcake topped with two over medium eggs, wasabi aioli, bonito, and nori.  To be honest it wasn't my ideal snack, but I tried it, on the other hand the hubby LOVED it!

     Our third stop on our culinary journey was Guero's Taco Bar.  Oh man, this place was AWESOME! They had some chicken tacos with in-house made tortillas, chips with three different salsas and the most A-Mazing quesco!  Oh, and I can't forget, the Margaritas!   Everything was delicious!  On a side note, some of the movie Chef, was filmed in their garden.  Now, I really want to see that movie!

   
     Next, we walked down to Hopdoddy, which was created to unite handcrafted Beer (Hop) and hormone/antibiotic free black angus beef (Doddy), the nickname given to the native cow in Aberdeen, Scotland.  Their whole menu looked good!  We tried the Classic Burger accompanied with their Kennebec Fries and then for dessert their famous Salted Caramel Shake.  Oh man, we were stuffed after this stop!  But we pressed on....

     Just when we thought we couldn't eat anymore, we DID!  We crossed the street over to Burro Cheese Kitchen to savor their Croque-Madame.  Which is a spin on a Croque Monsieur.   I would have never thought smoked ham, Fontina cheese, pesto aioli, topped with a fried egg and Dulce de Leche sauce on sourdough bread would marry well, but OMG! It was divine!

     So now that we enjoyed coffee, pastries, hash cakes, tacos, chips with salsa & queso, margaritas, burgers, fries, shakes, and grilled cheese...we had one more stop!  Our last and final stop was Home Slice Pizza.  I tried a slice, it was tasty, but the hubby was so full he couldn't eat another bite, so he just enjoyed some local beer.
   

     After our Food Tour, we were SO full, but very happy and satisfied!  We thanked our guide (tipped him well), then headed out to explore some more of Austin!  If you are looking for something fun and yummy to do in Austin, totally check out Austin Eats Food Tours! You'll have so much fun eating your way through Austin!