Ed’s boss gave him his tickets for the UT game this weekend, so we took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and also visit our friends Mike and Carla, who moved to Austin about the same time we moved to Dallas. Actually, they live in Lakeway, which is out by where the UT golf course is (Lake Travis, the Oasis, etc.), which is why we haven’t stayed with them before. Usually when we visit Austin, it’s to do something in Austin proper, so we need to stay closer in.

Anyway, what a fun weekend! Mike and Carla are fun, their house is great, and their area is building up so there are wonderful restaurants and hiking trails just like in town.

Friday night we ate a wonderful home-cooked meal and then hung out on their back deck and then used the hot tub. Saturday we went for a hike and then the game. The game was pretty exciting. Texas is not doing well this year, but this week against an admittedly lesser team, they did well, and we got to see a genuine successful Hail Mary pass with four seconds left in the first half. And the only downer (a player getting hit hard at the start of the game, not moving his twisted body for 20 minutes or so, and then being carried off in a stretcher) turned out okay. Apparently he was knocked out and not paralyzed, and was able to fly home with his team.

That night we went to a new restaurant, Steiner Ranch Steakhouse. Great food (I had scallops though), great view, and firepit and a singer with a guitar outside, and a pianist inside (it is Austin after all, there is music everywhere). Afterwards we had a fire on Mike and Carla’s back porch. Mike and Ed stayed up until almost three. Carla and I did not.

Sunday we went to Trattoria Lisina at the Duchman Family Winery in Driftwood for lunch. Great Italian restaurant, somehow connected to Damian Mandola (there is drama here, but we couldn’t get to the bottom of it) of Houston. Erica drove in on fumes to meet us. Afterward, we took a look at the wine-making facilities and then played a little bocce at the court by the restaurant. Ed and I have decided we like bocce, and could probably make a court in the unused part of our driveway.

We stopped in Wimberley, TX next. We had been there before years ago. It’s a quaint little Texas town that attracts artists, people wanting a second home in the Hill Country, and tourists. There we met the Boot Whisperer, a German woman who has a shop that stocks hundreds of second-hand cowboy boots. She takes one look at your socked foot, looks you over and picks the perfect boots for you. Mike tried it out, and she pegged his boots on the first try. He wasn’t actually in the market for boots though, so no sale. She was fascinating to talk to though.

Ed is very proud that he was able to identify a tree in  Mike and Carla’s backyard that nobody recognized. He only spent about 4 hours on Google, but now we know, it’s a Chinese tallow tree. He would be upset if I didn’t mention that.