Urban Exploring

One of my favorite things to do in a town is to find random neighborhoods and just explore, eat, shop, and take pictures. Austin is a great city for this because each neighborhood here has a distinct feel to it that separates it from the next few blocks down the road. One of my favorite people to explore around Austin with is my old co-worker, Mason.

He knows absolutely everything about this city. His list of weird and amazing restaurants and shops seems almost endless and he's very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy so we hop from place to place for hours. A few days ago we went to see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the Dobie Theatre on the UT campus (Amazing movie, btw). Most people would allow 3 hours for a movie excursion: drive time, snack bar time, preview time, movie time, drive time. We gave it 6 hours, with only the slight adventure of getting snow cones added to our itinerary, we were certain it would turn into a bigger exploration and we needed more time to allot.

First, we went to dinner at House Pizza. This restaurant was wonderful. Its casual but has a strong hint of elegance instilled in the details. The napkins were cloth and quite sturdy as opposed to silky, which who needs silk when wiping cheesy grease from your lips? Good thinking guys. Water is served to you in a chilled glass corked bottle, along side tiny toast glasses. The paint was bright and eye catching, alerting your senses and increasing your sensitivity to your surroundings and eventually, your food. The tables were a beautiful dark wood grain and the hanging lamps were cloth, providing little light but a great amount of mood setting. Mason and I ordered a Margarita Extra which is a Margarita pizza made with Mozzarella from water buffalo milk. I was intrigued and a bit terrified at the same time, but I enjoyed it a lot. With two Mexican Coca-Colas to compliment the pizza, the meal was terrific. 

  

    

After pizza, we walked around the corner to get snow cones. Following a mildly horrifying experience with a bee crawling across my stomach, I bolted towards the sidewalk where I smoked a cigarette and yelled my order across the short lawn to the woman behind the counter, apologizing and being riddled with anxiety. Mason kindly and bravely walked through the bee crossing between the order window and the sidewalk and brought me my tamarind snow cone. It was delicious, thank god, because I would have been upset if I went through that experience all to get a mediocre snow cone. But such was not the case. 

After snow cones, we walked around the neighborhood for a bit before it was time to head to campus to see the movie. In all the times I've walked past the Dobie Mall, I've never actually been in there before. It was kind of cool. Its not really much of a mall from what I could tell, but they did have a food court that smelled really good. haha. The movie theatre was really cool. There are only four theatres and they are each themed different. Our movie was apparently in the least favorite of the four, the Art Deco room. It wasn't really decorated hardly at all. I did catch a peek into the Egyptian room on my way to the bathroom though and it looked awesome. There is also apparently a library themed room and one with gargoyles? I'll definitely be heading back here to check out the other rooms and a few movies I'm looking forward to. Namely, The Killer Inside Me. Nothing like sexy Casey Affleck and psycho killers.

Tonight, I'm going to my friend Ellie's parents' ranch near Bull Creek for a barbecue. I think there will be a bonfire and we can pet the horses and ride around on the ATVs and drink. I'm quite looking forward to it! Pictures to follow.