REMEMBER THE ALAMO!

John's niece Megan and her husband Ben were both in Austin recently for the interactive conference connected with SXSW. To our great good fortune, they extended their stay a few days to come and play with us in Wimberley. We picked them up at their hotel in downtown Austin just as the film festival was winding down, and the music festival was cranking up. The streets were so packed with interesting people, it reminded me of being at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. We figured it might be a bit difficult to get a table at any of the restaurants nearby, so we took them to Hill's Cafe, down on far south Congress, for a very Texan dinner of chicken-fried steak.

The next day we took them to the fiber arts center at Old Oaks Ranch, and were lucky enough to be introduced to their two new baby alpacas. Afterwards we had lunch at Leaning Pear, and let them stroll the square and check out some of the shops. We had to go back home and rest up a bit for the main event of the day - a grand feast at Tuscan-inspired Mandola Winery. We went to the tasting room first, so Megan and Ben could choose which wines were their favorites, then walked next door through the beautiful gardens to Trattoria Lisina. We started with an assortment from their antipasta table and my new favorite food in the world, wood-fired pizza topped with buttery prosciutto and crisp arugula, then we shared several different pastas and a plate of saltimbocca, so everyone could get a taste of each. That worked out so well that we ended up doing the same thing with our desserts, passing the gelato, panna cotta and tiramisu around the table for each person to taste. An absolutely perfect evening, and about as far away from sittin' in the Willie Nelson booth at Hill's Cafe as you can get, without crossing any oceans.

On their last full day with us, we decided to head over to San Antonio, so that Ben could say he had been to the Alamo. Luckily, it's only an hour's drive from here, as are so many wonderful things. Texas Mountain Laurel was in bloom across the hill country that week, so we were greeted with the smell of grape bubblegum everywhere we turned. We wandered through the shops of La Villita, strolled along the riverwalk, visited the bar in the old Menger Hotel (where Teddy Roosevelt recruited roughriders), had lunch at a tacqueria, and moseyed through the streets of the historic King William district. That evening we had dinner at the River Pub over in San Marcos, and were planning to finish up the day by introducing them to Clifford's Original Wine Bar here in Wimberley. However Megan wasn't feeling too hot by then, and truthfully, I think we were all happy to turn in early that evening. We did manage to cram quite a lot into their very brief visit!