It's a wonderful facility with amazing displays covering every facet of Texas history, but the very best thing it has going for it are the generous people who volunteer their time to answer any question you might have about their particular passion.
By the time we'd finished up there, it was time for lunch!
Next we headed off to shop "The Drag" (aka Guadalupe St.). When we were in school there, art supplies were in one corner of the textbook section down in the basement of the university book store, or Co-Op. Now they have a separate shop all to themselves, and boy, did I have some fun there! On our way back to the hotel, we cut through the campus, and stopped in at my old dorm. Hubby and I met working in the cafeteria there.
Don't tell my kids, but Hubby and I used to do some serious smooching hidden behind the columns on that very porch!
After a rest up at the hotel, we headed downtown for Hubby's next surprise -- dinner at Swift's Attic!
Swift's is a relatively new spot in Austin which specializes in Modern American small plates -- my favorite way to eat! I much prefer getting to try a little bit of several different things, to eating a whole bunch of just one thing. The name comes from their location, upstairs in an historic building that was the 1905 home of Swift's Premium Food Co. Like many restaurants in Austin these days, it favors communal seating.
We started with a small dish of Salt & Pepper Shrimp, followed by a Brussels Sprouts dish with edamame and watermelon radish wafers and who knows what else. Then we were halfway through a savory bowl of gnocci with goat ragu when we both paused and said "Wait. I don't remember ordering this, do you?" Turns out it was meant for the people next to us! They were really sweet about it though, since the waiter got a replacement out to them post haste, and we ended up having a nice conversation. Hubby's favorite dish was the Southern Fried Chicken served over a coconut cream sauce with spicy chile sambal.
My fave was the dessert we shared, which they called "Popcorn and a Movie." It actually consisted of some buttered popcorn gelato, house-made candy bar, caramel corn, and a root beer foam -- a fabulous combo for anyone like me who loves salty and sweet!
We worked off our dinner by walking all over downtown, then up one side of 6th street, and back down the other...
only to end up right back where we started. This time, however, instead of going upstairs to Swift's Attic, we headed downstairs, to the Elephant Room, to enjoy a bit of jazz.
This morning we capped off our little get-away by taking a different route back to The Drag, to have bagels for breakfast. On the way we discovered some promising B&Bs, for our next Austin get-away...
and even got to stop off and say hi to Bevo!
When all was said and done we both agreed that, though we miss the sleepy college town of our youth, Austin still has a lot to love!
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