I am a born traveler. My very first photo, snapped at the hospital shortly after my birth, became my first passport photo. I boarded my first international flight shortly thereafter, and I have been traveling ever since. To date, I have visited 4 continents, 24 countries outside of the USA, and 31 states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. My very patient husband jokes that I always start planning the next trip on the flight home (sometimes I actually start before that!). I think the planning is half the fun. Some of my favorite travel memories include family trips with my daughter and husband to Aspen, our honeymoon in Rome, Christmas with my parents in London, our little family's favorite beach trip to Puerto Rico, and my first solo adventure to Big Sky, Montana. I am also an avid reader, reading more than 100 books every year and currently working my way through the Boxall 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I come by my love of books naturally. I was raised by a librar...
What to Do:
We loved renting boats at Zilker Park Boat Rentals (bonus
that it’s right next to a playground if younger kids are with you and the
Barton Springs Pool for a dip) and paddling around. It’s so fun to be out on the
water, and it’s a nice way to get some exercise in. This was also a great
opportunity for people and dog watching – people jumping into the water, people
playing music, dogs in life vests, people paddle boarding, etc. Bonus points
that it was a super easy experience, and they provide everything you need. This
was probably my daughter’s number one favorite activity that we have done on
our combined trips to Austin.
My daughter loves to shop, and she loved popping in and out
of the stores on South Congress. She literally spent her life savings at
Aviator Nation, which was a fun store with a Ms. Pacman machine. There are lots
of other big box stores (e.g., Nike and Lululemon) as well as some more locally
owned stores (though there are fewer of those than there used to be). There’s
also an Amy’s Ice Cream outpost here to grab a cone as you walk around,
and we had a delicious lunch at Perla (suggested to us for oysters and
burgers, but the fried shrimp was also delicious).
My daughter was dying to see the bats, so I did some
research and we planned to see them from the Four Seasons while we had Shirley
Temples and champagne, but apparently the bats are on vacation this summer, so
we didn’t get to see them this trip. I understand, Texas has been miserably hot
this year (which is why we didn’t want to stand on the bridge to watch them).
We will try this again on a future trip when it’s not so hot.
Of course, as a reader, I really can’t go to Austin without
a stop at Texas’ largest bookstore, Book People. I love browsing their
suggested books, and they have a really large children’s section. My daughter
particularly loved the big graphic novel section.
Where to Eat:
As I mentioned above, I highly recommend Perla, and a trip
to Austin with kids should definitely include a stop off for ice cream at Amy’s
Ice Cream. Other suggestions are as follows:
We had such a fabulous dinner at Jeffrey’s on our
recent visit. I wouldn’t say that this is a kid place, but man was the food
delicious. I had fried oysters to start and lamb for my main. They were both
really fantastic. I’m still thinking about those oysters. My daughter got a
burger that she loved. Still working on getting her to be a bit more adventurous….
Everyone else got different things (steaks, salads, a few different fish dishes),
and it all looked great.
We also had a nice meal at Ciclo at the Four Seasons
after our failed bat observation. It’s a hotel, so they have a good size kids’
menu. The Four Seasons is also right there on the lake with a big open lawn, so
the kids can run around outside while you wait for dinner or if the adults want
to linger (which I almost always want to do).
Any trip to Austin should include some good Tex Mex. Trudy’s
is my longtime favorite, but Hula Hut also has such a fun atmosphere
that it’s hard to count out for a tween trip. If you have a boat, you can even access
by water, which is always fun.
We also had fun eating at True Food Kitchen at 222 W. Ave
and then grabbing ice cream sandwiches at the Baked Bear (set
expectations to split these, they are HUGE). I know True Food Kitchen is a
chain, so I wouldn’t normally suggest it, but the location is great, and there’s
a big area where the kids could run around and play while the grownups chat. I’m
suggesting this for venue more than anything else, particularly if you have
younger kids who have trouble sitting still.
Where to Stay:
On our recent trip we stayed at the Fairmont, which
is in a great location and has a fun rooftop pool that’s a bit of a party scene.
They were doing a Barbie movie themed event when we were there, so my daughter
was in heaven. One word of warning though, it took us more than 45 minutes to
get our car from the hotel valet on Sunday, and according to the valet staff,
that’s pretty typical on Sundays, so I suggest calling way ahead of time for
your car if you use that service.
I used to always stay at the Four Seasons, but I
think the prices haven’t gotten way too high. The Driscoll is historic
and really nice, but I suggest that as more of an adult trip hotel. If you are
fanning hard for the recent apple series, The Last Thing He Told Me,
that’s shot at the Omni hotel, which is decent and in a good location
but nothing special. There are some great hotels further afield, but I like to
stay downtown if we are doing Austin things. When we do something like the Hyatt
Lost Pines, we don’t really ever go into Austin proper, but I do LOVE that
hotel for a trip with kids.
What to Read:
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave is a fast-paced
thriller. Hannah Hall gets a note from her husband Owen with two words, “Protect
her,” and then he disappears. Hannah knows that her husband is talking about
his daughter, her stepdaughter, Bailey. Hannah and Bailey leave their Sausalito
home on a quest to find the truth. That hunt leads them to Austin, Texas where
a large part of the story unfolds. This is a quick, fun read. My husband and I
also enjoyed the Apple TV production of this as a limited series with Jennifer
Garner. I gave this book four stars on Goodreads.
way 59 to small town Lark, Texas where a black lawyer from Chicago has washed up dead followed by a local white woman. This is just as much about the entrenched racial tensions and distrust of outsiders in small town Texas as it is about the mystery of these two deaths. I really enjoyed this, staying up a little too late at night to finish it and find out what happened. I gave this book four stars on Goodreads.
For those of you who enjoyed Jeannette Walls’ popular The
Glass Castle, I recommend her other book, Half Broke Horses, which
is the story of Lily Casey Smith, Walls’ maternal grandmother. This is a Texas frontier
story with spunk. Lily was breaking horses with her dad at the age of 6, left
home at 15 to take a job in a frontier town, and later learned to drive a car
and fly a plane. As an adult, she ran a ranch in Arizona with her husband. This
is told in the style of a memoir and is filled with colorful anecdotes. I didn’t
love this as much as The Glass Castle, but I still really enjoyed it and
gave it four stars on Goodreads.
Austin is the live music capital, so I’m also including High
Fidelity by Nick Hornby, which is actually set in London, England. Rob is
a music snob who works in a record shop with other music snobs. He has a list
of his top-five songs for every life event, and he has a list of his top-five breakups.
Rob is neurotic and lonely. Rob defines his life through music. This is a bit like
a misanthrope’s guide to chick lit for boys. Am I selling this? This was another
four-star rated book for me on Goodreads.
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