Juanito's Austin sightseeing

The best part of arriving in a new city is beginning to discover its secrets. As a family, we love traveling and we have visited many places; but moving to a different city is nothing like traveling. Now we get to experience Austin as locals, at our own pace and not hurrying up with a checklist.

 The third weekend of August, my husband and I organized an outing to South Congress Avenue. We started in a place everyone should visit: Hopdoddy (www.hopdoddy.com). This burger bar was established in 2010 and they pride on their all-natural menu. You have never tried french fries until you try this Parmesan and Truffle Fries. They are a real piece of Heaven. They made us forget the hour and a half we spent in line waiting to get inside the restaurant. And they sure know how to serve customers! Everyone treated us as if we were their most important customer. Juanito sat on a booth for the first time and they brought him a water cup as if he were already a grown up.

 

Astonished, I couldn’t help but to compare the service with Chilean restaurants, where the waiter would give us his worst face just for entering the dinner. I mean we would ruin his day just for showing up. Imagine if you add an impatient baby, a huge stroller, … you get the idea. The waiter would be happy before with no customers and plenty of time to check his Facebook page.

Back to our outing, our next stop was a cute store called Uncommon Objects (www.uncommonobjects.com). It is an antiques store where you can find everything. It was established in 1991 and, though it is not big, we spent almost one hour staring at every unique piece. We almost bought a beautiful light blue wardrobe, but it was pricy compared to Ikea, so pragmatism defeated beauty. But Juanito did get himself a present. We bought him the prettiest baby boots and a belt with a huge longhorn buckle. In December, we are going back home to my sister’s wedding and I want him to go dressed as a handsome cowboy.

Our final stop was Congress Avenue Bridge were we waited for the bats to get out to hunt. I need to add that I hate bugs of all kinds, so I have found a new best friend in bats, which make it their life’s goal to eliminate bugs from mine by eating them. Around 7:30 pm, a black cloud came flying from under the bridge. Thousands of bats made their way trough the entrance of the cave. It was a breathtaking show. Juanito loved it. Amazed, he didn’t know where to look in order to not miss anything.

On our way home, he felt asleep immediately on the car seat, exhausted after everything we had done that day. We discovered great things about this city and it was only one street! If Austin keeps this pace, we won’t be able to unravel all its mysteries before we have to go back.