Don’t Mess With Texas – Part 2

Hey, y’all! Don’t mess with Texas! As you may have already read, I proclaimed that the number one, best thing about Texas is Big Bend National Park. And I stand by that claim. However, on this adventurous year-long road trip we discovered there are a lot of other fantastic things to love about Texas. Hopefully, you followed along and saw all the pictures and commentary about why Big Bend is so great, but I promised Big Bend and Beyond…so, beyond Big Bend, here’s a peek into the rest of our journey through Texas…

Beer & BBQ

Anyone who knows Matt, knows that Matt loves meat. This is a man who only BBQ’s over smoked wood and charcoal, who would never consider using a gas grill. He is also a man who doesn’t simply smoke enough for a single meal. He goes for quality AND quantity and quite ridiculously usually BBQ’s enough food for three square meals of meat for a week. So, when we arrived at The Salt Lick, he was literally happier than a kid at Disney meeting Mickey Mouse. Just look at all that smoked meat and the smile on his face. Texas knows BBQ. This is true without a doubt. And we confirmed this by eating massive quantities at The Salt Lick, and promptly licking our fingers clean.

And really, what pairs best with Texas BBQ? Texas Beer. We stopped for tastings at several Hill Country breweries and confirmed the craft beer scene in Texas is delicious. We loved the warehouse vibe and Texas pride of Real Ale Brewing, the tex-mex attitude and Chupahopra at Twisted X Brewing, and one Hill Country brewery even made our top ten brewery list.

San Antonio Riverwalk

We were surprisingly charmed by the San Antonio Riverwalk. Yes, it was touristy, as it’s the hub of the hotels, restaurants and conference center in the middle of downtown, but it’s still an iconic piece of San Antonio. And if you venture north beyond the main loop, you’ll step into San Antonio neighborhoods and find the Riverwalk is beautifully maintained with artwork beneath each overpass and plenty of people enjoying and exercising along the waterfront. Take a nice long walk and go all the way to the Pearl Brewery district for a bite or a pint.

Remember the Alamo

The Alamo is considered hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty. This iconic site in San Antonio is a contradiction to the surrounding modern buildings, but the old architecture is alluring and the history undeniable. Although, it is troubling to imagine the number of lives lost here. We walked through the main building, the exhibits in the surrounding buildings (it was much larger than either of us realized it would be) and inspected an incredibly detailed tiny model of the battle of The Alamo. Despite Matt’s high hopes, we didn’t see any ghosts.

Austin

There’s no denying, Austin has a lot of character. It’s a big city, that feels much smaller, and while we spent most of our time in the surrounding Hill Country, we did have part of an afternoon and evening to explore downtown. We couldn’t resist taking a long walk to check out a few authentic Austin neighborhoods. We loved Rainy Street Historic District, which is basically the coolest, cutest stretch of bungalows transformed into lounge-y, hipster cocktail bars and patios with giant trees, complete with a food truck court (see Lucy’s food truck below). And we walked across the Colorado River and down to SOCO (Southern Congress), another hipster-y neighborhood with eclectic shops, restaurants, and overall interesting people watching.  And don’t go to Austin without stopping at The Picnic. An outdoor food court of amazing food trucks and shaded picnic tables. My only regret is I didn’t have enough room for a sweet treat from Hey, Cupcake! Cuz how can you go wrong with homemade cupcakes served out of an Airstream?! You can’t.

The Gulf Coast

You may be surprised to hear that this year long road trip isn’t all about sightseeing and eating and beer tasting. We’re also working our tails off balancing all this fun with growing our biz and making beautiful driftwood artwork. However, if you’re following our route, you probably realize we’ve been in the desert for quite awhile, which meant our driftwood stock was getting low. So, we took a trip to the gulf coast to source new artwork canvases…amid blue skies, along off-road beaches and sunny skies.

Hope you enjoyed following along on our Texas adventures. Stay tuned as we continue through the South!

Cheers y’all,

Kristin