Austin, Y'all

In early November I traveled to Austin for the first time, on a business trip.  Box had opened an office there a year earlier, and the Box Women's Network (BWN) was hosting an offsite so that we could bond, meet women from other offices, and discuss our goals for 2016. 

 

My coworker/lovely friend Lauren had relocated out there to open the office, and then recently moved back to bay to fill my role in San Francisco when I switched teams.  She came out for the BWN trip and had lots of fun ideas for us.

Here are the main highlights:

1. BATS: I know this is an unexpected highlight for people who have either never been to Austin or are not bat aficionados.  The latter is still true for me.  To my amazement, Austin has the largest urban bat colony in the world, and every summer night hundreds of people gather on the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch them take their nocturnal flight.  Once dusk hit, a sea of humming black bats shot out from under the bridge and flowed in a stream up and over the water, through the buildings, and into the distance.  It felt like this incredibly graceful natural phenomenon to witness, as long as you were able to close your nose to the profound smell of bat crap crusting underneath you.

2. WINE: What would a ladies' weekend be without it?  Lauren took me to her favorite spot in town, Cru Wine Bar, twice.  Great patio for people watching, awesome wine list, and most important perhaps were their goat cheese beignets.  They are as amazing as they sound and you should go get them right now.  That quickly brings me to...

 

3. FOOD: Austin has a unique dining scene.  It's local, so they have BBQ joints that people wait hours in line for, and they have tacos for literally every meal and any occasion.  It's also urban, so there's trendy world cuisine as well.  One thing I found interesting was that coffee shops have partnerships with this taco spot or the other to have a tray of breakfast tacos available to purchase when you get your morning beverage.  

The best southern meal I had was at Fixe.  We ordered about half the menu, enjoying buttery biscuits, quail with cheesy grits, fried chicken, blackened red snapper, and really that's just the tip of the ice cube floating in your Moscow Mule.  I also enjoyed many a delicious taco, and this photo is from Lauren's and my luxurious Friday lunch at a great Italian spot around the corner from work.  Speaking of work...

4. MUSIC: I was just kidding about the work segue.  Who wants to hear about that?  One night we made it to The White Horse, a honky tonk bar.  We had missed the lessons, but had way too much fun watching the spirited dancers and tapping our feet to the band.

The craziest part of that outing was on our way out, when we saw a man chilling on the patio on a white horse.  Coincidence?

We also did a puzzle room with the group, visited Rainey Street, and peeked inside the capital building.  And that was Austin in a nutshell!  It was a quick trip, but we packed it in.  Next time, I want to do more restaurant research and make sure every day is filled with live music!