Austin Powered

We had let the kids sleep in a bit and then hit the road towards Austin.  Traffic was heavy heading from Houston to Austin.  There is a massive rest stop chain in TX called Buc-ee's .  The kids were a bit disoriented by the vast collection of beef jerky and hunting gear.   We also stopped at WhatABurger - a TX based burger chain.  I had not visited a WhataBurger since my first year in AZ (1987) and with any luck it will be another 30 years before I have to eat there again....

We rolled into my brother's place in Austin mid-afternoon and enjoyed hanging out with the cousins. They enjoyed showing off their Christmas gifts and Sam seemed especially smitten with his cousin Kelsey.   We had given the boys boomerangs as gifts and Jeff spent the better part of the afternoon retrieving them from the trees and neighbors yard.

In the evening we headed down for some BBQ before heading to downtown Austin to our hotel.

If you have a larger family - the best deal in town is generally to stay at an Embassy Suites.  You get suite with two television and can generally sleep 5-6 reasonably comfortably. However the best part of the deal is their breakfast buffet is free and excellent.  Saves us probably $60 day in food costs.

Our Austin hotel was located in downtown on Lake Austin near the Congress Street bridge.  Jake, Karen and I decided to take advantage of a nice morning to do some kayaking on the lake.  

We then met the TX Olen clan for a 'hike' up Mt Bonnell - which has nice views of the Lake and some spectacular homes. 

We then proceeded to tour the State Capital and learn a bit about TX history.  Here Bretto is studying the TX districts to determine where he should move to have the best chance of winning a seat.  

After a tour through the University - we hit a local pizza joint for dinner. 

After a tearful farewell with the cousins - we headed over to watch the might Longhorns lose a basketball game to the Kent State Golden Flashes.