For four days Ev and I were hosting one of our good friends (Mike) from high school at our house.  Here’s a chronicle of our escapades broken into each day’s debauchery.

Get caught up with Day 1.

Sunday

Sunday was quintessential Austin.  After an early-morning bike ride and run, we picked up some kolaches for the short car ride down to Barton Springs.  Apparently most of Austin was sleeping in since the Springs were bustling but by no means crowded.  We took a chilling dip in the water and laid on the grass while enjoying the pre-100 degree morning.  I even commented how I was a little chilly in the breeze.  Don’t worry, it didn’t last long.  It was a great way to start the day, but we were hungry.

How do we keep up the Austin theme?  Chuy’s!  So we filled our Tex-Mex craving with enchiladas and Mexican martinis.  Some people roll their eyes at Chuy’s, but for me there are few more “Austin-y” places — the right combo of Tex-Mex and weirdness.  Sufficiently in a mini food coma, and worn out from the fun in the sun, we were in need of a recharge.  We headed home for some R&O (Rest & Olympics) before gearing up for our dinner feast.  On the way back we stopped by “Hi, How Are You?” for a photo opp, but some jerk decided to graffiti our graffiti friend.

ribbit.

As for that dinner feast… Where, you ask?  Where else?  The Salt Lick!  Mike and I went for the “Family Style” aka “Stuff Your Face” Style and Ev got the Sunday-only roasted chicken special.  We gorged on brisket, ribs, and sausage, plus the unusually good potato salad and cole slaw BBQ sides.  For me this was the best Salt Lick has done their brisket, meaning it wasn’t tough and dry.  The ribs were nice and lean too — another unexpected improvement.  The all you can eat meat plates pushed us to our limits before rolling ourselves out of there back into town.

Meat. Salt Lick.

Ah, but the dessert shelf (a made up, yet ubiquitously known term) was empty, so we swung by Amy’s to show off how ice cream is supposed to be done.  My coconut chocolate chip with hot fudge perfectly satisfied my sweet tooth.  Mike took our sound advice and got Mexican Vanilla with hot fudge.  There were no leftovers (nor any pictures).  We loaded back into the car and drove over to the Congress Bridge to see the bats!  We parked nearby and walked to find a gap in the big crowd.  After waiting a 45 minutes, we were generally unsuccessful, though we did see lots of bats staying close to the underside of the bridge.  No massive swarms blocking out the moonlight.  Apparently they’re less shy in August.

Kolaches, Barton Springs, Chuy’s, Salt Lick, Amy’s, and Bats.  Seriously, how could it have been more “Austin” of a day than that?