Saturday, 16 March 2013

spring break texas style. . .

forgive me for not blogging about our life in forever.
i intended to write about my birthday, valentines day & a
 quick trip to mississippi we took, but obviously that never happened:)
i can assure you however that all of those events were lovely:)

so onto the very exciting & much anticipated event that took
place this past week:
Spring Break!
i honestly love the fact that we both work in schools and
are able to have vacations that align.
it is pretty much amazing:)
we decided to do a little "tour de texas" for our break.
there are honestly few things i love more than road trips, friends, good
food and non-stop time with logan.
it.was.awesome. 

we kicked off our break with breakfast at a place we heard
great things about: the guenther house.
if you are ever in san antonio first come and pick us up
and then head on over to the guenther house.
the biscuits are like heaven.
as a utah gal i think my standard for biscuits are somewhat high
thanks to ruth's diner.
(anyone who has had their famous mile-high biscuits now what 
i'm talking about).
that being said-the guenther biscuits rival the ones at ruth's- 
and that is sayin' something!



the restaurant is in a part of town called the king william district
which has the most gorgeous old homes.
it's right on the river and i'm pretty sure i would live there if the homes
didn't cost like a million dollars.
we walked along the river for a bit after we filled our bellies with biscuits & 
found a cool mural that obviously resulted in a photo shoot.




tuesday was a lazy day for us.
logan had to take a certification test so most of the day 
was spent relaxing & watching movies.
i think we watched like three movies in a row that day-shhh!
wednesday morning we took off for austin!
i was beyond excited to explore there.
we had a bunch of recommendations of what to see & where to eat &
we decided that we probably could have spent an entire week 
there & we still wouldn't have been able to do everything we wanted!
our first stop was torchy's tacos. 
they were pretty dang good-and spicy (hence the name)!
i got a chicken fajita taco & a pork taco.
logan went with a chile relleno & a fried chicken taco.
good thing we got there a little early in the afternoon- it wasn't long
till the line was literally out the door!




after lunch we headed up to the UT Austin campus to check it out.
UT is another school logan is applying to
for his MBA so it was fun to walk around & get
a feel for the campus. 
 i wasn't as in love with the UT campus as Duke's campus-but
i keep having to remind myself that i'm not the one that's
actually going to be attending classes on campus-he is:)
nevertheless it had pretty buildings and even had a little
pond with a bunch of cute turtles!
it was weird walking around the campus though-it made me miss college.
i mean, i think a little part of me misses some aspect of college
life every once in a while, but i was really feeling nostalgic
for some odd reason. 




after our trip through campus we had a hankering for something sweet.
and by "we" i mean me & that happens on a daily basis.
we had heard of donut place on the food network that had crazy
donuts with wacky flavor combinations.
i.love.donuts.
i think i got my love for them from my mom?
when the first krispy kreme opened in utah my mom would drive
all the way from SLC to Provo just to get a box.
we found gourdough's and immediately fell in love.
the donuts are topped with everything from fried chicken to cream cheese.
i went with the "dirty berry"- grilled strawberries and chocolate sauce.
logan went with the "flying pig"- a maple donut covered in bacon.
yes.
bacon.




after our donuts we decided to walk around congress street.
SXSW was going on so there were a LOT of people roaming about.
we had heard that austin was "weird" but after walking around
the streets i can honestly testify that  there truly are some weird
folk that reside there.




we grabbed a slice of pizza at home slice after some 
exploring and walking.
it was getting hot outside so we had just enough time to
take a picture at the famed "i love you so much" wall 
 before sweating to death & then we hit the road for ft. worth!




we made it to ft. worth that evening and logan was beyond excited
to give his BFF a san antonio spurs shirt.
let the record show that chris is perhaps the biggest
anti-spurs fan on planet earth:)
we hadn't seen our friend chris for almost 2 years but since
he is in medical school and he also had spring break this was
the perfect time to visit him and meet his fiance!
we are so excited for chris & suzanne to get married next month!


 thursday morning we started off our tour de ft. worth at the U.S. bureau
of engraving and printing.
a.k.a. one of two places in the U.S. (the other place is
in Washington, D.C.) where they print money!
we took a tour of the HUGE factory and literally saw money being made!
literally billions of dollars are made in the factory-it was super cool to see.
what was super un-cool was the fact that you literally can't bring your phone
inside with you so i have no photos of our adventures there:(
i literally just used the word literally 5 times.

after the money tour we were hungry so chris took us to a 
place to get some BBQ.
more thoughts on BBQ later.
TCU was right up the street so we headed up there so the boys
could check out the football stadium.
i think both of them secretly long to be football players.




after our campus walk we went downtown to check out the water gardens.
once again-it was getting hot so it was nice to be surrounded
by so much water without having to get wet!





next up we went to the botanical gardens. 
we were getting pretty tired at this point so we didn't stay too long.
the flowers were beautiful though and it was fun seeing the first
signs of spring!



friday morning we woke up and started heading back to san antonio.
we stopped in round rock on the way home for lunch.
we had heard about the salt lick restaurant having the 
best BBQ so logan was super excited to try it.
here are my thoughts on BBQ:
i don't understand the concept of eating copious amounts
of meat and white wonder bread.
i know i am probably speaking blasphemy to those of you
who are from the south who love BBQ, but i guess if you
never really grew up eating it you just aren't the biggest fan?
we have eaten at a few BBQ places whilst living in texas & i always
leave feeling large & disgusting & like i am sweating meat.
gross i know.
needless to say i had a few bites & logan ate the rest.



 we went to round rock donuts after we ate our BBQ.
we had heard great things about this place and watched a few clips
about it on the food network.
logan was convinced he was going to get the giant donut featured on 
an episode of "man vs. food", but when we got there he wised up
and went with a chocolate eclair instead:)
i tried an original glazed donut & an apple fritter.
the donuts were good. not great.
i was a little disappointed & wished we had chosen
to go to gourdough's again.




we made it back to san antonio & are enjoying our last
couple of days of spring break before reality sets back in
& we have to return to work monday morning.
our quest to find the best donut in texas continues but for now
gourdough's in austin is hands down the winner.
you need to go there.
 now!