A Weekend of Meetups

 Austin, TX

Meeting high school Facebook friends at Austin Beerworks

A Mini Loara High School Meetup

When we arrived in Austin I let Facebook know we were here (I don't want to brag but I have more than 10 friends on The Facebook). We got the normal "Have Fun" messages and we also got a message saying, "We are in Round Rock, we should meet up!"  This message was from Jon and Maureen.  Jon was a high school friend.  We didn't hang out outside of school but we had classes together and some of our good friends were shared.  I also found out that Maureen went to Loara.  We discussed this and decided we had little interaction and probably didn't have any classes together.  They also arrived with Michelle who also went to Loara.  We had a mini Loara Meetup at Austin Beerworks between Austin and Round Rock, TX.  It was great catching up and finding out what we had all been doing since 1990.  The beer was good and the conversation was great.  So glad we got the invitation to get together.  I didn't take as many photos as I normally do because we were so wrapped up in conversation.  

Of Beer Quality Of Life, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Austin Cidercade

On Sunday we met my cousin, her kids, and my aunt at Cidercade, a cidery and arcade about a mile away.  Stephanie said the kids love it and it was on my list for pinball.  We met at 11am and spent the next couple of hours catching up.  They all recently settled here in central Texas and are really enjoying it.  My cousin came for work and my Aunt is settling into retired life in Texas.  We had a great time catching up and had some good ciders, pizza, and wings.  We got a few pinball games in but by the time we were done talking the place was packed.  We had each paid a $10 entry fee for unlimited games but if you sign up to pay $15 a month you can come all month so we asked if we could convert our entry fee into a monthly pass and they agreed.  We will be back a few times I am sure and all we need to do is remember to cancel our membership before we leave.  

Nice Parks and Recs reference.

007 Dr. No is a new machine so this was my first time playing it.  I am looking forward to going back and learning the mechanics.

The Arcade was hopping!  There is a great selection of pinball as well as modern and vintage arcade games.  

That's it for this weekend but awesome plans are forming every day.  I have a feeling we will be very busy here going forward. If you missed the last post you can find it here.

Tiki and a Museum

 Austin, TX

Tiki in Austin at Tiki Tatsuya

The Contemporary Austin

Today we started the day (after coffee) at The Contemporary Austin.  It's a small contemporary museum downtown and it doesn't allow photography.  I saw plenty of people taking photos but I chose to follow what I thought the rule to be so we only have a photo of the outside.  We used our NARM pass to get in and we were glad we did.  There were some nice pieces but not sure it would have been worth the $10 each to get in.  

Also the roof was closed so we couldn't go up there.

Expecto Canonus!

Tiki Tatsuya

After the museum and a rest on the couch we walked to Tiki Tatsuya for dinner and a drink (or two).  It's a top tier Tiki Bar in our opinion.  The drinks were great, the décor was amazing, the food was really good, and the service was spot on.  We arrived at opening, like we normally do for popular Tiki Bars and were behind 2 groups.  We got to sit at the bar and watch all of the cocktail making action.  

The Merch was outside

They had some incredible rooms and some really cool lighted tables

The menu was really cool.  The lower part was "hidden" behind part of the menu.  It was a cool presentation.

They had a signature umbrella

Our walk home took us by this Willie Nelson Mural. He is big here.

There is also quite a bit of neon in Austin.

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.  We went to a sculpture garden.

Sculpture Garden and Live Music

 Austin, TX

I found a mirror

Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum

Today we walked along the Colorado River to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.  Charles Umlauf was a local artist and the sculpture professor at UT from 1941 to 1981.  The garden is full of his works and there are a lot of birds there too so that's a plus.  It was a nice walk and it was nice using our NARM pass to get in.  Inside the Museum part there are 2 works that were "rejected" commissions.  They were the most interesting pieces in our opinion.

This is the first piece that was rejected.  The church that commissioned it said that Mary was too "Sexy" (not the exact word they used).

This was a private commission that was rejected.  Both Donna and I thought it was the most interesting piece in the collection.

The Elephant Room

Later in the evening we went to The Elephant Room for live Jazz.  They feature nightly Jazz and have a full bar.  It was a perfect evening.  

We went to the early show.  It was the perfect amount of crowdedness for us and we were the youngins there.

We were treated to this on our walk back across the bridge.  

It was a great day and we are enjoying Austin even though we are just getting going.  We took it slow the first week to rest up from our Florida trip and to greet the plumbing company 3 times.  When we arrived we noticed that the kitchen and bathroom sink trickled when turned on and the hot water in the shower didn't turn on.  We notified the host and they worked as quickly as they could to fix the issue. We got the faucets fixed on Sunday and the shower became useable on Monday and then was totally fixed on Wednesday.  We were able to work around the problems and we got a nice chunk of money refunded for our trouble.  Pro tip, if the water trickles out of the faucet remove the aerator because it is probably stuffed with pipe gunk.  It's an easy fix if that is the problem.  Now we know.

That's it for this post.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.  

We Have Arrived in Austin

 Florida, USA

White Sand Beach on The Gulf Coast of Florida

Our Time in Orlando

It's been a minute right?  Well we were in Orlando (actually Kissimmee) for a week.  We had fun spending time with friends old and new and riding rides old and new.  We shared a very large house in Kissimmee and visited Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Disney Studios, Universal Florida, and Universal Islands of Adventure.  We also got to check off Pinball in Florida when we visited Pinball Palace.  

Excited to start the day at The Magic Kingdom

Big Thunder was down for refurbishment while we were there

Epcot!

Susan and I having beers in Germany at EPCOT

The beginning of our adventure at Universal

Riding The Velocicoaster.  It's epic!

Hagrid's is great too

We also got to ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind too

We also got to visit the Hoop Dee Doo Review at Disney's Fort Wilderness for the first time

Our Pinball Pit Stop

Orlando to Austin

After our time in the Orlando Area we said goodbye to everyone and spent 5 nights getting to Austin camping along the way.  We camped in Florida twice, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.  The temps ranged from 29 degrees to 80 degrees along the way and we got a bit of rain and thunder storms.  You can't control the weather when you camp so you just have to submit to it.

How Donna deals with the 29 degree weather

Me and Francis waiting for things to warm up a bit

The Pour Over tradition continues

We saw a Portuguese Man of War on the beach at Henderson Beach

The weather got much warmer as we headed west

Francis wasn't a fan of being on the bins while we packed the car

Oh and we finished Florida this year!

That's it for now. We are excited for our time in Austin.  We have a few check list items already picked out.  If you missed the last post you can find it here.