March 2020

*Last updated 03/04/2020*
A trip with one of my college roommates, Kelly.

The main things that I like about Austin were the cute murals, SoCo (South Congress) area, the hanging lights outside restaurants & breweries, and a few others. Ofcourse, there were some things I didn’t like about Austin…want to know what it is? Keep reading! 🙂

I also want to give a shoutout to my roommate, Kelly for bearing with me when I was a “bit” under the weather (I was all achy and had a small migraine) the first 2 days of the trip.

Things to Do/See:

Hamilton Pool Preserve

This was my FAVORITE thing and this is about 45 minutes drive outside of Austin. You need to make a reservation online! You have a choice to book the morning or the afternoon reservation for about 3.5 hours. I can tell that it gets easily booked during the summer time; luckily, the time that we went was empty and it was so relaxing. You will need to pay online and again once you get Hamilton. There is a parking lot and from the parking lot to the pool, it’s about a 10 minute trail. You can “hike” down and up in water shoes if you want to. Feel free to bring towels, snacks, etc. They have walking sticks & life jackets for you, (if you need it), first come, first serve.

Murals around South Congress (SoCo)

There are so many murals and they look a lot bigger in picture but they’re actually smaller in real life haha. SoCo is a cute area with tons of shops and restaurants.

This Toms store had a Toms coffee inside of it! It was so cool and hip!

This “I love you so much” sign is connected to Jo’s coffee shop.

The Butter Half mural is located near UT Austin and not in the SoCo area.

Rainey Street

My favorite night life place is Rainey Street. It’s probably also fun during the day time too, but we only went during the night. It’s just a street full of houses that are turned into bars/breweries. They’re all right next to each other which is so good, because you don’t need to walk far to get to another spot. It’s a good area for date night, outing with friends, bachelorette parties, etc. Each spot have cute murals inside too! They even had food trucks in the middle of Rainey Street – talk about good drunk food, right?! There were a lot of selections.

The only downfall about Rainey Street is that they do not check your bags, which is scary…because people can carry in things…weapons, guns, drugs, etc.

UnBARlievable was the most popping bar. It’s like a circus theme in there. There’s a giant giraffe sculpture outside, there are 2 bars and it looks like you’re going to play arcade games, and there is a slide to go down.  They played great music and had a huge dance floor. There’s also some places to sit down too.

The rest of the bars that we went to were The Parlor Room, Augustine’s, Stagger Lee, The Bungalow, & Banger’s Sausage + Beer Garden. Most places had places to sit, some heating lamps, games outside, lounge area, and music. All great in their own ways.

The other nightlife area is 6th street. Before going here, I only had 1 bar that I wanted to go to and it was Jackalope – because I wanted to take a picture with the bunny, ha! Kelly & I went down this street to check it out when we were sober and it was SUPER different than Rainey Street. It is more wild. I’m sure 6th street is super fun when you’re buzz/drunk. The music was two times better than Rainey Street (not that they were playing bad music), it’s just more of a party scene here, hehe.

Overall, I would say Austin have a great night life.

Ann Richards Congress Bridge

Go see the bats fly on the Ann Richards Congress’ Bridge. There are 1.5 million bats that flies out of this bridge every sunset in March-October. From our March 2nd, 2020 experience, I would say stand on the side FACING downtown. It may be different for others.

We were on this side under the bridge and the bats flew out on the opposite end. It was so small yet…kind of cool but nasty in a way LOL. They all glumped up together, fly in a line, and it just looks somewhat gross. I can’t imagine what it would have looked like if I saw it closer, which I wished I did. I don’t have any photos and only videos, but in the videos, they look like tiny little birds. There are tour boats that can take you to see these up close. There were also kayakers under the bridge as well to watch these bats fly.

Tau Ceti Mural

Speaking of downtown, you should stop by the Tau Ceti Mural. It is 10 foot story fill with colors. It’s nice and you can probably get some good photos here.

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)

The campus is HUGE and we passed by a lot of buildings: the business & health building. We drove on the campus, found a free parking spot, and walked around a bit. We went inside a dorm, the library, passed by the football field (it was so damn big. It wasn’t open to go inside, but if we were able to, I think that would have been our favorite spot on campus, haha), the gym – we were jealous of the facility! Again, when we went inside the gym, they just asked for ID, but didn’t check our bags, give us a guest badge, or have someone walk us, which is “nice” in a way, but I would say safety comes first. Again, what if someone had a weapon on them or something!!

Texas State Capitol Building

From part of the UT campus, you can see the Texas State Capitol Building. It was free to go in and you’ll go through security check point. You can bring in open water. I had water in my hydroflask and Kelly had an open and used water bottle.

Outside of the Texas State Capitol Building, there are memorials and other small sites to see, like the Vietnam War Memorial.

Pennybacker Bridge

This place is a lot better in person than in pictures in my opinion. There is a smalllll parking area right off the bridge and it’s about a 5 minute hike up to the top.

Mount Bonnell

Last but not least, another view spot is Mount Bonnell. It’s a hiking/exercise/chill area. There are a ton of parking spaces on the side of the street and you’ll walk up some stairway to get to the top.

Places to Eat:

As you all know, I don’t really care (to spend money) on/for food when I travel, but it’s nice to try some popular food spots once in a while, and my roommate, Kelly is a foodie – follow her food IG: kellycraves

She picked out some places and this is what we tried.

The MUST try and the number 1 favorite food in Austin is Terry’s Black BBQ. 

This picture may not look good, but woooooowww, it was SO good. They charge by the pounds of meat and how many ribs you get. The mac & cheese, corn, and green beans were sides and you can get it in a single, a pint, or a large cup. They charge for jalapenos too, but the pickles were free. They also had slice bread for free as well. You line up, get your sides and meat, then pay and sit down. They have a lot of sauces to try with it too. It was soooo filling and we ate it for lunch, had leftovers for dinner, and still couldn’t finish it! Haha!

The other place that we liked was Bird Bird Biscuit. It’s a really small location with only 5 parking spaces, but I’m sure there’s some street parking. The chicken was so flavorful covered in honey and chipotle sauce and the inside was so tender covered by two biscuits. They had butter and sauces that you can also add on to.

Those were our two favorite spots. Now, here are the okay spots…

Ramen Tatsuya. The line is first come first serve. You order and pay first, then get seated and they’ll bring you your food. The table did not have any condiments.  I got the “Mi So Hot” and Kelly got the “original tonkotsu”. The ramen was alright, kind of salty, but the interior of the restaurant was pretty.

Torchy’s Tacos. It was so disappointing 😦 We went to the one on South Congress street and wow the tacos were not good. We definitely had better tacos before. The tortilla was falling apart and the flavor wasn’t there. We got the Democrat (barbacoa beef) & the baja shrimp one. The baja shrimp was better barbacoa beef…but still not the best. Kelly also got the queso chips and dip and it reminded me of nacho cheese.

Lastly, since I was a bit under the weather, I wanted some juice to boost my immune system up. I looked up a juice place and Juiceland popped up a lot. I got their ginger shot and it was good! I also got one of their juices – I forgot what it was called, but it had all of the healthy vegetables…and it did not taste good haha! I’m sure there are some better juices there. I also got an acai bowl, but it was not good either. The acai bowl was not thick and it was like juice texture with strawberries, bananas, and nuts added on. However, the decoration inside Juiceland is very vibrant.

Overall thoughts:

I like Austin! Again, I like it for the outdoorsy & aesthetic decoration vibes with the murals and lights. Everyone that we met were nice. Food portion are big, so come hungry. The airport was cute too!! There’s also a ton of land and parks. What’s funny is that, everything is big…except the street and freeway signs LOL! We rented a car, drove around, and some of the white freeway signs were soooo small. It didn’t help that part of the days were a bit cloudy, so it was like white on white. The only main difference that I see in Austin is the street lights are horizontal (left to right is red, yellow green) and not vertical (top to bottom, red, yellow, green).

Oh and ofcourse, housing. So much cheaper and more space! We talked to someone who was telling us her rent: 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 parking lots, a front porch, a backyard, and extra (reading) room, etc and it was $1,675! We told her with $1,600 can get us no where near that in the Bay Area. Wow!

We were super bummed that the Barton Springs Pool was closed for Spring cleaning from Feb 29th-mid March! We came at the wrong time 😥 When we checked online, we didn’t see that they would be closed, so before you go (if it’s not summertime), please check or call ahead!

Last but not least, I want to touch on the topic of safety real light and quick. We felt safe in Austin, no harm, harassment, or anything, etc. However, we saw some sticker signs saying “No Open Carry Allowed” and that scared us a little bit. I don’t want to talk about politics or anything on my blog but, there’s has been WAY too many shootings in the United States and it needs to stop! It was scary to see that some restaurants, shops, and all have those signs up, because that means some people may carry guns around and can shoot anywhere at anytime. When we went to the bars in Rainey Street and inside the buildings of UT Austin, no one checked our bags. I am used to getting my bags check when I go out to the bars, so it was just different that they didn’t check. Just gotta always becareful, right?

As always, thank you for visiting Vivian’s Ventures. Have you been to Austin? If so, tell me in the comments/reply section of your experience. What should I do there if I go back? If you haven’t been, tell me what you are planning to do there. Any questions or comments, let me know.