There's no basement at the Alamo!

Day: 442
High Temp: 84F

I mentioned in the garden blog that my parents came down to Austin just after our wedding to visit Tom and I, and bring us the load of wedding presents we had received in St Louis. We had a great time showing them some of our new favorite food spots (Hoover's and Juan in a Million were big hits), and they loved getting a chance to see Homer now that he is all grown up.

My parents were planning to stay until Tuesday morning, and as the weekend drew to a close, I started getting pressure from them to take a vacation day on Monday. The big plan was to drive down to San Antonio for the day. Bowing to the pressure, and at the mercy of my extremely flexible boss at UT, I was able to make Monday happen.

San Antonio really surprised me.  I had always heard how amazing the River Walk was, and how disappointing the Alamo was. Truth is, both were very different from what I expected.

I know this is a silly thing to say, but for some reason, I expected the River Walk to be like the Arno in Florence. I expected a large, dominant river, lined on each side by wide side walks lined with old buildings houseing cafes, shops and the like. Lots of space and airy, all anchored by a large, wild river. The truth is, the River Walk is more reminiscent of Venice (are you rolling your eyes yet?)  It is small, the river is fairly shallow and it is extremely engineered with perfect concrete walls along each bank.  Seriously, it's not more than 12 feet across, and the sidewalks are very narrow. The overall affect was more man-made, more like Disneyland, than I had expected. Don't get me wrong, it is a very charming place, and walking below street level next to the water in the shade of the big cypress and oak trees is certainly a nice break from the heat, but it just wasn't what I expected. That said, I am excited to take Tom back to San Antonio around Christmas time, when the abundant trees, bridges and walkways are reportedly covered in lights. Sounds like the perfect setting for an evening river cruise with my sweetie and a thermos of spiked hot cocoa!

While in San Antone we also saw the Alamo, which was kind of awesome. I had been told that it wasn't as cool, or as big as you might expect, and so with my expectations sufficiently lowered, I thought it was great. It doesn't really look like it did in Pee Wee's big Adventure, at least not on the inside, but that did not stop me from proclaiming, many times, "There's no basement at the Alamo!" Thankfully, this was very amusing to my parents. But seriously, it's a big old building, with gorgeous gardens behind the barrack walls. There are also some cool artifacts, like Davey Crockett's rifle.

I also want to note that I actually heard someone call this fair city "San Antone"in all seriousness while we were there. We took a trolley tour to see a few of the old missions and some of the neighborhoods around the city, and this boisterous and entertaining pair of old ladies was on the bus with us. When one of them rudely answered her cellphone during the narrated tour, she proceeded to shout to her caller, "No, we are in San Antone!" Thankfully, our tour guide shamed her by saying he had learned it was rude to talk while others were talking. She got the point and hung up pretty quickly.

PS- I do have some pictures from this trip, but they are stuck on the throw away cameras we were trying to use up post-wedding... May come back and update the post if any turned out once I get them developed.

Remember the Alamo (Drafthouse)

Day: 62
High Temp: 74F
Job Status: Still Unemployed (but I had an actual interview on Monday!)


I want to apologize for the long lapse in blog posts during October. Tom and I have spent the past few weeks preparing to move again (more in a later blog), and so that has been taking up much of my free time this week.

But, today's post is not about moving and hard work, but about one of the absolute coolest thing anyone can do when they visit Austin, and that is go see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. I have been to the Alamo twice, and it is quite an experience. What you need to know about Alamo is that it is a combination movie theatre and full service restaurant. They have removed every other row of seats to put in high tables, and you can order anything from burgers and fries to classic movie fare like Sno-Caps and popcorn. They also serve beer and wine and dessert. You just write what you want, and your waiter brings it to you. Amazing.

The Alamo mainly shows first run movies, but they do lots of fun stuff like a Dirty Dancing "quote along" viewing, and an MJ Thriller screening and dance party. And, the previews aren't like normal theatres where you have to sit through ads for Coke and lame trivia questions. Here they play videos, commercials and TV clips relating to the era or theme of the movie you are there to see. They do also show a few upcoming attractions right before the movie starts.

When my mom was here visiting for a week just after we arrived, I had my first Alamo experience when we went to see Julie & Julia. The movie itself was alright. I love food, and Julia Child, but parts of the story were a bit slow. Unfortunately, the stuff they showed before the movie upstaged the actual feature. The majority of the pre-movie viewing was clips from Julia's iconic PBS cooking show The French Chef. They were almost worth the price of admission on their own. And the food was pretty good too. I had baked mac 'n cheese with green chilies a beer.

After our first experience, Tom and I were eager to return. He had snagged some free coupons for weeknight tickets, so last week he took me to see The Informant!. Tom's comment that it is odd to eat dinner in the dark was spot on, so this time we opted to just go for milk shakes and a shared basket of fries. And no offense to my love, Bobtail, but the shakes at the Alamo are the best milk shakes I have EVER had. I opted for the plain chocolate, while Tom ordered the indulgent chocolate peanut butter cup. Seriously, these things taste amazing and have such a luxurious, creamy texture. They taste like smooth, melting ice cream that hasn't been diluted by extra milk to achieve the right consistency.

Oh, the movie? It was alright. It started out good for me, pretty funny, but I think it's just a bit too long and rambling. However, parts of it are shot in Chicago, which made me both happy and extremely wistful for home. And, once again, the pre-feature clips managed upstaged the movie a bit. This time, we were treated to late 80's, early 90's era music videos like Pat Benetar's Anxiety (Get Nervous), and Alice Cooper's Identity Crisis ("sometimes I'm slashin the face..." seriously, watch it). And then there was the PSA style message from the American Association of Bakers (or something like that) that detailed both the wonders of the modern mechanized baking process and the nutritional virtues of bread.

It's just so kitschy and fun to see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. And if you ever get off your butt to come visit me, we will definitely have to take in a movie there.