Day 2 in Austin was more wandering around.  My legs hate me.  Anj had to work so Kevin, Ambrose and I started out at “The Drag” which is UT’s version of “The Ave.”  Then we walked through their campus.  We were told it’s the largest university in the United States.  I believe it.  Everything’s bigger in Texas, right?  On campus we saw the world’s first photograph, the Gutenberg Bible and UT’s HUGE football stadium.  We also noticed that 80% of students (mostly girls) wear running shorts.  It’s weird.  My guess is because of the heat, but it also seemed to be a “thing.”  Who sent out that memo?

For lunch we went to the famed Stubb’s.  Kevin was drooling over how good his ribs were our entire lunch – so, I guess they beat Iron Works from yesterday.  After lunch, we checked out the Market District, home to the largest Whole Foods (their HQ is in Austin) and Waterloo Records.  We knew we had a big night out in SoCo for First Thursday, so we went back to our hotels and enjoyed the free wine and cheese reception (cheese meaning nacho cheese out of a dispenser – d.lish.) and cooled off in the pool.

On our way to First Thursday, we stopped on Congress Bridge to see if the bats would come out and play.  We could hear them going crazy and saw a few flying around under the bridge but again, no big 1.5 million gush of bats.  Too bad   First Thursday in SoCo was full of energy.  All of the shops stay open late and there are a bunch of mini flea markets up and down the street.  They had creepy Halloween creatures out promoting an event, their Rollergirls were rolling around and there was live music everywhere.  My favorite part - Hey Cupcake!, the cupcake shop in the airstream.  They were good, their schtick was a “Whipper Snapper” where you could choose to get your cupcake injected with whip cream.  Clever.  I didn’t do it, but Kevin did.  We still like Cupcake Royale best!

Anj was able to meet up with us for a late dinner at Guero’s (texmex) then we met some of her co-workers at Malverde.  This place was hotttt.  If you were to do chic northwest *right* - it would look like this bar.  There was a great outdoor patio, hanging plants, a moss wall, wood everywhere – but done up modern.  If in Austin, I recommend!