Mt. Bonnell

After Country Line BBQ, Justin & family took Mikey to show him downtown, etc. Rob and I decided we didn't want to go to downtown today due to all of the festivals, etc. that were going on so we went our own separate way. We went up Mt. Bonnell, which is the highest point in Austin. There are two ways to get up to the top. A trail way which we took going up and then took the 100 and some odd number of steps coming back down. It's gorgeous going up the trail with the lake in view and all of the beautiful homes that have their own access ways to the lake below us. Lance Armstrong's wife has a house down there as well. Must be nice!

Country Line BBQ

Marina's brother, Mikey came into town for just a couple of days so we all decided to go out to lunch at The Country Line BBQ on the Lakes. This is another well known BBQ place. This particular location is on the lake side so you can look at turtles, ducks, fish, etc. while waiting for your table. They even have a boat dock so you can actually ride your boat there and stop to have a meal, etc. Very cool... The food isn't as good as The Salt Lick but is still good. The atmosphere really is worth it all!

Bats come out at night...

After the tour, we continued our own sightseeing by walking around "The Drag" which consists of fun shops, restaurants, etc. across the street from the University. We also made it down to the bridge where almost two million bats fly out at dusk. These bats all fly out at the same time, looking to eat up the mosquitos. Since there are so many bats, it's like a hugh cloud over the sky all at once. Where we stood to watch, the bats continued to fly out for at 30 minutes continuously before we finally got tired and decided to leave. LOTS of bats!!!

Tour of Austin

Rob and I decided to start off on the right foot and learn about Austin a bit more since we'll be calling it our home from this point forward. So, we took a tour of the city. We rode for 90 minutes in this bright pink van while they drove us around downtown and the hill country giving us point of interests and a little bit of the history behind them. It was educational and fun! We're so glad we did this!

Hand drawn card from Emily

Emily, Justin's oldest, wanted to draw and make him a birthday card all her own. This is the proud papa holding the card drawn by Emily. She's becoming a really great artist!

He thinks he's Elvis

Justin loves Elvis... so Rob and I got him one of those "talking" cards with Elvis on it. Justin loved the card and so did the girls.

My Little Bro's Birthday

My little bro's birthday!!! We celebrated by his wife, Marina, making a feast for dinner and baking him a cake. We all pigged out and then made him open presents and ate the yummy cake. Here's a picture of him and his little girls. Happy B-Day!!!

Oasis

Rob and I met with Anthony & Jackie for dinner at Oasis. It's overlooking Lake Travis and has a gorgeous view. They're known for their location more for their food. The food was okay, nothing spectacular and a bit pricey but the sunset was worth all of it!!!

Octopus Head

During my short visit to LA for the high school reunion, I was able to see a few friends including my parents for a quick visit each. This is me and Logan, Julie's little boy as he put his toy on top of my head.

Another friendly visit...

I tried to see as many friends as possible during my short visit. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures with all of them so here's one where we actually remembered to take a picture. Me and the newly wedded Mrs. Rothman, previously Marcy Perman. I was able to have brunch/lunch with both the newlyweds and hear about their honeymoon that they had just gotten back from, etc. They're so happy and cute together! Ain't love grand!!!
We're sitting on the bench they had everyone from the wedding sign. Everyone had fun getting creative by drawing, writing poems, clever phrases, etc.

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

My brother's oldest, Emily (the artistic one) turned 12 today. I actually missed her birthday party since I was in Los Angeles for my high school reunion but Rob was able to have fun with them bowling and laser tagging!!! Happy Birthday Em!

20 Year High School Reunion

This is one of the group shots from the actual 20 year high school reunion. There were lots of people standing around taking pictures, etc. and of-course there were lots of people that had left, etc. by the time we got around to taking group pics since this is considerably smaller than our actual graduating class. The significant others that attended this gathering also stood on the sidelines giving the graduating class a moment of their own. It's actually a pitifully small turn-out considering but there were lots of people I was pleased to see and forgotten about but excited to see. Of-course there were people I wanted to see that did NOT come but that always happens to everyone. It was still lots of fun, getting to know the old friends again and seeing familiar faces.

Mary Street... It's been 20 Years!!!

With my upcoming 20 year high school reunion, we decided to have a "reunion" of our own... the group of us that used to hang out together in high school, not just our own graduating class. There is a street above our High School that is named Mary Street. A bunch of us (all kinds of kids) used to go hang out there during breaks and for lunches. This is just a small group of us that we used to hang out together. There were more people on the invite list but weren't able to make it out and some of our friends, we haven't been able to locate before this date. So funny that this happened so quickly after I moved to Austin, making me have to actually fly back to LA so I can attend my 20 year high school reunion and of-course this Mary Street Reunion. It was so great seeing these old faces, seeing how they've changed and how they're still the same all at the same time! Everyone looked fabulous! So much fun!

Happy Birthday Maxx!!!!!!

My princess faery sister, Lisa's little boy Maxx turnes 4 today. Happy Birthday Maxx!!! Wow, he's growing up so fast! Here he is with his umm... "crush"... Such the cutie.

Riverwalk, San Antonio

As suggested, we took the boat tour that went through the entire Riverwalk. Good thing we took this tour instead of walking it like we originally planned. It would have been a VERY long walk and very tiring! It was soooooo cute. It was like being in Venice or something. We couldn't believe we were in Texas and that Texas had something like this. We had dinner in one of the many restaurants and sat outside by the water. What a special treat!

Tower of the Americas, San Antonio

After walking around The Alamo, it's museums, etc. we said by to Justin & the family as they headed back to Austin. Rob and I decided to stay and walk over to the Tower of the Americas and also check out the Riverwalk as Marina & Justin suggested.

The Alamo, San Antonio

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store

My brother's family decided to head out to San Antonio to show Israel The Alamo. And since Rob and I haven't yet been to San Antonio, they invited us to go with them. On the way down, we stopped at Cracker Barrel for some yummy breakfast. They have great yummy food, especially breakfast items and have a fun and entertaining store to shop while you wait for your table or after your meal to walk off a bit of the food. Fun place! Israel loved it there so much that he ended up going there four times during his six day stay. Luckily there are a few locations so he was able to whichever one close to where he was.

Salt Lick

We decided to go out for some good BBQ since we're in Austin and all and need to try out their BBQ's... My brother took us to the Salt Lick! WOW!!! The best BBQ I've had EVER! and I'm not much of a meat person but I had the most meat I've eaten in a long time, especially in one sitting... Their meats are yummy but their sauces are fabulous! These delicious sauces can be purchased, even on-line. I guess they're famous for them. Also, the really fun thing about this place is that they don't serve drinks. They allow you to bring whatever drinks you want so everyone comes to the restaurant rolling in their coolers full of whatever quenches their thirst. So cool... and of-course, there was a live band playing in the waiting room so you can rock out while waiting for your table. This place gets so crowded (even if it's wayyyyyy in the boonies, in the woods) that they actually have police guiding traffic within the parking lot... like going to a concert or something, they officer guides you one way and then the rest of the parking attendant people guide you another way and then another attendant to another... Everyone who makes it out to Austin MUST try The Salt Lick! Definitely a MUST!!!

After this belly full-filling meal, we got home and played Guitar Hero to work off some of it and then watched "No Country for Old Men". Great movie.

Chuy's for dinner!

With Israel (Sarah & Marina's daddy) in town for the visit, we decided to all go out to dinner together to my brother's favorite spot, Chuy's. The food is great, the atmosphere is relaxed with lots of fun paintings, hub caps, etc. to look at. Other than the yummy food, maybe my brother likes it there so much because they have a special liking for Elvis as well. My bro LOVES Elvis. Hmmm.... something to think about...

An "Enchanted" afternoon with the girls...

My nieces Emily, Haley & Allie had their cousins, Sarah and Marina over from California staying with them for a few weeks. They had already been here in Austin for about two weeks by the time Rob and I arrived/moved in. Their daddy came out on Thursday, 8/14/08 to hang out for a few days and then to take the girls back with him to Cali. We decided to have a day with the girls in my brother's Theatre Room (aka Man Cave) by watching "Enchanted" and eating popcorn. The room is situated with a huge projector screen with full leather seats with reclining abilities. These seats are on two separate rows on platforms built by my brother so the front row is lower than the back row. So every seat is a great seat in this small time movie theater! My brother, of-course, has the room rigged with full stereo sound system. You can watch regular TV and HD/Blu-Ray movies and play games on playstation 3 or Wii in the Man Cave. There's a little mini refrigerator in the room stocked with water, sodas, etc. Watching movies at home aren't the same anymore! Of-course now Rob wants to build one of these when we get a house. Keep your fingers crossed.

Sonic - first of many trips to come...

While unpacking our stuff in storage, we took a lunch break and ate at Sonic. S-O-N-I-C as my mom calls it. We took this picture with our phone and sent it to my mom as a tease. She LOVES Sonic and ate there many times during her last visit to Austin. She's been missing it ever since. There's not too many of them in the Los Angeles area yet.

Welcome to Austin!

We are officially in Austin, TX as of August 11, 2008. We made it here late on Sunday evening on 8/10/08. Wow, we finally did it!!!

This will be the beginning of my new blog postings here. For older blogs, you can refer to http://360.yahoo.com/aim_eeeee