Not the best choice for Memorial Day weekend

I left Dallas at 5:30 p.m. Friday for what was supposedly a three-hour drive to Austin. I stopped twice -- once to go through a McDonald's drive-through about 12 miles and two hours into the trip (yes, you read that right), and once again to get gas and some caffeine because I was bored out of my mind and ready to go to sleep. I arrived at our hotel in downtown Austin -- thanks to rain, traffic and a very intelligent decision on the Dallas city planners' part to fill potholes on the Friday afternoon before Memorial Day -- at 11:45 p.m. K, who'd managed to go to the wrong hotel, arrived shortly after me. We checked in and immediately went to sleep. We weren't exactly in the mood to go out after each driving over five hours to get to Austin.

We slept in the next morning, then went to this Tex-Mex restaurant called Vivo. If you ever find yourself at Vivo in Austin, I would strongly advise against ordering the cheese enchiladas (unless you really like things that taste like they're drowning in Velveeta) or eating the salsa without a large glass of water in front of you (hot hot hot!). I would, however, strongly suggest ordering a margarita. Not only are they amazingly yummy and sweet, but they come with flowers in them!



















One of the coolest parts about the restaurant is that they give the ladies roses. I was very excited to see mine was a yellow rose, since it's my favorite color.















After lunch, K and I, K's roommate and his girlfriend all went to a wine festival downtown. That was pretty fun. We sampled some great wines and some not-so-great wines, and K and I even got interviewed for some random Internet news channel ... thing.

What was really cool was when I saw this woman with an adorable dog and went up to pet him. I asked her if she minded, and she told me it was fine. Then, she said I had "awesome" arms and asked what workouts I do! That made me feel pretty good.

That night, we went out to dinner with Rebecca and some of her friends, then headed to 4th Street. We were sitting in the outdoor part of a bar, and it was raining a bit -- just enough to make a lot of people go inside so we could take their seats, but not enough for us to rush inside. It was pretty much just enough to make our hair look funny in pictures. I'd like to think we still pulled it off.




























K and I and his roommate and his girlfriend were all pretty tired from our long day, so we didn't make it past 12:30. It felt pathetic to be calling it a night so early in Austin, but we were just exhausted.

We hailed a cab to get back to our hotel. I guess the driver was angry that we only needed to go about a mile and a half or so from the bar we were at, because he tried to kill us about eight times on the way back. First, he started moving just as K was starting to climb into the car. I guess the fact that the overhead light was on wasn't an indication to him to wait a moment longer. K's roommate, his girlfriend and I were all screaming, "Whoa, whoa whoa!" The cab driver didn't apologize. He just acted annoyed. He proceeded to change lanes in intersections; cut off cars, a buggy that was giving rides through downtown and a rickshaw driver; start moving at red lights (as in, before they turned green); attempt to run over countless pedestrians; and about 1,000 other illegal and highly dangerous things that are especially dangerous on the streets of downtown Austin at 12:30 on a Saturday night.

What added an additional element of fun to Saturday was the fact that my wisdom tooth decided to start flaring up again. It had been hurting a bit that day, but I was hoping it wouldn't get bad. It definitely did. I barely slept Saturday night because of it. I tried calling our hotel lobby at about 3 a.m., but they were out of ibuprofen in their little shop.

K and I got up pretty early the next day and had brunch at a great restaurant on 6th Street. We decided to do a little sightseeing along the street afterward. We passed an ATM, and I noticed there was blood all over the sidewalk in front of it. Throughout our walk, we hit spots that reeked of urine. We'd passed a ton of cute little shops that Saturday on our way to the wine festival, but neither of us knew where they were, and I didn't need to be spending money on clothes anyhow. My tooth was hurting pretty badly (and the right side of my face was even swollen), so I wasn't interested in walking around much longer, and K wasn't into it either.

It was kind of disappointing to go all that way and not get to enjoy it like we'd hoped to, but we were ready to leave. We'd at least gotten to see Rebecca and hang out with her.

We headed back to Dallas, and I was very thankful that the drive back was much closer to the three-hour mark. We'll have to go back to Austin again, just not on Memorial Day weekend, not on our anniversary, not when it's raining, not when I'm craving cheese enchiladas, not when my wisdom tooth is coming in, and not when the city of Dallas is fixing potholes.