Austin, Texas was a surprisingly small city — when I started planning this trip back in October, I quickly realized we would need to rent a car to see some of the gorgeous site outside the city. McKinney Falls and Hamilton Springs Pool were two of our favorites, but we also loved visiting the state Capitol and the University of Texas campus (we even snuck inside the stadium for a quick peek — it was huge!). Since we spend a long weekend there, we also had time for a day trip to San Antonio to explore their infamous River Walk and, of course, The Alamo. SA was a bit more commercial than Austin, but we were still glad we had a chance to visit! 

 Quick funny story about this picture… when we arrived at McKinney, the gentleman working the gate told us that this was the area where they filmed The Leftovers Season 2 — we LOVE this show, but haven’t watched the season yet so didn’t really know how it was incorporated. Anywho… the image on the left was a lighting test shot I took. Then we came home and googled the show and park just to see and found an almost identical image of the main character — we were laughing so hard! Oh, the little things!

Oh my gosh, the food. Everything was SO good — from the moment we arrived, until the day before we left, we felt like we didn’t stop eating. Luckily we walked a lot (at least that’s how I rationalize it to myself!); we’ve basically been eating nothing but salad for the past two weeks to make up for it! But oh, it was so worth it! Here are some of our encounters….

Torchy’s Tacos | We knew we had to get some Mexican food and tacos hit the spot! I loved all the options and that you could mix and match. Also, hands down, the best queso I’ve ever had! We almost went here twice, but our stomachs couldn’t handle it (unfortunately!). 

Gourdough’s Donuts | Donuts for dinner? Yes, please! We shared a savory donut so we could both pick a favorite for dessert!

 
Franklin BBQ | This is ALL we ate for an entire day! We got up at the crack of dawn and headed down to Franklin’s to wait in line for this delicious BBQ; we heard the lines get long, but we had no idea what we were in for when we arrived — naively thinking that since it was chilly the line certainly wouldn’t be as long. We waited longer than I care to admit, but I’ve never had brisket as good as this. When we got to the front of the line, we ordered a little bit of everything since we knew this was a one time deal! 

Biscuits & Groovy | Little known fact, biscuits are the way to my heart! Chicken biscuits, gravy and biscuits, even just jam and biscuits — I love them all! This place certainly didn’t disappoint with all their awesome topping options and super fluffy biscuits! 

Lulu’s Cafe | Cinnamon rolls are an okay lunch, right? Right. That’s what we told ourselves on our day trip to San Antonio — after seeing these years ago on the Travel Channel, I knew I wanted to try it if I was ever nearby! I was cautiously optimistic, but it’s actually as good as it looks! We skipped the outside and went straight for the gooey center :) 

In & Out | On a whim, we checked if there were any locations nearby for this West Coast burger chain and there totally were! We were super excited and of course found a way to work it into our plan!