I have never been so excited to announce one year of something! What a great first year of marriage it has been. Since we are both pretty happy with the choice we made one year ago, we decided to celebrate big - and what better way than in Texas? After finishing up work (literally, for the handsome thornhill half) & school before spring break, we headed 3.5 hours down to Austin, TX.
We arrived Friday afternoon & went on a mini hike at Mt. Bonnell, for an introductory view of the Lady Bird Lake & the city of Austin. We poked around & got our bearings until check-in and didn't waste any time getting into relaxation mode with a nap (in the most comfortable bed I think I've ever slept in!). Somehow Cheesecake Factory managed to call us out of bed (the gift card helped), so we went out for dinner & an evening walk, then headed back to the hotel for an evening of anniversary gifts, sparkling cider in our wedding champagne flutes & a movie in bed.
Saturday we took our time getting up & eating breakfast, then headed out to Zilker Park for some nature. We found the Barton Creek Trail & went for a hike along the river - it was such a gorgeous day & we were impressed with the amount of people that were out with their dogs. After our hike, we rented a canoe & spent an hour or so on the lake. I was so excited! We didn't get to go kayaking in Hawaii b/c they basically told us we could die, so I had been waiting for a while! Canoeing was a ton of fun and the lake runs right next to downtown, which is pretty neat. We did however, get a little over excited & spent all of our energy on the first leg (our logic was to go against the current first, so we could take it easy coming back - good logic if you judge the currents correctly...). We even tried to race a motor boat, although I was content to give up pretty quickly & David was definitely missing Greg & the guys who would kill themselves to make sure they stayed out in front. Despite our long trek back against the current, we still managed to make it back in our allotted time (well sort-of...at least they were super laid back & didn't make us pay more! Yay Austin)
The impending rain & our tired arms kept us from playing a round of disc golf, but we chose very good option #2 - nap in our awesome bed before dinner. Fantastic. We meant to explore downtown a little before dinner & find a restaurant that looked good, but our nap went a little long, so we ended up at a Mexican restaurant we had seen earlier that day near the park - Baby Acapulco. We had some fantastic steak fajitas, yum! After dinner we went to
Mozart's Coffee Roasters (a cute place a friend had recommended) for coffee & tea by the lake & some marriage reassessment =) The rest of the evening consisted of new card games and our wedding videos with cheese, crackers & our second bottle of Martinellis. Perfect.
We woke up Sunday morning to rain, which hindered our plans of a picnic in the park @ the Zilker Kite Festival, but we took our time getting out & had a good time on our tour of capital building, learning the story of "our" state =) We took some pictures with a few of the many cannons that were surrounding the grounds, then drove around UT's campus & decided to head back early.
It was so great to spend an entire weekend together - so refreshing. We liked Austin & hope to visit a new city at least once a year while we're here. Still hard to believe it's already been a year. We are excited about the next one, two, three, well all the rest really =) Happy anniversary hon!
