Dirty 6th and East Austin

It's hard to believe we've been here for a week (tomorrow)!  We still have another week to go before all of our stuff from the moving truck arrives. We. can't. wait.  Literally just have our bed, a dresser, 2 lamps and 2 folding chairs for now.  Adventure!

To catch ya'll up on some of our activity, we walked down to East 6th Street, which people here call "Dirty 6th." It's where all the dive bars and live music happens and it's about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. We'd been there when we visited back in March for Clay's recruitment weekend but it's much livelier now in the summer, especially on the day we were there, 4th of July.  It was quite the experience...  During our walk, we encountered several heroin junkies, a couple of guys eating outside a cafe with a live snake at the table, another guy (shirtless) in the process of being arrested, an entire block of homeless people (apparently there's a shelter right there), and a dead baby bird on the sidewalk. So, we found out why it's called Dirty 6th, and to be on Dirty 6th on the 4th is very special indeed.

Our neighborhood is definitely up and coming, aka becoming gentrified. East Austin has traditionally been working-class and most residents African-American and Mexican-American. We found a cool book about the area we live in, called Austin: East of I-35 (read about it here). I really love our neighborhood and the mix of cultures.... it's full of character and cool, artsy people and places, and history (French Legation Museum is right next door, for example). There are 2 new huge apartment complexes including ours (yes, we are the problem), but besides that there are mostly just really cute, small old houses lining the streets and lots of dogs/cats to make friends with. I think one of our neighbors across the street even has a rooster, because we've heard it cock-a-doodle-dooing while out on walks. Some of the succulent plants are so huge they look like octopus tentacles. Things like that are surreal and remind us we're not in DC anymore!  Definitely plenty of hipsters, but they seem to be down-to-earth/friendly hipsters rather than the pretentious/snotty kind so far. There are a lot of retro-chic/farm-to-table/etsy-ish type businesses in this area. So far it's my favorite part of Austin, which is super lucky!

Greetings from Austin!!!

The Ginormous Flagship Whole Foods

Mattress delivered on our first day!

Murals down the street from our apartment

Clay in front of the main building

Our bed arrived on the 2nd day!

Mexican coke and lychee juice at the food truck park

Egg rolls and pineapple fried rice

Austin has amazing flowers

A cute kitty made friends with us on our walk home

These trees are everywhere!

Graffiti is legal (and better) in Austin

Texas flag

More pretty flowers

For Grandma 

Word.

The Big Easy

Good times. Felt so luxurious to stay in the same place for 2 nights in a row!  Food was amazing, music was amazing.  Lots of characters. We went to the same restaurant I had been last time I was in New Orleans with the family, but just to the bar and ordered the same drink I'd had back in 2009... the French 75. I've tried ordering it at various places in DC but nothing compares to the version at Arnaud's. People down here know how to make a drink. So glad I got to go back. We had great food at a brand new restaurant in the French Quarter called Angeline, brunch at Atchafalaya, and our last dinner at the same restaurant where Robert Durst had his last dinner before being arrested, Emeril Lagasse's NOLA. Bonus: actor/comedian Reno Wilson was having dinner with his family a couple tables away from us. I didn't know who he was but Clay did!

Sweet Home Alabama

Can't believe we're here! I didn't know what to expect but it's actually very pretty... There's not much to report since we got here too late to explore but we'll have 2 days in New Orleans starting tomorrow so hopefully there will be more of interest to share. Here are a few pictures from today...

Random photos from our last week in DC

Kennedy Center Selfies from Book of Mormon

Walk along the waterfront in Georgetown

Shredder received high marks on his grooming report card

All of our worldly possessions boxed up and ready to go

Taken moments before we realized we'd just locked the keys in the car

Our moving van

Apartment getting pretty empty

Goodbye 2424 Penn!

Wytheville, VA

Just arrived in Wytheville, VA. Clay and I are delighted with the view of the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains surrounding us, and were pleased to discover that both Waffle House and Bob Evans fine dining establishments are within walking distance of our hotel. Our La Quinta Inn is top-notch. We look forward to a complimentary continental breakfast in the morning.  Driving took about 6 hours, with some brief periods of rain, but mostly sunny and not much traffic. We are happy but tired. Tomorrow we head for Birmingham, Alabama. I heard there is a wonderful civil rights museum there...

Haiku

Last night in DC
Boxes stacked to the ceiling
Shredder is confused.