Celebrate Good Times

The day after Dom got his job it was our three year wedding anniversary—such perfect timing.

Dom had already planned a day full of anniversary surprise destinations exploring our new city of Austin.

To take this, we stood in  the middle of South Congress Ave, my favorite street full of funky stores and hip restaurants. I love how the Capitol building sits humbly in the middle of all the tall skyscrapers.

The Capitol building, where we toured, learned some Texan history and in front had a picnic lunch on a bench under a shady tree in the 75-degree weather .

The UT-Austin bell tower. Dom wanted to go up to the top, but there were menacing signs by its elevators that said Authorized Personnel Only, so we chickened out. But I did teach Dom what chicken out means, so that was profitable.

And the quad reminded me of dear UNC-Chapel Hil, which of course has a far prettier campus than any Texas university’s.

When we pulled up to this building, I thought, “Why are we going to a rag shop?! Are you sure you are at the right place Dom?”

But he certainly was.

Dom knows how ever since Wyoming and seeing artistic, beautiful cowgirl boots everywhere I have yearned for a pair of my own.

He researched thrift stores with cowgirl boots on Yelp and found that Roadhouse Rags had rave reviews.

I felt like the whole store was the definition of Austin: vintage, artsy clothes that someone in an indie band would wear, eclectic atmosphere, and a super-friendly owner.

She was sitting on a cozy couch reading the newspaper, and didn’t see us right away. When she saw me drooling over the stand of boots, she welcomed us.

She learned that we were new to the area and had just gotten jobs. She has lived here since the 80s. She shared with us  some Austin trivia, told us about other cool thrift stores, showed us the venue in the back where they have live shows, taught me how to find boots that fit properly—my foot should come up when I walk, but not feel like it’s falling out of the boot—gave us her card and said she could be our surrogate mom, so if we ever needed any help at all, give her call.

We love Austinites.

I didn’t buy boots though because none of them fit just right, but I will definitely be going back to check again and again.

After some more boot-browsing, we went to the Domain, a mall that reminded us of Europe in how the shops lined the walkways. But it had its Austin accents with a monument of instruments—it is the live music capital of the whole world—and fun, random artsy benches.

For some sunset pics, we trekked the five minute hike up the highest point in Austin, Mount Bonnell, at 780 feet! It made us miss the Grand Tetons at 13,770 feet. But it was still a romantic, sigh of contentment view of the city and the river.

Until, we took this picture.

Savor it, because it’s the last picture of Dom’s camera.

Dom had set his tripod up behind us, we were staring at the inspiring sunset, when all of the sudden we heard, “BANG!”. Dom jumped and glanced back to see the tripod holding his precious camera blown over by the wind and smashed onto the hard ground.

The camera that he had attached to his hand the past two years, our companion on all our journeys, was dead. We were very sad.

We left quickly before the sunset got any prettier, and Dom took me to the last surprise: Love Balls, an awesome Japanese food trailer. Food trailers are an Austin thing. They are all over the city and a fun place to get cheaper food, and hang outside.

Our meal was the perfect comfort food for after his camera’s funeral.

We couldn’t stop saying, “Yummm, soooo good, wow!” while we indulged in takoyaki, a ball shaped dumpling filled with goodness and topped with flavorful sauce and bonito flakes. I got the veg, and he got the octopus, along with sides of garlic yaki-onigiri. We sat outside under the romantic glittering  lights hung in the trees with Bob Dylan playing in the background.

These pics from yelp will have to do since our dear camera was already in its grave.

Other than the camera tragedy, it was  the perfect Austin day, and a splendid way to celebrate our three years of adventure together and new jobs.

We are blessed, so so so blessed.

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