ACL & Austin in Instagram

Sorry it took me so long to get on this Texas recap thing, but there's been some stuff going on that was more important than the blog.  But I wanted to get back into the swing of things and start off this recap before I forgot all the wonderful details from our trip to Texas.  I thought I'd begin with the main reason we went to Texas in the first place, Austin.  And more specifically, the Austin City Limits Festival.  I've only been to a couple of music festivals in my life, none of which were very large, but ACL has always been on my wishlist.  My bucket list, if you will.  It always seemed to have the best lineups, and the completel lack of camping in the middle of summer (which I am not a fan of), so Antoine and I finally decided this was the year to do it.

We bought our tickets and then they announced the lineup, that's how it usually goes.  Initially we were a little bummed about the lineup...not that it was bad, but we were hoping for more of our favorites.  Still, after we inspected the lineup a little further we decided it was still going to be a great weekend of music and we were excited.  After we bought our ACL tickets we decided to make a little Texas road trip out of the trip and added San Antonio, Fort Worth and Dallas to the agenda.  And that's how our trip to Texas came to be...

We flew out early Friday morning, the first day of the festival, and landed in Austin a little after noon.  In hindsight, it might have been better to fly in Thursday, so we would have been a little more refreshed to the first day of the festival, but oh well.

I went into the ACL experience expecting to be overwhelmed.  And while the crowds were a little daunting at times, I am happy to say that I didn't have one single crowd-induced panic attack! 

The highlight of the first day, and one of my favorite shows of the festival, was Vampire Weekend!  They were fun and their performance was perfect!

Before Day 2 of ACL we met up with my cousin and his girlfriend for a little sugary sustenance at Gourdough's.  We got the Fat Elvis (a donut with peanut butter frosting, bacon and caramelized bananas) and the Granny's Pie (a donut with caramel, pecans, bananas and graham cracker crumbs)...and wowza!  They were delicious, but our heads felt all fuzzy afterwards from all the sugar.  Warning: if you go to Gourdough's, which you should because it's delicious, two people only need one donut!  Please heed my warning, it's for your own good!

Fueled by an insane amount of sugar we headed off to Day 2 of the festival.  First up was Deap Vally, two rocker chicks who killed it even though the lead singer was losing her voice!

Next up was Walk the Moon, during the hottest part of the whole weekend!  But it was so worth it because they were sweating even more than the crowd, their energy was insane and they put on arguably the best show of the weekend, in my opinion!  It doesn't help that they are all so ridiculously adorable!!!

By the end of Day 2 we were so exhausted, but at least we got to see some fantastic bands...and the weather started to cool down a little that even which was nice.

Antoine's friend Phillip, who went with us to the festival, was nice enough to show us around town.  On Saturday night we tried one of the few places in town he hadn't been, Ms P's Electric Cock.  It's a cute little airstream trailer with a gigantic neon "CHICKEN" sign out front and their serving up some tasty fried chicken!

When A and I got back to the hotel, we finally noticed the crazy sunburn I had gotten that day despite the fact I was wearing SPF75.  OUCH!

Sunday morning, before the festival, Philip, Antoine and I headed to 24 Diner for some brunch.  The highlight for me was definitely the milkshake, roasted banana and brown sugar!  It was so insanely good!!  Probably one of the best shakes I've ever had!

Day 3 highlights were definitely Grouplove (in the video above), the National, and Phoenix, even though Antoine was about ready to fight some rude jerk in the crowd!

The sun coming through the iconic tree at Zilker!  FYI: this is the crowd during a slow time.

On Monday morning, after three days of standing out in the sun, Antoine and I were in need of a little relaxation, aka San Antonio.  But on our way to San Antonio we made one last Austin stop, Salt Lick BBQ.  Antoine and I had both never been, but heard such good things so we were committed to trying as many things as we could.  Antoine got the Rancher plate, which included brisket, pork ribs, sausage and turkey, and I got the beef ribs and then we shared.  We both agreed the beef ribs were the best and had the best flavor!  We also both loved their sauce.  And I was surprised by how much I like the sausage and the potato salad, which are two things I'm usually not crazy about in general.  If you're in the area, I'd say Salt Lick is a must!

All in all, Austin was fun but exhausting!  We loved the bands we saw (though Portugal. The Man was a little bit of a disappointment), but in the end we were just tired.  Three days of nonstop music and sun might be a little too much for us, but we were glad we got to experience it!  And we were glad Philip decided to go with us, because we got to check out some tasty food thanks to him!

Check back later for some more Texas Recap, but be patient with me as it's going to take some time to add the insane amount of photos I took (as per usual)!  Until next time...