Two girlfriends and I ran away to Austin for a Testosterone-Free Weekend (TFW … like a GNO, only better). I’ve been to the capital city many times, but only passing through or for a specific purpose/destination. It was fun to go with no agenda and just relax.

The hotel was a disappointment — one that shall be reflected in my customer review. But, the a/c was cold (hallelujah!) and the beds were decently comfy, so that’s something. What really made the trip fun was finding new & different places to eat. We were aiming to not repeat places and to try different types of food at each meal. It was absolutely not a low-carb weekend, but we had a ball.

• Friday lunch, as we arrived in town: Vivo, where I had verde chicken enchiladas and a cucumber frozen margarita. It sounds strange, but it was really good!
• Friday dinner: Bacon, where every dish has – you guessed it – bacon! I had a bacon reuben sandwich that was scrumpdillyicious. One of the gals had chicken & waffle with bacon in the waffle batter. Again, it sounds odd, but omg – you have to taste it to believe it!
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  Tiramisu at Mandola’s Italian Market in Austin

  Saturday breakfast: slept blissfully late, then coffee & scone 🙂

• Saturday lunch: Opa for late lunch/early happy hour. I had a falafel plate with hummus & pita and a nice glass of Astica Malbec.
• Saturday dinner: Mandola’s Italian Market, where I tried the grilled caprese panini (like a mozzarella grilled cheese sandwich for grown-ups!) and tiramisu for dessert. One of the gals also got a scoop of pistachio gelato, and it was yummy!
• Sunday breakfast before we headed home: Biscuits & Groovy, where the menu items are named after famous musicians. I had the Philly Nelson, which consisted of three biscuits smothered in amazing stuff like cheesesteak, sausage, gravy & chives. I had to box up half of it for a delicious leftover lunch when I got home. They also make a splendid iced coffee for only a buck, so I had two!
  

  “Philly Nelson” breakfast at Biscuits & Groovy in Austin

We actually did do [a little bit] more than just eat & drink all weekend! 😉 We went to the used bookstore (because between the 3 of us, we “only” had about a dozen books … not counting what’s in my e-reader library, LOL) and did a little shopping at an outlet center.

I even logged on to my school system to see the final exam topic for my essay test that is due on Tuesday. Did I work on it? Um, no. But I looked at it, so that should count for something. E for Effort. We also did plenty of gabbing and laughed till we wheezed & cried and lazed around the hotel room in our jammies like luxurious divas.

One of the other gals and I felt adventuresome and went kayaking at Lady Bird Lake on Saturday morning. It was loads of fun, and we didn’t capsize! 😉 We’ve decided to try to make it a tradition for our TFW adventures to do some kind of water-related activity.

So, there you have it … and now, I think I shall go enjoy the rest of my leftover tiramisu before I get back to writing essays!