Austin Hyatt Regency, Austin, TX

1st Street Bridge, Austin, TX

The Library, Austin, TX

Friends, Austin, TX

Ahhh, so where to begin? On Friday night we arrived in the Lone Star state. Justin and I were staying in at the Hyatt and John and Matt were staying at another hotel right by the convention center. I checked into the Hyatt*, which is actually across the river and about a 20 minute walk from the convention center, and when Justin got in we met Matt & John to pick up our SXSW registration. While walking across the bridge to the downtown area and seeing the graffiti, we realized that our hotel was actually in East Austin. Jake and his fiance Natalie were also in town so they met up with us too.

After getting our SXSW badges, we went for drinks. We weren’t sure where to go and just wandered into a bar called The Library where they were having a “$2 - You Call It” special. Not to shabby.

After a couple drinks we headed over to Habana for some Cuban dinner. I had the Lechon Asado (Roast Pork) that was overnight and slow roasted. One of the main reasons for John and I ordering this dish was because on the menu it had 5 exclamation points after saying it was incredible and a best seller. I’m glad I did order it, though. Also, we started a trend for the trip where we realized that some of the menu items were NSFW. Like.. banana cups? and gigante breast? I don’t know, but it was a trend through the week.

After dinner we wandered down 6th Street to Friends bar where there was a live band playing. We had a couple more beers and then called it a night.

I hadn’t been to Austin for about 4 years - the last time I was at SXSW - and some things were the same but there were some things that I noticed had changed. There’s a lot of construction and areas that were empty back then were now filled with hotels and stores and residences. Austin is definitely growing. In fact, I just looked on Wikipedia and it says Austin is the “3rd fastest growing large city in the nation.”

* I would like to mention that the Hyatt was a lovely hotel with magical glass elevators where you could see all the way down to the lobby from the 14th floor. When I checked in they gave me a complimentary glass of champagne and were generous with the supplies when Justin and realized we’d forgotten toothbrushes and toothpaste and shaving cream (not me) and deodorant (again, not me). They could have a better coffee shop, though.