Another Busy Weekend

Once again, the Hardages have been on the move.  This most recent weekend centered around a little trip to Austin.  Friday morning we drove Southbound 35 towards Austin, stopping first at the outlet mall in Round Rock, Texas, which has both a J. Crew and Banana Republic outlet.  Apparently there are options at these stores that are not available at Target or HEB or starbucks or wherever the heck girls shop.  Anyway, Melissa was excited about these stores, and she got some "cute" sandals from one of them.  (I actually spent a long time looking for a photo of them, because photos seem to make the thing more interesting, but there aren't any on the internet.  anywhere.  So I'll describe them.  There is a piece of leather on the bottom, and one on the top that looks like a belt buckle.  You girls will love them, I bet, when you see them in real life). 

After shopping, we continued south into Austin, where we checked into our little hotel and started getting ready for the evening.  For my birthday, Melissa had given me tickets to Friday Night's Pat Green concert.  Pat Green is special to Melissa and I.  The first time we ever really hung out was at a Pat Green show, and we have seen him in concert several times since then.  Melissa has also met him twice.

But before the concert we grabbed a light dinner at the Austin mainstay "The Oasis."  It's an outdoor restaurant that overlooks Lake Travis, a few miles West of town.  The food was good and the weather was perfect, so we were able to just sort of hang out and relax for a while.

Then we drove down to the Nutty Brown Cafe, the concert venue.  We got a great place to stand, and again, the weather was just great.  Pat (that's what his friends like us call him) played all the favorites, but the highlight of the evening was when he played Joe Ely's "All Just to Get to You," one of my very favorite songs, and one of the songs that was played during the slide show at our Wedding rehearsal dinner. 

(Opening Act...not sure of his name)

(that's him.  the blur back there.  apparently this was a good time for photos..I hope the guy in front of us got a good one). 

The next morning we met my cousin Clint and his wife Jean for breakfast at the South Congress Cafe.  It was great to catch up with them, and we had some great food.  For lunch we met my Aunt Natalie and my two Cousins Diana (7) and Olivia (9 or 10, going on 18) at Julio's cafe for lunch.  Again, it was great to catch up with family members that I don't get to see that often. 

And we had cupcakes.  From a trailer.  But they were really good. 

The weekend concluded with another great concert, this time from a somewhat different genre than Friday night's.  That's right...Melissa and I attended the Elton John show.  pretty wild.  He played for almost 3 hours, all the hits, all while wearing a black trench coat with a sequened crocodile on the back.  And sunglasses.  Par for the course, I assume. 

(he's down there...behind the piano).