Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Girls Weekend in Austin

Before I get to the post topic at hand, I wanted to say thank you for all the kind wishes on my birthday last Thursday.  While I am very far from family and friends, I felt surrounded by love on my birthday thanks to all of the phone calls, texts, facebook posts, and emails.  The day was capped off with an awesome google hangout with some of my favorite people!  I had friends from Boston, Chicago, DC, Kamloops, BC, New York, Ohio, St. Louis, and Winnepeg on the chat over the course of 2 hours.  I love technology and the way it can bring people together.  There was lots of laughter, stripes, and I of course celebrated with some macarons.

On Friday I woke up feeling like a little kid on Christmas Eve as I was so excited to hop on a plane to meet up with some best friends from college.  I decided last fall that I did not want to spend my birthday weekend in Charlotte and my friend Heidi was gracious enough to offer to host me in Austin. Our other friend Brooke decided to meet up with us as well...  little did I know they had a little surprise up their sleeve as when Brooke landed in Austin, she had our other friend Amanda with her!  It was the best surprise!  We have not had a weekend together in many many years so were all long over due for some girl time.

I will let the photos do most of the talking for the rest of the post!

Our first stop was an outdoor shopping center where we had lunch and of course treated ourselves to drinks.  I saved my 2 drinks for the month for this weekend and enjoyed a fun cucumber martini drink.  I am a sucker for anything cucumber flavored!



4 friends reunited!
 After an afternoon of shopping (where I scored some great deals), we made a pit stop at Whole Foods and then headed back to Heidi's for the evening. We had an international-themed meal with different dishes representing the different countries in honor of the opening ceremonies.  Dessert was macarons, which is my kind of birthday cake.


On Saturday night, we headed out for a day of exploring and started off by doing this short hike to a look-out area with beautiful views of the Austin area.


It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine!  And yes, I realize that I am totally the odd one out in this photo since I am not wearing any workout wear but I honestly don't own any workout clothes that are cute enough to wear while out and about.


It was so beautiful up there, it seemed like the perfect spot to practice some yoga poses...


After that, we checked out a couple of other popular spots in Austin like Jo's Coffee and Torchy's Tacos, and then did a little shopping in some of the boutiques downtown.

I like stripes but am pretty sure I could not pull off striped sunglasses. 

On Saturday night we headed back downtown for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then we headed to a really cute wine bar that was located in a quaint little house where we enjoyed table-side s'mores.

On Sunday, Brooke and Amanda flew back to Minneapolis in the morning but I stuck around for most of the day because I am never in a rush to get back to Charlotte.  ;)  I got to spend lots of time with my friend's daughter.   We were both rocking the curls that day and you can't tell in this picture but she is also wearing cream and white stripes!


After spending a couple of hours downtown and eating at a delicious hamburger place that had gluten free buns (yea!) we made one last stop for some macarons.

The light blue one was mine - it was vanilla flavored and was SO good.  Definitely the best macaron I have had this year.

Then it was time for me to head to the airport.  The weekend went so fast but was so much fun.  I am hoping that we can make these girls weekends happen on an annually or every other year. 

I was sad to return to Charlotte, but I left with a full heart.  The last year has been a tough one for me, but weekends like this are a good reminder that I have many blessings in my life, especially the blessing of friendship. 

20 comments:

Becky said...

What a fabulous weekend! So glad you had such a blast!!!

Caroline said...

Glad you had a great birthday weekend!! Looks like the weather was beautiful and you guys had a blast!

Abby said...

Awesome!! Looks like you ladies had SO MUCH fun! Love you in those sunglasses lol - it made me laugh to see " hipster Lisa".

Austin is so gorgeous! Glad you ladies got to do this!

Jeanie said...

There's nothing like spending time with good friends. I'm so glad you had a terrific birthday weekend -- looks like tons of fun!

missris said...

Yay you went to Mt. Bonnell! We used to go there all the time in college :) I'm glad you had a good time and that the weather cooperated!

Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said...

This sounds like a perfect weekend- I'm so jealous of that beautiful looking hike! Also, I love the pink striped sweater you have on in that photo, where is it from? I had a serious conversation with my mom yesterday about how you have awesome clothes and I want a lot of them ha ha.

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

It looks like you had a great time with your friends! I love all your stripy tops, especially the red one!

Marlys said...

So happy that you had such a fun and friend-filled weekend in Austin! The weather sure looked nice compared to ours! Loved those sunglasses, Lisa!

Stephany said...

Looks like such a fun weekend! I'm glad you were able to get away for a girls weekend for your birthday. You definitely deserved it!

Weather looks absolutely gorgeous, too! Glad you were blessed with wonderful weather. Yay!

Nora said...

Love all the photos! I can tell how happy you were :)

Amber said...

Love all the photos!!! That is so awesome your friend Amanda came too and surprised you guys. Sounds like the perfect weekend - I love girls weekends! SO FUN you guys had an international themed dinner and watched the Opening Ceremonies too! I would love to do that one year!

Cherry Blossoms said...

So thankful for our girls weekend! Def one of my favorite weekend of the year and I am so glad you enjoyed the macaron. I knew I saved the best place for last.

Leigh said...

So glad that you were able to get away with your girlfriends for a weekend! Looks like you had so much fun

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

I love cucumber flavoured things too :-)

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

Looks like fun!

Lauren @ Sassy Molassy said...

I love all of your yoga poses! So cute. And your curly hair with your friends daughter looks great as well. I know that girls weekends always feel so good to the soul.

Nilsa @ SoMi Speaks said...

Sounds like your girlfriends made sure to fill up your love tank in Austin. What a fun time - and the weather! (That's all I'll say on that, ha!)

meents said...

Ah, what fun we had! I can't believe you put the sunglasses pic on the world wide web :) That was a great summary of the weekend tho - we had nothing better to do, and wouldn't want it any other way! Miss ya already!

Unknown said...

Hi! I found your blog while I was looking for a yarn store that just opened in Star Idaho--called. . . of course. . . Lisa's Yarns. I recently moved from Michigan to Idaho and I'm going through some of the same stuff you are! I so miss the Midwest, and the cold, and my house and mostly my friends and family--but this is where we need to be for our careers. It is slowly getting better but I choke back tears at least once a day. . . sometimes I can't choke them back. Anyway--just saying hi.

Shoshanah said...

Is that actually a heard macaroon?!?! How adorable!