Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Mom's gone wild

Ok, not really ... but, we did have a great time!!





My LONG time friend Michelle and I have been threatening our husbands that we wanted to do a girls weekend to Austin TX for about the last 8 years. But, as you can imagine, 5 kids between us, work, travel, family (and India) came in our way. As Kay says 'dreams do come true' and we finally DID IT!

In mid-Feb I found frequent fliers to Austin, Michelle booked a hotel room and we promptly "forgot" about it. No pre-planning, no booking of tickets, no itnerary, in fact ... we settled on when and how we were going to get to the airport the night before. It was glorious to know that we were going on trip where every last detail DIDNT need to be planned because we werent going with kids (or husbands) we could do what we wanted and decide when we got there. That's a vacation! It was awesome to just hang with a friend & talk; kids, husbands, work, being female, getting old, gossip magazines, movies, tv, books, etc....

Day 1 - pedicures, shopping, walking along the river, tex mex food, plenty of margaritas and a Breast Cancer benefit with "The Donna's". They were awesome! We also learned (or reememberd) a major lesson in going "out". Nothing starts until 10pm. AND, as a female, you need to wear as few as clothes as possible. We had forgotten in our "mom-dom". But, we did make it until showtime and had a gas. (fully clothed and probably sticking out like sore thumbs in our conservative dress).



"The Donnas are an American all-female rock band from Palo Alto, California.[1] They draw inspiration from The Ramones, AC/DC, and Kiss.[1][2] Rolling Stone has stated that "the Donnas offer a guileless take on adolescent alienation; they traffic in kicks, not catharsis, fun rather than rage".[1] MTV has stated that the band offers "nothing more than a good old-fashioned rock & roll party". After gathering a cult following in the punk scene since their 1993 debut, the band achieved major label commercial success in the early 2000s and afterward.[2]"

Day 2 - Moving slightly slowly, we ventured to investigate the work out room, ate some great seafood and hung out on the capital lawn for an afternoon of gospel and folk music to raise awareness of the issues with Malaria (Imagine No Malaria). Then it was off to a quick dinner and the Steve Martin & his banjo concert with Steepe Canyon players (bluegrass).

"Stephen Glenn "Steve" Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician, and composer. Martin was born in Waco, Texas, and raised in Southern California, where his early influences were working at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm and working magic and comedy acts at these and other smaller venues in the area. His ascent to fame picked up when he became a writer for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and later became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show. In the 1970s, Martin performed his offbeat, absurdist comedy routines before packed houses on national tours. Since the 1980s, having branched away from stand-up comedy, he became a successful actor, playwright, pianist, banjo player, and juggler, and eventually earned him his Emmy, Grammy, and American Comedy awards."

He was amazing, funny, great banjo player and they even finished the night with King Tut.

After that, who wouldnt be on the look out for a blues open mike night?! That was our next stop.... Local musicians wandered in/out of the bar, would get on stage, play a few songs, mix up the musicians, etc. Pretty cool local music.

Day 3 - We nearly sprung out of bed (compared to Day 2), workout, sat by the pool and then shopped. Austin has many many high end, artist furniture, jewerly and clothing boutique stores. Fun to look at but way out of our mom price range with $600+ skirts. We made it to the airport in time for 1 last beer, bought the most recent copies of People/US Weekly and settled into our seats for the trip home.

I highly suggest Austin but more importanlty, I suggest a nice weekend away with a good friend:)