March 5th: No, Really, Eat ALL The Things

I was somehow hungry when I woke up, despite all the food I had the day before, so we got dressed and made our way out to find some breakfast.

A few blocks from our room, we found Granny's Tacos. We ordered a few, grabbed some condiments, then made a quick stop for coffee before heading back to the room to inhale everything.

Mmm...breakfast tacos. They were so good. We ate them and watched Price is Right. It was a nice way to start the day.   :)

After breakfast, we grabbed an Uber and made our way to Mount Bonnell to check out the view...

...then walked down to Mayfield Park to check out the gardens.

It was really nice to see some flowers already in bloom!

We also found some peacocks wandering around the paths.

We made our way over to the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Garden next. It was really cool following the path along the water and coming across different pieces.

There were definitely some interesting things to see!

After wandering all over the sculpture garden, we grabbed an Uber back into town. We eventually found the Russell Fine Art gallery, which was also full of really cool things to see.

One of their featured artists had some of the coolest pieces I've seen. Gil Bruvel makes 3D pieces with wooden blocks; I've never seen anything like it.

We actually liked his work so much that we bought this piece! It's hanging in our house.   :)

If I had a bigger bank account, I probably would have bought all of his pieces. They were so cool to look at.

For some reason this one reminds me of cereal in milk.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the gallery...

...and walked down to the park by the river. There was a really neat view of the skyline from one of the bridges.

On the other side of the bridge was something very delicious: Terry Black's BBQ. My goodness. Everything was incredible (especially the brisket). Maybe it's a good thing I don't live in Austin; I would have to buy bigger pants.

They smoke everything inside this building. It smelled incredible. And when our Uber driver picked us up, he asked us where we had just been and when we told him, he said we smelled incredible hahaha.

We took an Uber back to the room and hung out for a little bit, before taking another Uber to another one of my must-see places:

VooDoo Donuts. I wasn't about to turn down the chance to try one! And man, was it worth it; this was the one I really wanted and they didn't have any already made. When I asked the girl at the counter if they happened to have any, she said she could make one for me right then. It was completely covered in mini m&ms and SO GOOD. Maybe the best donut I've ever had.

Austin has a pretty good live music scene, so we walked down to Elephant Room for a drink and caught a bit of a jazz group. After that we tried to go to a nearby speakeasy, but there was some weird event thing going on so we moved on in search of something less crazy.

We wound up at Peche, which wound up being one of my favorite stops of the trip. We wound up with a really cool bartender...

...plus they had some really good drinks. This one was made with yellow chartreuse. And their mac and cheese was out of this world; I wish I had a picture of it, but we inhaled that so fast I don't think I grabbed one.

Our last stop of the night was Roosevelt Room, which was also very cool and tasty with another great bartender.

We grabbed a couple more drinks, then eventually got an Uber back to the room and passed out. I can't believe we ate and drank so much hahaha.

March 4th: Eat All The Things

I didn't get the best sleep that night, but I wasn't about to let that slow me down. There were things to see (and eat)!

We didn't want to pass up the chance to get some breakfast tacos, so we walked over to Counter Cafe for breakfast. Most of the people in there were dressed very fancy and talking about business things; I guess if I had the chance to have a business meeting over tacos, I would, too.

A short Uber ride later, we were at one of my must-see things for the trip:

East Austin Succulents. Holy monkeys, it was so cool. They had thousands of plants.  :)

I wandered through the whole thing...

...then eventually picked out a few things to bring home. I think I showed a LOT of restraint. If we didn't have to fly commercial back home, I probably would have bought a lot more.

We took an Uber back to the room to drop off the plants, then hung out for a little while before grabbing another Uber to check out part of downtown.

We wandered through a bunch of different shops, then wound up at Trace for lunch, which was very tasty.

I was feeling a little under the weather, so after wandering around a bit more, we went back to the room and I grabbed a short nap. That helped, so we hit the road again.

We took an Uber to Alamo Drafthouse to catch a movie and have dinner. This one was especially cool; it had reclining seats! We saw How To Train Your Dragon 3 (which was really good), and I stuffed my face with avocado toast.

Our last stop for the night was Rainey Street. The entire street is lined with small houses that have been converted to bars, and there are food trucks outside, too. It was really neat! We stopped at Lucille for a drink to start...

...then made our way to Icenhauer's for some sangria and fried Brussels sprouts.

I wish I had been able to get a better picture of what the buildings were like; it was really neat.

Our last stop on Rainey Street was Lustre Pearl. They had a guy playing guitar and singing; he was especially good. We hung out for a little bit before making our way back toward the apartment.

Even though it was getting close to midnight on a Monday, we still managed to find a food truck that was open and grabbed some hummus and pita to take back to the room. We inhaled the snacks, then made our way to bed. It had been a very tasty day!

March 3rd: Austin (Eventually)

Back in March, we had a long weekend free for Mark's birthday. His pick for a birthday trip was Austin, Texas, so on a dreary Sunday, we packed up the car and made our way up to Dulles.

We made it to the gate and found out the flight was overbooked. They were offering a LOT of money for people willing to rebook and go the following day (I think $800 each at one point), but since we were limited on time, we stuck with the original plan. We eventually boarded, pushed back...and taxied around reeeeeally slowly before returning to the gate because the plane was broken.

Everyone deplaned and hung out at the gate, waiting for an update. They gave us free snacks and drinks while we waited, which was pretty cool!

A little while later, they sorted out whatever the problem was and we got to reboard. By then, it had started to snow, so we also had to deice before heading to the runway to depart. That was easily one of the longest takeoffs I've ever had at Dulles; I think we used nearly 8,000 feet of runway before we finally lumbered into the air. That's about as bad as the A380!

It didn't take long to climb above the clouds, and the flight to Texas was nice. I spent the time sightseeing and rereading a book on my Kindle.

We eventually landed, grabbed our bags, and got an Uber to...

...our apartment for the next few days. Not a bad view from the balcony!   :)

We hung out for a little bit and got settled in, then decided to go find some dinner. There was a nearby ramen place that had really good reviews, but the line stretched way out the door, so we poked around a bit more to see what else was in the area.

We wound up at Il Brutto, a tasty Italian place. We managed to get some sweet seats up by the pizza oven, and started out with some super tasty ham and cheese...

...and I got a burrata pizza (because I kind of had to once I knew it was a thing). Everything was really good; I'm glad we wound up here for dinner! (And if you haven't already guessed, there will be a LOT of food and drink pictures from this trip.)

They even brought us limoncello with our check. We wrapped up here, made a quick stop at the apartment to drop off our leftovers, then headed back out to explore a bit more.

Our next stop was Whistler's for a drink. The old fashioneds were tasty, but it was LOUD inside. We finished our drinks outside, then moved on.

The next bar, Grackle, was a bit more low key and had a really cool vibe. We each got a drink, and grabbed a table to hang out for a bit.

Part of our hanging out involved hiding a shiny purple egg for a group doing a scavenger hunt, which was pretty funny. One of the hunt organizers came up to us early on and asked us to keep the egg; they explained that someone would come ask for it, and we could made them do whatever we wanted for them to earn it. Katie wound up coming over to ask for the egg; she did a decent impression of Olympic curling, and we gave her the egg.   :)

We hung out a bit longer, then made our way back to the apartment for some sleep. We had lots of exploring (and eating) to do!

Lunch at Easton (ESN)

Back in February, we lucked out with a good weather day for flying. We figured we should make the most of it, so we decided to fly to Easton, MD, for lunch.

It's not every day that you get nice clear skies like this in the winter!

We had to cross the Chesapeake Bay to get there. I thought the patterns in the shallow water were pretty neat.

It took a few minutes to cross the bay...

...and get to Maryland. The water was so cold that you could see patches of ice here and there.

We started our descent...

...and entered the left downwind for Runway 22.

Ta da! Parked right out front at the FBO.   :)

Their cafe always has really tasty stuff. My cheeseburger with guacamole was really good, and it didn't take long for me to inhale everything on the plate.

After stuffing ourselves, it was time to head home. We basically retraced our route in reverse.

Over the patches of ice...

...over the Chesapeake Bay (I thought the cargo ship was pretty neat)...

...then around the restricted airspace before turning west toward Warrenton.

For part of the flight, you can follow the Rappahannock River. If you stay just on the north side of the river, it keeps you clear of all of the restricted airspace in the area.

Everything seemed normal as I set up to land, until I turned base. For some reason, the airplane wasn't descending as fast as it normally would. I figured maybe it was just me being a little rusty since I hadn't flown much lately. The problem continued onto final, and it wasn't until I was less than a half mile out and still too high and fast that I happened to look out the side window and immediately found the problem - my flaps never came down!

The flaps are meant to help you descend at a steeper angle as you come in to land, and without them, it's a little harder to get the plane to slow down and descend (especially if you're not paying attention and don't realize that they never come down). I added power for a go around, re-flew the pattern, and did a no flaps landing (and a very nice one, at that). I taxied back to the hangar with visions of expensive maintenance bills and a new flap motor floating through my head.

Luckily, my hangar neighbor, Gary, was nearby. He's been a mechanic longer than I've been alive, and he's usually my first stop if I'm not sure of something. (I'm very lucky to have him as a buddy!) I asked him if I could pick his brain and explained what happened.

He hopped up under my panel, had me turn on the master switch (battery), then poked at a handful of wires. A bunch of sparks shot out! Turns out the flap motor was fine; it was just a loose wire. Gary found a new screw, tightened everything back up, and we were good to go. It had been a fun day (and a good learning experience)!