Another successful trip for The Gang! This time we went to Austin to check out the biking trails, night clubs, restaurants, and scenery. We had a smaller group on this trip... Rob and Laura B drove down on Thursday night after work, while Laura M and Darin caravanned with Brian and me on Friday morning.

We met up at Bo's house, a friend of Brian's who lives in Austin. He was kind enough to let us stay at his house for the weekend instead of getting a hotel... which meant more beer money! Thanks Bo! All seven of us then headed down to Bull Creek Park to do some trail riding. It had some pretty nice little trails.. a few tough spots here and there, but mostly a novice trail. During the ride, Laura B took the first beating from a tree.. but later it was Brian who decided that the trail was not wide enough, so he plowed right into a harmless little tree.. but looks can be deceiving! The tree opened up a can of whoopass, and Brian ended up eating dirt. I witnessed this event first-hand, too! It was quite entertaining.

After the ride, we went back to Bo's to clean up and then hit Baby Acapulco for a snack and some happy hour margaritas. At miscellaneous points in the evening, some friends of Darin's, Brian's, and Laura M's also joined the group. After a rita or two (oops, I had three!), we drove out to The Oasis overlooking Lake Travis to catch the sunset. Their signature drink, The Oasis Sunset, has a pretty good kick and you get to keep the glass, too. We managed to get a perfect table on their HUGE outdoor patio, and view was amazing! There was a band playing and it was a very nice atmosphere. Shortly after the sun went down, it was back to town for steak dinner at Sullivan's... very good steak. By the time we were finished with dinner, it was nearly midnight, and we were all pretty worn out, so we turned in to get some rest.

The next day we drove out to Hamilton Pool, which was pretty awesome. It's a spring-fed pool beneath a cliff with little waterfalls here and there. The water wasn't as cold as I expected, so it was some good swimming. We hung out there and relaxed for a while, then drove out to The Salt Lick for lunch. This place was pretty cool... all-you-can-eat barbeque, family style.... AND because it's a dry county, they let us bring our own drinks in a cooler! Awesome food... I filled all three of my stomachs! After that it was time for some more R&R.... we checked in at headquarters for a while.

That evening, Rob and Laura B stayed behind while we went on a short tour of the UT campus.. very nice.. and massive! We soon learned that the UT baseball team had just won the College World Series, so we got to witness a few crazies in action. Amy's Ice Cream was the next stop, and that's where we met back up with Rob and Laura B. There they put their heart and soul into making AND SERVING ice cream, as they fling it through the air to get just the right amount of oxygen mixed in.

Next stop... the Bat Bridge! Millions of bats live under the Congress Bridge and they all come out at once to feed around dusk. It was pretty awesome.. but watch for falling dung! Ok, the moment we've all been waiting for.... 6th Street! Well, we did about as much of 6th Street as one can do in a single night. First stop was Cheers Shot Bar for a warm-up round of Flaming Dr. Peppers.. yumm.. but we were a bit disappointed when the silly bartender girl didn't put on much of a show. We left and walked down to another bar for some daiquiris and pool-shootin... then we met up with Karen at Shakespeare's. We sat out in the beer garden and listened to the band and talked for a while... but we didn't get too comfortable, there was still more to do! Someone had recommended Touche's as the place to get a GOOD Flaming Dr. Pepper. Wow! That bartender did it well, and I got a great pic of the flame, too! By this time, we felt the need to get our groove on, so we visited Crocodile Rock, a dance club. They were spinnin some pretty good tunes, so we stayed there and got crazy till closing time. Done yet? Nope... still have to make the night complete with some good ole 2am breakfast at Kerbey Lane! And that was excellent, too! Made it back to headquarters around 4am... what a fun-filled day it was!

The Energizer Bunny (Darin) felt the need to get up and run 5 miles at 8am the next day! Each to his own... but I was quite interested in sleeping until 11:30. Darin and Laura M drove down to the UT gift shop for some supplies, and then we all met at Trudy's for a tex-mex lunch on the patio. Afterwards, Rob and Laura B headed back to Ft Worth, while some of us did a little more exploring at Mt. Bonnell, which overlooks the whole city, basically.... pretty cool place. Then it was our turn to go home.

So, that was The Austin Trip '02 in a not-so-brief summary. We all had so much fun, we are considering an Austin Trip '02, Part 2 later this year!