Austin: Family-Friendly Things to Do in ATX (Part 2)

This is my second of four posts about our family's travels to Austin, Texas. Click the link to go to Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4. Because I blog about educational travel, I received free admission tickets, media rates, discounts, and other benefits for some of the attractions we visited throughout the trip, as well as for our hotel. Many attractions we toured are free to everyone, and I paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. Everything I'm sharing is something that I recommend whole-heartedly. If you notice any gaps in my narrative, it's because something wasn't worth mentioning.

We woke up on Monday, November 19 eager to explore Austin. But first, breakfast. Our room package at the DoubleTree included breakfast each morning at the hotel's restaurant, the 15th Street Cafe, and it was the perfect way to start each day. We opted for the buffet. I had a waffle, bacon, cheesy grits, plain scrambled eggs and vegetable scrambled eggs, fresh pineapple, and cranberry juice. There were tons of other options (cereals, oatmeal, toast, donuts, muffins, bagels, potatoes, pancakes, yogurt, other fruit, etc).

After breakfast, we headed to our first destination, the State Capitol. I chose the DoubleTree specifically for its great location; the Capitol is literally a 3-minute walk. (In fact, if you drove from the hotel to the parking lot for the Capitol, you'd actually have a farther walk than if you'd just walked from the hotel!) 

Like many things in Texas, the Capitol is big. It is also beautiful. 

And they never let you forget you're in Texas. 

Check out the Lone Star chairs. 

You've heard of Six Flags, right? The chain of amusement parks? They're all over the place now, but the company started with a single park in 1961 called Six Flags Over Texas. Why six flags? Because there are six national flags that have flown over Texas during its history: Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America. Technically, it should be Spain, France, Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the US, the CSA, and then the US again, making eight flags, but the repeats don't count. You can see examples of the six flags all over the place in and on the Capitol building.  

While we were at the Capitol, Trevor completed the Capitol Bingo game I made. He enjoyed hunting for the answers and learned a lot. (If you haven't read it already, I have a post of 13 tips to enjoying state capitols with kids that you may find helpful.)

Next we explored the expansive capitol grounds. There are all sorts of monuments, statues, fountains, and trees. Trevor loved this well.

And we were all amazed by the size of the acorns we found. What the heck?! Everything's bigger in Texas, I guess!

Next, we went to the Texas Capitol Visitor Center. It is free to visit and is housed in a restored three-story, castle-like building that once served as the General Land Office Building. It was built in 1856, making it the oldest state office building in Texas. It is well worth your time. We learned a lot.

This is where the stamp for the Capitol Collection is located. 

Don't mess with Texas. Seriously. 

We left the Capitol grounds and walked three blocks north to the Bullock Texas State History Museum.

We spent the rest of the day there, barely seeing everything before they closed at 5:00 pm. It was great.

  

  

We particularly loved an exhibit of the art of Eric Tippeconnic. They had a fun scavenger hunt activity for kids to help them look more closely at the art. It was awesome. 

I loved learning about the layering and spattering technique he uses. The results are stunning. And I love the color choices. 

There were lots of interesting videos to watch throughout the museum. This one was clips from 40+ years of Austin City Limits.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Bullock Museum and learned so much about Texas history and culture. 

Dinner that night was at the excellent Quattro Gatti, a pleasant half-mile walk from the DoubleTree. This is their lasagna pizza, piping hot from the wood-fired 1000° brick oven. And yes, it was as delicious as it looks. 

We also had their fantastic fettucine alla Bolognese, a fabulous beet salad, and warm house bread. All three of us left full and happy. 

We cut through the Capitol grounds on the walk back to the hotel. It's beautiful at night. 

After our long day, we were more than ready for a good night's sleep. More Austin adventures tomorrow!

Austin: Family-Friendly Things to Do in ATX (Part 1)

Trevor had the whole week of Thanksgiving off school, so we took advantage of the time with a 4-night trip to Austin, Texas. While Steve and I have been to Texas together and separately, Texas was a new state for Trevor. State #29, in fact!

Four days is not nearly enough time to experience everything that Austin has to offer, but we managed to pack in enough to give us a wonderful overview of Texas' capital. I'm excited to share it all with you! Because I blog about educational travel, I received complimentary admission tickets, discounts, media rates, and other benefits for some of the attractions we visited, as well as for the hotel where we stayed. Other attractions we toured are free to everyone. We paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. Everything I'm sharing is something that I whole-heartedly recommend. If you notice any gaps in my narrative, it's because something wasn't worth sharing, whether or not I paid for it.

We started our adventure early on Sunday, November 18. We flew from Sacramento to Austin and lost two hours in the process due to the time difference. When we landed in Austin, we had a quick bite at the Salt Lick Taco Bar in the airport to make up for the disappearance of lunchtime. It was a great decision. I'd heard that the Salt Lick BBQ was a don't-miss, but it was too far from where we'd be staying for us to visit. There's a full Salt Lick restaurant at the airport, but this grab-and-go taco bar was perfect for us and absolutely delicious.

With happy bellies, we headed outside in search of a giant, color-changing guitar. It wasn't hard to find. 

We'd decided not to rent a car while we were in Austin because most of what we wanted to see was an easy walking distance from where we'd be staying. We would need a way from the airport to the hotel and back again at the end of the trip and this guitar was the answer. Well, not the guitar itself. The guitar is the bus stop for CapMetro Line 20. For $1.25 per adult (kids ride free), we took a clean, safe, and convenient 30-minute bus ride from the airport to the hotel. What a bargain! 

The bus let us off a block from our hotel, the DoubleTree Suites Downtown. 

The DoubleTree ended up being perfect for our family. The location is great, the staff is friendly, and everything is clean and well-maintained. And I have to mention the warm cookies! After a long day of traveling, being greeted with a warm cookie is such a nice touch. 

Our room was huge - although I probably should say 'rooms' since our 2-bedroom suite had a living room, kitchenette, and two bedrooms, each with their own full bathroom! This is the living room, with the kitchen behind me, the dining area to my immediate left, and the doorways to each of the bedrooms visible. I've lived in apartments MUCH smaller than this, with far more people! In fact, that's a sofa bed there on the right. You could easily sleep 8 in this room and still not feel crowded. 

We even had a small balcony. This was our view to the southeast. 

We got settled into our room, then set about exploring the rest of the hotel. After feeling the water in the outdoor pool, Trevor opted not to swim. I'm sure it's wonderfully refreshing in the Texas summer, but Thanksgiving in Austin is not swimming weather. At least it wasn't in 2018. 

Steve's cousin, Jeff, lives in Austin with his wife, Mary. They took us to dinner at one of their favorite Austin restaurants, Loro. It is an Asian smokehouse, combining the best of BBQ with the best of Asian cuisine. Jeff ordered pretty much one of everything for us to try and oh my gosh. It was SO good. Every single thing was outstanding. If you live in Texas and haven't been to Loro, you need to go. And yes, I realize you might live in Texas and be 600 miles from Austin. Go anyway. It's worth it. 

I was so busy eating that I failed to take pictures of the food as it kept coming. All you can see here are lots of empty plates! Like I said, everything was spectacular. The ribs are only served on Sunday and Monday nights from 5:00 pm on, so if you can, go then. Go early though, as the ribs sell out quickly. It's not a bad idea to go early anyway, since the place fills up very quickly. It was standing room only (and several layers deep at the bar) when we left around 7:30 pm. There's a large amount of outdoor seating and even though it was cold out and raining lightly, that was packed too. I'm telling you - the food is that good. 

After dinner, Jeff and Mary drove us around town and gave us the locals' tour. It was very helpful to get oriented and both were full of interesting facts about their adopted hometown. They also gave us some great restaurant recommendations for places near our hotel. They dropped us off at the DoubleTree, where we declined the offer of more warm cookies. (If you know me at all, you know that I have to be ridiculously full to turn down a warm cookie! Loro was amazing, I'm telling you.) 

Tomorrow I'll tell you about our first full day in Austin. (Spoiler alert: It was awesome.) Click here to go to Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. 

Capitol Bingo

Our family is on a quest to visit each of the 50 states before Trevor is 18. Whenever possible, we include a visit to the state's capital city and the Capitol building in that city. When I posted 13 Helpful Tips for Visiting a State Capitol with Kids, our family had been to 20 of the 50 Capitol buildings. If all went as planned, we visited our 21st earlier this week!

Some of the Capitols have word searches, crossword puzzles, and other kid-friendly activities for families to print and bring with them when they visit the Capitol, but many do not. I challenged myself to create a printable that would work regardless of which state capital you visit. It was tough, but I came up with this bingo card. Of course, it could be done competitively, but I envision using it cooperatively as a family, with a prize (something small from the gift shop?) for the kids getting either bingo or blackout. 

Next week I'll be sharing all about our recent travels to the capital of the Lone Star State, including how we did completing this bingo card in Austin!

Quilled Card - Home Sweet Home

I've been quilling recently. Unlike scrapbooking or kids crafts that I do fairly consistently throughout the year, I tend to do a couple of quilling projects all at once, then ignore it for a year or so. I'm hoping to work on it more regularly, because I really do enjoy it. My latest project is this Home Sweet Home card.

There are affiliate links throughout this post. I earn a small commission on any purchases you make after clicking a link, at no extra cost to you.

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Home Sweet Home Card

Materials:

• cardstock (white, green, yellow, brown, and brick)
• scissors
• tape runner
• 1/8" wide quilling paper (green, yellow, brown, brick, and grey)
• quilling tool
• fine-tip craft glue (See that tiny bottle of glue? I use those for quilling. Apparently they're not sold in packs anymore - I've heard these needle-tip bottles are great, but I've never tried them)
• toothpick

Steps: 

Cut a piece of white cardstock to make a card base. If you want your card to have a printed, stamped, or hand-written sentiment on it, like my example above, do that now. Otherwise, your finished card will look like this. 

Glue a rectangle of green along the bottom of the cardstock to make the grass. Add a yellow house with a brown roof and brick red chimney. 

Place a piece of yellow quilling paper next to the right side of the house. Make a fold where the side of the house meets the base of the house. Move the paper along the base and make a fold where the base meets the left side of the house. Continue until you have folded the yellow paper three times and it perfectly surrounds the house. Snip the excess paper. Put a thin line of glue just along the edges of the yellow cardstock and lay the quilling paper on end around it.  

Cut two small strips of green quilling paper so that they fit on either side of the house. Glue them in place. 

Fold a piece of brown quilling paper and trim it to form the roof. You do not need the third side to the triangle, since there is already a piece of yellow quilling paper there. Glue it in place. 

It is important that the glue you use dries clear. As you can see below, a small amount of glue is showing after I glued down the roof. 

At this point, I used the toothpick to clear away the excess glue as best I could. It dries clear and you'll never notice it if there's just a small amount. 

Fold a piece of red quilling paper to form the chimney. Again, you don't need the fourth side, since it's already there in brown. 

Finally, use the quilling tool to make three grey hearts, each slightly smaller than the previous. Do this by folding a small piece of grey quilling paper in half, then using the tool to roll each side in toward the center. Pinch the bottom of the paper and you have a heart. Glue the three hearts to make the smoke coming from the chimney. 

Obviously, you can change out the colors and proportions of the house to match the recipient's house. Put the card on a blue background if you wish, or paint a sunset for the background and do all the quilling in silhouette. There are so many possibilities. 

Perfect-for-Potlucks S'mores Casserole

Back in May, I shared a layout about saying goodbye to our beloved interim pastor. For over two years, our church has been searching for just the right person to lead us and I'm thrilled that we finally have a new permanent pastor we adore. I'm sure I'll eventually share a layout about Pastor Karen's special installation service and Trevor's role in it. But in the meantime, I'm sharing the dessert I made for the welcome dinner. S'mores, anyone?

We were expecting a crowd for the service and dinner, so I wanted to bring a dessert that would feed a ton of people, be easy to serve on a crowded buffet, and be fine at room temperature for hours. Such an occasion would not normally be the time most people would experiment with making up a dessert they've never had before, but I am not most people. This is EXACTLY the time of occasion where I would invent a recipe and hope for the best!

Fortunately, it turned out just as I'd hoped. 

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Perfect for Potlucks S'mores Casserole

Choose your desired size of baking dish and line the bottom with graham crackers. No butter first - just graham crackers. I used the gigantic 15" x 10" x 2" Pyrex dish (affiliate link here and elsewhere in the post). It took just over one sleeve of graham crackers to cover the bottom. 

Melt 12 oz. of unsweetened chocolate with 2 T. butter. (I used the microwave - high power for 30 seconds, stir, then another 30 seconds and stir. Repeat if needed.) When the chocolate and butter are fully melted, stir in 3 cups of milk. Add 2 cup of powdered sugar. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy like chocolate mousse. Spread HALF of the mixture on top of the graham crackers. 

Sprinkle about 5 cups of mini marshmallows on top of the chocolate. 

Now repeat everything. A layer of graham crackers (facing the opposite direction this time)...

the remaining chocolate, and another 5 cups of marshmallows. Obviously, scale everything down if you're not planning to feed a bunch of people. This casserole is surprisingly rich. 

Bake it in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes, keeping a close eye on it for the last few minutes. You want the marshmallows golden brown. Since they go from white to golden to black quite rapidly, you want to remove them from the oven before the black stage. I ended up baking mine 23 minutes to get the perfect golden, toasty marshmallows.

Finally, squeeze chocolate syrup and caramel sauce over the top. You can't see the caramel all that well in the photo, but it's there. And it pushes this dessert right over the top.  

Now here's the true beauty of this casserole: you can serve it piping hot, straight out of the oven. Just spoon it onto plates. You can serve it warm also. Once it is completely cool, you can cut it into bars. You can eat those bars as is, or put them on a plate and microwave them for 15 seconds for maximal ooey-gooey-ness. 

Delicious! And as you can see, after making my casserole, I made a pin to go with it. I need to add "playing with PicMonkey" to my list of hobbies.

Do you have a go-to dessert for potlucks?