Did you even go to Austin if you don’t take a pic here? In all actuality we didn’t know this was here and just went to get coffee since so many of you recommended it! 

 

Morning friends! I am missing Austin so much after reliving our trip while writing this post. It was such a great city, the people were so friendly and the food was amazing. Since we were going to be there for 5 days and Zain and my parents were coming we decided to go the Airbnb route. Anytime I travel with Zain I prefer a rental because it is so nice to have space for him to play, separate sleeping areas for everyone and really get to know a city.

We settled on one in the Clarksville historic district and I can’t recommend the area enough. I didn’t love our actual rental that much but the neighborhood itself was awesome. We were able to walk to the grocery store, restaurants and a park which was so amazing for Zain.

Before we went you all helped me assemble an amazing list of recommendations and we tried to do as much as we could. I compiled everything below in case you are planning your own trip and attempted to categorize them!

Some of our food highlights were Torchy’s Tacos, The Josephine House, Odd Duck and Uchi. We actually used to live in Houston, TX (I was tiny and don’t remember much) when my dad was training at MD Anderson and my parent’s loved Torchy’s place. My dad kept asking to go back and we repeatedly denied him since we all wanted to try new stuff. However, you must get the queso!

The Josephine House was actually a totally random but wonderful surprise. It was just down the street from our Airbnb and looked adorable. I had glanced at their website and seen they had a steak frites special on Monday’s. We were exhausted by the time we got Zain down and the idea of walking to dinner on a patio and home after sounded great so we cancelled our reservations elsewhere. Boy am I glad we did! The patio was so darling, the food was amazing and the bottomless wine we didn’t know about before was perfect 😉 It was one of my favorite nights there and I totally recommend it.

Beyond eating we spent a lot of time outdoors! We walked to the park almost daily and made our way to Zilker Park twice. The first time Zain rode the train thanks to your suggestions and loved it and the next visit we just played all morning. It was amazing that our rental had a screened in patio and small backyard so we could always be outside.

We did make it to Mt.Bonell like so many of you suggested for a hike but do be warned it’s not really a hike, haha. We were expecting Arizona length and style trails but it’s more of a short walking path but has beautiful city views and is still worth a stop. Barton Springs was also cool to see and is just a stone’s throw away from Zilker Park so you can see all that at once. We didn’t end up getting in the water but you can all year round!

All in all it was one of our favorite trips and definitely our favorite with Zain. I totally recommend a family trip there if you are thinking about it and let me know if you have any other questions!

 

Restaurants

Foreign & Domestic

June

Perla’s

Elizabeth Street Cafe

Juan and a Million

Stubbs BBQ

Driskill (brunch)

Odd Duck

Suerte

Barley Swine (dinner)

Lazarus

Whislers (Cocktails)

The Launderette (brunch)

The Oasis

Clark’s

Picnic (healthy)

South Congress Hotel

La Condesa

Eberly

Tiny Boxwoods

L’Oca d’Oro

Sway

Uchi

Geraldine’s

Lin Alamai

Res Ash

Mattie’s

 

Family Friendly

Fresas

Hopdaddy

Moonshine

Salvation Pizza

Pinthouse Pizza

Gordough Doughnuts

Amy’s Ice Cream

Banger’s

Patrizi’s

Veracruz (best breakfast tacos)

Torchy’s (queso)

Nada Moo (ice cream)

Homeslice

Hatcreek Burgers

Loro

Sawyer and Co

Joe’s Coffee

Kid’s Activities

Zilker Park (train for kids)

Mueller Farms Market

The Thinkery

Mount Bonell

Barton Springs

 

 

Zain enjoyed that Nada Moo ice cream!

 

One of our many park dates 🙂 

 

The view from the top of Mt.Bonell

 

The cutest restaurant! 

 

One of our many date nights thanks to my parents 🙂

 

The first course at dinner and it just got better…

 

Wandering around Clarksville with the best travel stroller!

 

Can you tell Zain likes the queso at Torchy’s?

 

Date nights never get old when you have a toddler, ha!

 

We were all craving greens and lunch at Flower Child was perfect!

 

I mean…

 

Zain stole this Yasso bar from my dad and then ate it while watching him…I couldn’t stop laughing!

 

Brunch at Juan in a Million

 

This was our first time playing putt putt with Zain and he loved it! 

 

He was teaching my mom some things…

 

Cocktails and dinner at Odd Duck were amazing! 

 

So so grateful and thankful to be able to travel with family!