Food Coma, Graffiti, and Bats

I'm in a complete and utter food coma from all the delicious food I've had over the past few days. Thinking about it all makes me feel happy I ate such great food but also feeling pretty stuffed and asking myself, why did I eat all of that? Seriously?

I had such a delicious introduction to Austin's food haven I'm feeling pretty lucky. Some highlights from my weekend are: tacos and queso at Taco Deli, jalapeño lemonade from Austin City Lemons, dark chocolate with olive oil & sea salt ice cream and goat cheese, thyme & honey ice cream from Lick,  bacon and maple syrup glazed donut from Gourdough's, the list goes on. I was being a very bad vegetarian but I couldn't help myself, the bacon and maple syrup donut was the best donut I've ever had. I'll be dreaming about this donut, it was that good. I mean, look at it (sorry to all you veggies out there, don't mean to gross you out)!

After stuffing my face with said donut, I took a walk around the Zilker Botanical Gardens. A really beautiful walk around the gardens which was much needed!

Another park I really enjoyed was Graffiti Park, where graffiti artists come daily to spray paint their work as fas as the eye can see. It's like an outdoor museum but for graffiti, very cool Austin spot to check out!

I also made it out on the Colorado River which snakes through downtown Austin. I was wanting to paddle board but it was pretty choppy on the water so I opted to kayak. I needed to get some exercise other than walking or biking and to see the city from the river was really fun. The not so fun part was getting back, the wind was pretty intense and as hard as I was paddling, there were many moments where I felt like I wasn't making any progress. I also stupidly forgot to put on sunscreen and ended up getting fried so now I look a bit ridiculous. My legs got burned which I don't think has ever happened to me. Note to self: always, always, always where sunscreen!

So on my last night I attempted to do a very Austin thing, wait patiently on the Congress Bridge at sunset for thousands of bats to fly out and leave their home for the night. My mom clued me in to this and I read up about how Austin has the most bats in the US, they apparently come up from Mexico where they stay in the winter. I waited and waited and waited and had some nice conversations with visitors who were patiently waiting along with me. There were hundreds of us on this bridge and I ended up leaving after a good hour and 45 minutes. Thanks for the letdown bats!

Austin, I've had a wonderful weekend with you. I'm sure going to miss your art, music, amazing food, and weirdness. I can't wait to come visit again and next time, it would be great to see some bats!