On our sunny, seventy degree Saturday in Austin, we did the best possible thing. We rented beach cruisers from Barton Springs Bike Rental and rode them around the city. Side note: I really think bikes are best when visiting a new city. You can cover much more ground than you would by walking, but you get a close-up view of buildings and people, unlike you would in a car. And if you have never biked around Coronado Island in San Diego, you should probably stop reading the post, and fly there now. Cruising Coronado is a must in life. Anyway... cruising around Austin was almost on par with Coronado; it was just missing ocean views and the Hotel Del. However, our trek did include a stop at Austin's historic hotel, The Driskill, which turned out be the best decision of our lives. This is how it happened... we stopped at The Driskill because Katie and Lynae {her roommate} said it was cute. Also, we needed a bathroom break. Our bathroom stop turned into us all buying iced coffees from The Driskill Grill. Our coffee sipping turned into us gazing through the huge windows into the kitchen, where we admired a beautiful chocolate groom's cake {decorated with Texas Longhorns, obviously} that was sitting on the counter. Our cake gazing refocused on the pastry chef behind the window who was building yet another cake. As an amateur cake maker I was taking mental notes. {Did you know you can bake directly on your silicone spill mat to easily remove a cake from the pan after it comes out of the oven?! Life changer.} We gawked and gazed long enough that the pastry chef took notice of us. When he was done putting the final layer on his cake {which we later learned would be turned into petit fours... so southern!}, he suddenly gave us a smile through the glass and motioned to a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Would we like one? Uh....yes! Long story short, the pastry chef came out with a plate of warm cookies, which we discovered were recently rated the best cookies in Austin. They would have gotten my vote for sure! As we were eating our amazing {free} cookies and asking him about the groom's cake, he offered to give us a tour of the kitchen and show us the accompanying wedding cake back in the refrigerator We were like eager 2nd graders on a field trip! We got to go in the fridge. We got to look at the cake and other pastries for the afternoon "high tea." We learned about flash freezing. And we got to talk to the other assistants in the kitchen who were busy putting an ungodly amount of butter into a huge commercial mixer. It was amazing and completely unexpected. Hats off to Robin Foster, the Pastry Sous Chef at The Driskill Hotel. If I had to re-do my wedding {but thankfully I never want to!} he would make my cake for sure... but my cake just might be made out of chocolate chip cookies! We also did other things on our trip... besides stuffing our face with coffee and cookies. We visited the Texas Capitol Building, obviously. We cruised around UT's campus. I requested we stop at Tyler's on The Drag. I was hoping to score some good running shoes on sale, but I walked out empty handed. Our stop wasn't in vain though... because both Sarah and Whitney walked out with new Frye Boots at half off the regular price! And as we cruised back down Lamar toward Barton Springs, we had stopped at the flagship Whole Foods for a snack. Sarah is obsessed with Whole Foods, so this was high on the list of priorities for the weekend. If you go to Austin, rent bikes. It's the best way to see the city for sure! ... Read more
