HunterTrek.com

After starting a one hour fix-it project that is now turning into a full weekend project (more on the project later) we decided that a dinner out was in order. We’d heard good things about a local restaurant, It’s Italian, and it was a nice night so we decided to walk. We cut through the park along the trail and then a few more streets. We figured 15 minutes, tops. With Wesley doing his own walking though, it took a little longer. Almost an hour actually. At one point a man across the street was walking down the sidewalk in a manner that could only generously be called a mosey. Maybe he was ambling. I’m just not up on my Texas walks so I can’t say exactly which of the two he was doing. But there was no doubt he was walking really slowly. He quickly caught up to us, passed by us and then got several blocks ahead of us. The point is that we were going slowly. The way home wasn’t any faster.

When we got there the restaurant was a little under staffed and everyone seemed to be surprised that they were so busy so early. We greeted by the co-owner just as described in this Austin360 article. She was exceedingly friendly and talked a lot to everybody. She greeted at least 4 groups of people by name. Despite a ton of positive reviews like this one our food wasn’t that great. First my cola had a hair and then a shard of glass in it. They replaced it with much apologies. Next the bread was warm, but not exactly great. The fried raviolis were pretty good, but I wouldn’t say spectacular. The pizza margarita was tasty but so salty I couldn’t eat more than a couple of small slices. We actually went there because of the pizza. Not because it was supposed to be great, but because we had a free coupon. It was good, the ingredients were fresh and it was well prepared, it was just way, way, way too salty.

Jillian was the hit of the restaurant. She had three kids aged 3-4 come visit her at the table. She stayed in a good mood the whole time which was nice. Wesley did a pretty good job too, but didn’t eat very much. He did have a good time using the pepper mill that was on the table. It took him longer than you’d think to learn that pepper is hot when you put enough on bread that it appears gray. He sucked his milk dry and then begged for a few sips of cola which he got.

I’m guessing we’ll go back. It has so many positive reviews that it is probably worth a second try. And while the other three restaurants in the same strip mall have lots of empty tables it is always full. Plus it is really, really close to home. Maybe we’ll visit again when it warms up a little and the patio seating is open.

Wells Branch, the neighborhood we live in, does a lot of community events. They have potlucks and concerts and fishing derbies. We haven’t done any of those. We talked about them, but just never really went. They do a couple of very nice things celebrating Christmas. Namely that they put Santa in the Wells Branch Homestead (circa 1885) and placed what must have been many hundreds of luminaries around the trails in Katherine Fleischer park. The events lasted two days and also included a community potluck and live Christmas music.

For Wesley and Jillian both this was their first trip to see Santa. Wesley and I have been talking about Santa on some recent runs. He has been getting really interested in stories and has been asking me to tell him has many as I can remember. During the runs I default to the easiest ones I can think of. This time of year they are a little Santa and Rudolph heavy. I wasn’t sure how he would do. He is a little timid around strangers and can really get upset at things you wouldn’t expect. Jillian of course would be a total crap shoot. She’d either be in a good mood or not and there wasn’t any predicting or changing it. After waiting a reasonable amount of time (I’m glad we got there early) we had our moment with the big man. I would say he was a very high quality santa. The small room with low ceilings and dominating fireplace was the perfect setting. If it weren’t 75 degrees outside and 90 inside the cabin it might have felt like the north pole. Wesley was timid, but smiled in the pictures and was patient enough. Jillian was just Jillian and so all went well. We took a bunch of photos with our camera, bought one Polaroid for $2 (surprisingly reasonable) and headed outside.

(more…)

I would say that this weekend was one of the nicest we’ve had since we moved to Austin. The weather was nice, a little warm, but not too hot. We went to get pumpkins, went to the Wells Branch Renaissance Festival and generally hung out together. Here are a few photos to give you a peek.

Saturday morning we went to the Red Barn nursery to get pumpkins. We had heard that it was a great photo op. But we weren’t too thrilled. We did take a few pictures, but none of their $10-12 pumpkins

Later that afternoon we walked down through the park to go to the Renaissance Festival that was being held at Katherine Fleischer park. On the way:

Wesley loves this digger. Unfortunately it is pretty beat up and he has some trouble getting it to work. Teamwork payed off though.

When we got there we were underwhelmed. Only a few tents and not much going on to speak of. Not even any music. And nary a dragon to be found.

So we went to play at the playground. We played on the swings, the slides, and the playhouse. And of course in the big tube:

As we left the park Wesley and I could resist a good roll down the hill to the soccer field. By the end I was a bit queasy and Wesley still wanted “more, more, more!”:

On the way home we stopped at the bench swings to take some photos:

Amber wasn’t happy with the photo setup at the Red Barn Nursery. Frankly, neither was I and I’m not nearly as picky. There were stickers on the pumpkins and junk in the background. We took a few photos, but Amber needed more. She had a vision and it needed to be realized. So, we now have a pumpkin photo studio in our backyard complete with bales of hay and a bunch of pumpkins. I love her little obsessions so much.

Pumpkins arriving home from the HEB (half as much as at Red Barn, but three times as many):

Wesley helped transport the pumpkins from the garage to the backyard. I guess we need a wagon.

He also helped me moved the hay bales and insisted on adjusting the pumpkins to make it look just so.