I’m back from a weekend in Austin. Overall, I feel it was a pretty good weekend, although I didn’t get to do everything I wanted. On Friday, my parents picked me up at the airport and we checked into the Hyatt at Town Lake. We had some cocktails, and my dad and I smoked cigars looking at the Austin skyline. For dinner, we headed to Wink. I’ve been to Wink once before. It was over my graduation weekend, and the executive chef signed the night’s menu for me. Nothing as special as that, but I did have hamachi (yellowtail) tartare and hanger steak. For wine, we went with the Mettler petite sirah. That night, I hung out with Brooke and a couple of her friends.

Saturday was the game, and I’ll post some pictures of the stadium on Facebook and Flickr in a bit. It wasn’t much of a contest. The game felt over on the third play of the game when McCoy connected with Sweed for a long touchdown pass. I was sitting with my parents, and they were hoping to see UNT to put up a little bit of a fight. My dad even wore a green UNT polo, but it didn’t help. UT dominated in a 56-7 blowout. The afternoon was spent resting at the hotel and recovering from the heat. We went to dinner at the Driskill, and compared to other places in Austin, this is probably the best in town. I think it’s best described as a big city restaurant, something you’d more likely find in Dallas, Houston, or San Francisco. It’s a fixe prix menu. I had a heirloom tomato salad, mushroom soup with pork belly, and beef short ribs. My dad was in a generous mood and splurged on a bottle of Ojai syrah from the Whitehawk vineyard. From the syrahs I’ve tasted from Santa Barbara, and from what I’ve heard from local wine people, Ojai is among the best you can get. My plan for Saturday night was to meet up with all the fraternity guys, but I had some serious stomach problems that had bothered me from the night before. Having only gotten about 4 hours of sleep, baking in the heat, and being nauesous to the point of vomiting, I decided against going out. I really feel like I missed out since I rarely get to see those guys, but I guess I’ll have to wait to OU weekend.

Sunday was relaxed. I had a leisurely breakfast with the parents and did some shopping at Barton Creek. I got a Robert Graham shirt and a Hugo Boss shirt, both of which I’m looking forward to wearing out in Santa Barbara. We went to Louie’s 106 for dinner, a spot my mom and I had a memorable dinner at during an ice storm in the winter of 2003. This morning I went on a walk around Town Lake with my mom, and I realized how much I missed Austin. There were some many people around walking, jogging, or riding a bike. Plus, downtown was just a few blocks away with a number of nice restaurants and bars. Not to mention it’s impossible to be in the city without seeing some kind of Longhorn memorabilia.

I have an interesting week ahead of me. Alex and I are having dinner with Kate tomorrow. On Wednesday, we’re having some people over for wine tasting. Then, I’ll just be anticipating the mammoth showdown on Saturday.