Another day in Austin, TX

Tags

austin, diners drive-ins and dives, foreign and domestic, goal list, homeaway, texas

I accomplished something from my goal list (which I need to update) while in Austin. My brother turned 21 and I was finally able to go out and buy him a drink!

Day 2: After an exciting first day and a night of celebrations, it was time to recover and get started with a new day.

This is my “recovery” look: sunglasses, comfy clothes, and coffee!

Have you heard of the organization HomeAway? They offer vacation rentals to travelers all over the world. Well, they have a main site located in Austin and we had the opportunity to visit and take a tour.  I was drawn to the endless wall shelves of shot glasses from around the world. I personally collect shot glasses from all of the places I have traveled; it was neat to see their much larger display. They also had markers for distances to places around the world. The Patagonia sign reminded me of our trip a few months ago to Argentina. Finally, we made it to the roof top with some really nice views of the city.

I also saw something that I wish I had in my office building, a whole foods vending machine! Yes, the prices might be higher but it sure beats the options we have such as canned tuna and really old fritos. Blah!

We ended our trip with dinner at another Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives recommendation (I usually go to at least 1 of the recommendations whenever we are visiting a new place). Foreign and Domestic is a small restaurant located a little outside of the downtown Austin area. They are only open for dinner and serve creative dishes that are always changing. I enjoyed the food but since the place is so small (I think I counted maybe 8 tables) the wait-time can be really long. I think we ended up waiting over an hour. At least they had an outdoor area where we could talk and have a few drinks while we waited.

After another tasty meal, it was time to go back to the hotel and start packing up. We really enjoyed our Austin trip and look forward to going back, hopefully not in the middle of summer!

Marietta Diner

Tags

diner, diners drive-ins and dives, food network channel, guy fieri, marietta diner

Do you know what happens when you are at a bar late at night talking about food? You end up visiting a place highlighted on the food network channel. Well, at least that is what happened to us this past weekend. After a long work week, we joined friends for a few beers at a nearby bar, hand-in-hand. Fun side-note, this was actually the first bar I visited when I moved to Atlanta nearly 5 years ago. Anyways, we spent the evening catching up and somehow food entered the conversation. Eric and I were complaining that the one thing we have yet to do in Atlanta is eat at a really good authentic diner. I love diners because of all of the food options and Eric likes it since breakfast is usually served 24hrs a day. Our friends mentioned a really great diner in Marietta, outside of Atlanta, that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The host visits low key places and so far all the ones I have visited that were featured on the show were delicious! This place is simply called, Marietta Diner.

It starts to get later in the night and my midnight munchies feeling kicks in so we decide to make the drive up to Marietta GA to check out this diner.

It definitely had the diner look from outside! I ended up ordering a small plate of pierogies and Eric decided against the usual breakfast meal and had a chicken parm sub.

Yes, it was probably completely unnecessary to eat all this so late at night and I should have just waited to try it another day but it was delicious and worth the drive out there! Thank you Guy Fieri (the show host) and our friends for helping us find a diner down here in Georgia!