Happy New Year--Celebrating 2017 in Austin

This new year weekend, Jin and I decided to join two other friends taking a short trip to Austin. I love short road trips, low cost, less time consuming and it works perfectly for my “big belly” situation.

Austin is always expanding. Every time we visit here, there are new places open. Like the North Domain area, it has now expanded to a new hip street for people to hangout, with nice looking bars and restaurants. The name of the street is very interesting, called the Rock Rose, which is like the Rainy Street near downtown, but for people to drink in the north of Austin.  

Food is always another reason for us to travel back here. Although some of our favorite restaurants (Hopdoddy, Pluckers, Torchy’s…) have extended their franchise to Houston, it still feels different to actually eat at the spot where it originally started. One new spot called Full English Cafe, (thanks to our English chef friend’s recommendation) has the most authentic English breakfast in Texas. We had so much fun exploring this hidden gem.

The place is decorated with unique styled decors and classic british humor quotes. It kinda makes you want to talk in British accent while sipping English tea with your friends. (I’m too bad at the accent thing, sadly.) But it did motivate me binge watched the Netflix show The Crown, and got me super excited for the upcoming season 4 of Sherlock! Finally!

What make Austin so different from Houston are its outdoor attractions. Standup paddling and Hamilton Pool are my must-do activities. However, my body condition didn’t allow me to try those this time, instead we enjoyed the nice scenery near Lake Austin, took a stroll at the Zilker Park, and watched people having fun diving into Barton Spring pool… The weather was very sunny and warm, and we totally regreted not packing swimsuits with us to the trip. And here’s a picture of our friend Chez having a little fun climbing trees. Apparently this was one of her favorite activities when she was a child in England. What a great way to teach kids to enjoy the wildness of Mother Nature!

This new year weekend went by so fast with all these activities and yummy that we tried. I’m so glad to have adventurous friends to spend the New Year with. Definitely a great to kick off 2017. Tons of new adventures to look forward to :)