Category: Travel

A Family Weekend in Austin, Texas

Well, TECHNICALLY it was 72 hours… but ‘weekend’ sounds prettier for the blog post title. In reality, we left the house around 3am on Friday and returned home at 3am on Monday. But that’s not how we planned it. I’ll get to that though. First, let’s talk about our family trip to AUSTIN!

With the summer winding down and a 3-day weekend for Labor Day, we decided to do an impromptu trip to Austin, Texas.

Why Austin? Well, I went to Austin 8 years ago for a work conference (you can read about it here: All about Austin) and thought at the time that it would be a great place to visit with the family. It’s super walk-able, has lots to do and delicious food. What’s not to love?!

Where We Stayed: Austin Hilton

When we got the itch to travel, knew I wanted to stay in the same area as my business trip and I checked out a bunch of hotels and Airbnb options. After much googling, I decided to stay at the same hotel I visited previously: the Austin Hilton. The price was reasonable (actually cheaper than the Airbnb’s), it was convenient to get to, unlike an Airbnb a hotel had an option of early check-in, and it had a fantastic rooftop pool.

Our room was a 2-queen bed room on the 19th floor and it was clean, air conditioned and comfortable. We arrived at the hotel around 9am and they were able to accommodate us by letting us check in to our room to drop our stuff off.

And did I mention the pool?! It was on the roof of the 8th floor and every day only had maybe a handful of people out there. We visited the pool each day of our stay for a nice relaxing cool down. Also, on our last day, we packed our stuff up, checked out of our room, and then hung out at the pool for a few hours before showering in the locker rooms and heading to the airport.

What We Ate: Café Crepe, Iron Works BBQ, Snooze, Austin Taco Project, Gus’s Word Famous Fried Chicken, Amy’s Ice Cream, Big Top Soda Fountain

As I mentioned, we ate lots of food while out and about in Austin. However, our favorite spot was Snooze and we actually went there for breakfast two days in a row because it was so good! The ambiance was downright adorable and the food was magical. I highly recommend making time for breakfast at Snooze if you’re in the area and OHMYGOD the maple bacon with pepper was transcendent.

Where We Shopped: South Congress Avenue, 2nd Street, and everywhere else. Favorite stores: Paperwork Art & Gifts, Big Top, Allen’s Boots, Toy Joy and the Austin Visitor Center

We only packed carry-on backpacks, which means we had to be really careful about any purchases. However, we did buy a few things that were small and easily packed.

Jack bought a small video game toy, a harmonica and a tiny music box. I found these amazing earrings by local designer Rebekah Vinyard at Paperwork Art & Gifts and some fun stickers from Big Top. Oh and I also bought a super soft Austin t-shirt to wear on the way home.

Our Favorite Activity: YourBikerGang E-Bike Tour

You guys. We had SO MUCH FUN on the YourBikerGang E-Bike Tour! Our tour guide, Joker, took the three of us all around Austin on e-bikes for 2 hours of sightseeing and fun. Kids under 14 are free to ride on the back of the bike and both Travis and I loved the e-bikes and wish we had a reason to buy one for home!

The afternoon of our tour, it was raining buckets and then suddenly completely stopped about 5 minutes before our tour. So much luck! Also, some additional luck… we were the only people booked for our particular tour time, so we had a private tour around the city.

Here are a few more photos from our e-bike adventures:

Fun Around Town: All the adorable photos

Okay, this part is just a photo dump of all the gorgeous photos we took around town. We LOVED all the street art, so we made it a point to take photos as we passed by!

The only drawback of the whole trip was coming home. I had purposely scheduled our flight back for Sunday night, so that if we got bumped or delayed we’d still have Monday to recuperate before heading to school and work on Tuesday. Well, that’s exactly what happened.

They were short staffed and we couldn’t fly out until they found a pilot and flight attendants… which took hours. Finally, we were able to board and fly out around 9pm, which means by time we got back to Maryland, made our way to our vehicle and drove home… it was 3am. Luckily, we were able to sleep in the next day.

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful little getaway for our family and I highly recommend Austin for a fun, family-friendly weekend away!

Summer at the Beach

In preparation for writing this post, I searched my blog for the words “Ocean City” and re-visited years and years of beach time memories.

I mean, LOOK at little Jack from 2014:

And 2015:

And 2016:

I had no idea when I started writing this blog in 2011 – which somehow is 11 years ago?! – that it would be so nice to have an easy way to revisit memories of my little baby growing into a full-grown boy.

Which brings us to this summer. As I’ve mentioned before my family shares a family beach house in West Ocean City with my dad’s siblings. There are 4 siblings, so the house schedule rotates so that each sibling family gets a week (and moves by one week each year, so not just one sibling gets all the good holiday weekends).

This summer, Travis, Jack and I were fortunate enough to be able to spend time down in Ocean City for a weekend in May, week in June, week in July and a long weekend in August. I figure going to the beach is cheaper than paying for another week at camp for Jack, AND much for fun for us… so why not?! We had the opportunity to spend time in OC with my parents, and various siblings and sibling babies throughout the summer. It’s pretty much my favorite to have everyone around, so I loved it!

Some photos from this year:

Another wonderful summer at the beach!

SIX the Musical is at the National in DC!

You guys know that I haven’t run a sponsored or gifted post in quite a while here on the blog. It’s not because I haven’t received offers… it’s just that I’m very, very, very picky about what I want to write about. With that in mind, when a contact of mine reached out to ask if I was interested in checking out the opening night of SIX the Musical in DC… I basically vibrated with excitement!

I first heard a taste of the SIX the Musical soundtrack on a Peloton ride with Bradley Rose earlier this year. I loved it and quickly clicked the ‘heart’ to add it to my Peloton Spotify list. SIX music came up a couple more times on other Broadway rides and every song was so fun and energetic that it kept me moving and grooving the whole time (while also sweating).

Just a week or two ago, I was considering planning another trip up to NYC to see the show, but decided to hold off since we are still working on (and paying for) our bathroom renovation.

And then, like an angel of Broadway musicals… I received an email with the opportunity to see SIX the Musical at The National Theater in DC!

I found out on Friday that I was invited to attend the show AND the fabulous pre-party, which had a dress-code of “cocktail with a royal flair” and you guys… this is a 44-year-old woman who has MULTIPLE outfit options that meet that criteria sitting in my closet waiting for me to take them for a spin!

Since both my friend and I live a bit further out in the country, DC can be a challenge to drive to. So, we decided to take advantage of the Metro, which was super easy and dropped us off just a 4-minute walk from the theater.

Here’s a cute picture of Jenni and I from the pre-party:

And yes, I wore a crown. Because… why not?

As for the show. OH MY GOSH. THE SHOW!

Here is basically all I knew about it going into it:

From Tudor Queens to Pop Princesses, the SIX wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into an exuberant celebration of 21st-century girl power! SIX The Musical is the global sensation that everyone is losing their head over!

It was everything I hoped it would be. Girl power and hilarious and catchy songs and fabulous costumes. It was an amazing concoction of powerful voices, fantastic dancing and OHMYGOD the harmonies. It is not often that you see a show where all of the lead singers are similarly strong, but last night’s cast of SIX the musical was MAGICAL. We LOVED the performance and I’d totally see it again. And again.

As for MY favorite queen. It’s a tough pick (and may change as I start to listen to the soundtrack on a never-ending loop), but for me it’s Anna of Cleves. Followed closely by Catherine of Aragon. Dang it, actually I love them all!

SIX The Musical is playing at The National Theater in DC from July 5 – September 4, 2022. You can find more information and buy tickets here: https://www.broadwayatthenational.com/show/six/

Disclosure: I received 2 tickets to Six the Musical at the National Theater in DC in exchange for social shares about the show. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I loved it so much!