Austin and Marfa

I finally made it down to Texas after Austin and Marfa have been on my shortlist for a little while. My s.o., Michael, had a conference in Austin and invited me to tag along. Here’s a play-by-play of our 4 night trip.

Day 1, Friday: Arrived in Austin around 9:15 p.m. and went out on West 6th Street. Our Uber driver kindly explained that 6th Street is where the under 21 crowd with fake IDs go when frequenting bars and obliteration is still this novel, crazy thing; West 6th Street is when you’re around 22-23 and you’ve been legally drinking for a bit, and are ready to grow up a bit/a chance of pace; and then Rainey Street is for the more mature crowd. I guess I fall into that last cohort, ugh. We went to a bar called J. Black’s and then one called The Corral–which totally lived up to its namesake. Ended the night eating street tacos and drinking coconut water while sitting on a concrete partition outside of a closed bar (bars close at 2:00 am).

Day 2, Saturday: Met up with my cousin and his wife and their Japanese house guest for lunch at Torchys Tacos and then they took us to Farewell Books–this really rad book/coffee/secondhand/art shop. Michael and I proceeded to check out South Congress and went to Uncommon Objects–an antique and vintage shop, and some other book shops and got ice cream. Got dinner at this rad Thai place, Sway and then went out on Rainey. Met up with my high school friend, Darcy who happened to be in town. Darcy and I have this weird thing where we randomly meet up in different cities that we happen to be visiting at the same time (i.e. Rome, New Orleans and now, Austin).

Day 3, Sunday: Woke up pretty early and drove 6+ hours to Marfa from Austin. Marfa Population: 2,121. Went to the Chinati Foundation, saw the Donald Judd aluminum and concrete works (unfortunately–didn’t get to see the entire campus because the day-long guided tours all start early), drove to Prada, Marfa and then got pizza in the adjacent town of Alpine (because, apparently, everything in Marfa is closed on the weekends). Proceeded to drive back to Austin. Almost ran over an armadillo. Didn’t die. Checked into our new hotel at 1:00 a.m.

Day 4, Monday: Spent some time at the pool and went kayaking on Lady Bird Lake. Michael had a business dinner and I met up with Andrew and Tessia and got dinner at Second Bar and Kitchen and then got frozen yogurt. Afterwards, Michael and I went to Cheer Up Charlies and saw a rad band called play on Monday night, Besos de Lobos.

Day 5, Tuesday: Went to the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas. They actually have a pretty amazing collection (from Renaissance through contemporary). They had a Caribbean exhibition featuring Puerto Rican artist, Francisco Oller and a Brother’s Grimm-inspired exhibition of Natalie Frank’s gouache and pastel drawings. Spent the rest of the day by the pool before our flight back to NY.