Sunday morning we wanted to celebrate Bill’s birthday so we got ready and headed to our favorite Austin restaurant, The Oasis, which overlooks Lake Travis. It’s a great place to go for brunch and basically every table overlooks the lake from a series of outdoor decks. We enjoyed margaritas and some great mexican food and the view couldn’t have been better. Our group was quite boisterous (imagine that) and a couple with a baby at the next table asked to be moved (oops). But we had a great time and stayed until it was time to move on to the festival. Bill and I wanted to show our Canadian friends Barton Springs so we walked there before going in the festival. The springs are located in Zilker Park and have a great history. The cool water is reported to have healing qualities and many famous people have come to swim there including Robert Redford. The last time I swam there I had quickly changed into my swimsuit while standing behind the car and being shielded from any surprise onlookers by a large towel. In my hurry to get the black tankini on, I inadvertently got the top of the bathing suit on, but forgot to change out of my nude colored panties and into the black bottoms. I slid my shorts on and headed to the springs. When we got there, I was standing beside the natural pool and took my shorts off only to find that I was standing there in my swimsuit top and the panties. I had to make a split second decision, and decided to jump in before anyone noticed what I was wearing. So on this trip to Barton Springs I was even worse off, having absolutely no swimsuit at all, thanks to the lack of planning. But as I always say, life is more fun lived spontaneously and on this trip I swam in a tank top and black panties. But considering the company I had in the springs (a Rastafarian dude with dreadlocks and a lesbian couple with underarm hair longer than Bill’s) I didn’t feel too out of place. After we all swam and cooled off, we walked over to the festival and saw some bands. My favorite was DeVotckKa. DeVotchKa is a four piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble from Denver that fuses Romani, Greek, Slavic, Bolero, and Mariachi music with American punk and folk roots. I love their unique sound. After that we walked over to the art tents and looked at art, photography and jewelry. There was some really interesting stuff. We saw a few more bands and then Janna and I decided to go see some shops around Austin. We went to Anthropologie and I got some really nice solid fragrance (it’s applied from a stick like deoderant) but the scent was really feminine and it was called “music & patchouli”. I bought my mom some nice soap and a decorative little shell dish for holding your rings to say thanks for babysitting. We also went and found Sandra Bullock’s restaurant called BESS. It was closed because of it being Sunday afternoon but we peaked in the windows and got pictures out front. It’s built in an old bank vault on 6th Street and is decorated really cool in a fancy western theme. I can’t wait to go back when it’s open. By then we were hungry and went to the Whole Foods and bought some picnic supplies. We got a smoked rotisserie chicken, gourmet pepper jack cheese, a loaf of crusty french bread and a bottle of Perrier. We sat outside under the umbrellas and ate our assortment of food and I swear it was the best meal I had in Austin. Janna had even gotten a chocolate mousse cup that we shared and it was as good as the time I made Julia Child’s version of chocolate mousse. It was encredible!  We saw some more vintage shops and then it was time to go back to Shady Grove to meet the others. We had drinks, again, and then went to the hotel. We were pretty tired and made it to bed that night by midnight. Our three days in Austin were so fun and it went so fast!