This past weekend I got to go to Austin, Texas for my friend Christa's wedding! (Here in Minnesota, I have to make it clear that I'm not talking about Austin, MN, home of SPAM).
What a great weekend. I took an incredibly early flight on Friday that changed planes in Denver. Lucky me, my mom got invited to the wedding too! So we met up at DIA and got on the plane to Austin together.
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| Things are bigger in Texas |
We got to Austin and got checked into our hotel. That evening, we went to Christa and Nathan's rehearsal dinner at a park. I got to meet her friends from AmeriCorps and nursing school, and we listened to wonderful speeches about them both and just got to hang out in the very warm weather. It was lovely.
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| Nathan and Christa! |
That night, I went to Christa's bachelorette party at a hip bar. It was extremely warm. It was great to meet all the amazing ladies that think Christa is the best, because she is. She has lots of friends in her fan club.
Saturday morning, my mom and I took a tour of the state capitol. I found it very interesting and it was a pretty building. It's the largest state capitol in the country. (Are we surprised?) The hinges in the doors are custom made and weigh 3 pounds each. The legislature only meets every other year. Texas has been a part of 6 different countries (USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederacy).
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| 3 lbs each! |
After the capitol, we found a delightful little cafe called the Sage Cafe, inside a plant nursery center. We got some delicious lunch and cold fruit smoothie.
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| Married! |
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| Beautiful setting for a ceremony |
Back to the hotel, showered and got ready for the wedding. It was held at this cute little stone clubhouse high on a hill in a park overlooking downtown Austin. It was very private, and very neat. Christa and Nathan's ceremony was super fun, and Christa put a lot of work into making so much of the wedding pieces by hand, herself. It was a really nice ceremony. We had BBQ for dinner, and cake, cookies, cupcakes, anything you could think of for dessert! Dancing, games, socializing, and then a sendoff with sparklers held above their heads...which looked amazing, but I think was a little scarier for Christa and Nathan than they had anticipated.
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| Homemade giant banagrams!? Yes, please! |
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| Getting ready for a group picture |
Sunday morning, mom and I went to Zilker Botanical gardens, where, even though it was very hot, we enjoyed the various gardens - cactus garden, Japanese garden, rose garden, prehistoric garden, butterfly trail, and finally, the air conditioned gift shop.
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| Dino spotted! |
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| Japanese garden at Zilker Gardens |
We flew home that night, and I got to spend about 16 hours in Denver, which was also great. Just visiting family and having lunch with them and hanging out.
Saturday morning, my mom and I took a tour of the state capitol. I found it very interesting and it was a pretty building. It's the largest state capitol in the country. (Are we surprised?) The hinges in the doors are custom made and weigh 3 pounds each. The legislature only meets every other year. Texas has been a part of 6 different countries (USA, France, Spain, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederacy).
