Austin - 24/1/13

A nice long sleep in - looking forward to a nice rest and a break from driving. Today was Laundry Day(tm). Wasn't so hard, found a laundromat just up the road, not too expensive, took a couple of hours.

In the afternoon, got the bus to Downtown Austin and a short walk out of the city centre to South Congress. This had the feel of Haight in SF to some degree - all independant shops, nice cafes, bars etc. On the walk up to South Congress, stopped off for a quick ramen - I was craving vegetables, as they're not so popular out here it seems, at least when you eat out.

Mooched further up the road to find 'Allen's Boots' - a few days previously, we had been talking about purchasing some 'proper' cowboy boots. The shop was bonkers. Thousands upon thousands of boots, smelled beautifully of leather and a little overwhelming when you first walk in. The boots were organised by size and width, so while there were masses once we'd found that out, it narrowed the search considerably as there was only really your size section to look through, luckily. The pair that I had seen on the shop's website was not in stock - not a huge issue, as seeing a smaller size in the flesh as it were, they didn't look as nice. Ended up with a pair with a nice 'cuban heel' - the old style boots. Incredibly comfortable and really fine lookin'. B unfortunately didn't find a pair that she liked, as the ladies' boots all seemed to be too pointed for her taste.

South Congress was a nice area, pretty relaxed (as most of Austin seems to be), and the weather was really nice - around 20 degrees, comfortable, not too humid, sunny and calm.

After shopping, went and sat in a bar (Doc's) just as dusk was falling, had a few drinks, a basket of wings, and a few more drinks. *Very nearly* missed the bus home, but managed to catch it just in time - driver kindly waited for us to jog to the stop - and much hilarity from B seeing me running in flip flops and trying to flag the bus down.