Happy Stay-cation

In this recessionary time, when money is tight and spending should only be on the necessity, it becomes difficult how squeeze in a little get away. We got lucky this summer and IBM and the Four Seasons ran a great promotion allowing employees to book rooms at a greatly reduced price! So this weekend, we celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary ATX style

Here's the view from our room of Lady Bird Lake (aka Town Lake)

Stoli went off to stay with his grandparents in Bastrop, after 2 hours of playing at Auditorium Shores and Barton Springs pool. Mark & I headed over to the hotel pool until our room was ready. It was a balmy 106 degree day. The best part about the entire stay was that we could sleep in the room with the AC turned down to 65 degrees. A little slice of heaven in Austin, TX.

Mark really REALLY enjoying the bed and cool AC

We went down to the SoCo district and enjoyed local snacks such as Cornicopia and Hey Cupcake. We stopped into the eclectric Lucy's in Disguise and wondered why a costume shop was so packed in June. We went to a photography exhibit and saw a copy of the Gutenburg bible at the Harry Ransom Center at UT. We watched the bat fly out of the Congress Bridge at dusk from the hotel balcony. We had an amazingly relaxing and pampered dinner at Roy's.

The manager took a better picture of us on his camera and printed it out in a nice little souvenir frame for us!
We got up early the next morning and enjoyed our Whole Foods breakfast on the hotel lawn. I took a nap in a hammock while Mark watched joggers and bikers pass by below on the running trail. Finally, we went to see Transformers II on the big IMAX screen. The highlight of the weekend for Mark. So this is what it is like to be a tourist in our little town. I dig it.