best dessert in Austin.

If I ever see her again, I owe a huge thank you to the Whole Foods cashier who saw this in our basket:


and insisted that we needed to try this:

That's the vegan s'mores on the left and a special that I can't remember the name of on the right (chcolate, peanut butter, nuts and... toffee?).

It's a two and a half mile, mostly uphill, bike ride for me to get to Bananarchy, so I figure by the time I've biked home I've pretty much burned away the calories. Win-win-win.

Barton Springs pool

Austin is one of those places that I listened to people rave about, and figured it was all hype. It’s not. It’s one of my favorite cities to live, and the longer I live here the more I find to love about it. Today, it’s Barton Springs Pool.

I had zero desire to go to a community pool – we already have a pool in our building – until I saw pictures of it. This place is incredible, and so close to downtown. I can’t believe some people grow up with a place like this in their community.

 

The “pool” is huge, and divided lengthwise into a shallow side around 5 feet and a deep side over 8 feet. There’s a diving board and a very shallow kiddie area with a stone beach (fossilized shells!).

The pool is surrounded by grassy hills. On 100 degree days it’s so nice to dip into the freezing water for a few minutes and then lie out in the hot sun. The water is fed by natural springs and is incredibly cold year round – I don’t believe it’s the 68 to 72 degrees they say. I can’t remember the last time I actually lay down in grass, rather than on sand or pool chairs, and it brought back such reminders of childhood.

Mount Bonnel

We hiked up this mountain, which is really a hill, then walked down the steps back to the car. I wore tennis shoes. The kids kept saying it doesn't feel like we're in Austin anymore. I didn't expect downtown to look so small. I tried to see where we live, but couldn't.