Austin, Texas | Vacation | July 2017

A couple months ago, I took a extra long weekend and went to Texas with a group of friends. I didn't take my camera for once in my life and I honestly felt like a weight lifted from my shoulders, literally. So sit back, relax, and enjoy some low quality pictures of my time with high quality people. :D

Friday, July 7, 2017- Josh and I arrived at the airport super early in the morning. We left from Columbus, flew to Chicago, then finished in Austin, Texas. My friends, Nikki, Alex, and Carlos, had actually drove to Texas a week earlier so they were kind enough to pick us up from the airport and drive us around for the weekend. The main purpose for all of us to go down there was for the RTX Convention (RoosterTeeth Expo).

The first thing we did when we got there was check into our Air BnB and drop our bags off. Then we headed downtown to the convention center to get our weekend passes. Nikki, Josh, and I drove around for 45 minutes looking for a parking garage or parking lot that had an opening. We finally found one but it wasn't close to the convention center at all. But something is better than nothing! As soon as we walked into the building, we headed to find Alex and Carlos who were standing in line and had been in line for hours already. Surprisingly the Guardians (volunteers for RTX) let us in line with them. We still had to wait another hour before getting our passes.

Nikki, Alex, and Carlos headed to the Hilton for a panel that they wanted to see and Josh and I headed to the Achievement Hunter panel. I got to see one of my favorite AH guys, Ryan Haywood! After that panel was over, we stood in line for the Expo Hall but they ended up closing it and didn't let us in. Everything in the convention center was closing so we headed out on the town. We walked up to Sixth Street and walked up and down just seeing what was around. We ended up in a video arcade bar where we started drinking, played giant Jenga, and of course played Mario Kart. Poor Nikki ended up falling off of a step and that's when we decided to leave. We made a pit stop at Walmart to get some snacks and more alcohol and headed back to the house for the night.

Saturday, July 8, 2017- We woke up at sunrise, got ready, and headed to a tiny parking lot that was about a block away from the convention center. Just across the street was an Ihop that we went to for breakfast. After we ate we headed to our separate panels. Josh and I went to the Always Open panel. Immediately after that finished, we stood in line for the Expo Hall. We actually got in this time! They had a lot of geeky merchandise and a stage where we saw Achievement Hunter playing live. They also had an original arcade game for Dr. Mario. Which is one of my favorite games ever!! My mom and I always play it Super Nintendo when we wanna take some anger out on each other. Nobody was playing Dr. Mario when we saw it so I walked up and started playing right away. Most people don't appreciate it like I do. Josh walked away at this point saying that he lost me, which he did for awhile. But I also didn't want to be completely rude and play it forever.

We walked a few blocks away and got some food at a deli. Then we stood in line for the Lazer Team 2 panel. I was personally excited for this because the first Lazer Team movie was crowd funded and I donated some money to them. The poster and copy of the movie that I got, I gave to Josh. The first movie came out in January of 2016. We went and saw the special airing when it showed at Easton. Anyways, I was also very excited to see one of my favorite RT guys, Burnie Burns. Lazer Team 2 should be coming out soon!

After the Lazer Team panel we met up with Nikki, Alex, and Carlos at a restaurant called P. Terry's which was really good. We then walked back to the convention center and went into the main hall for the RT Podcast panel. We were all going to watch this together but the parking meter for the car was going to expire so Nikki and Carlos went to do that. By the time they got back, the panel was full and they couldn't get in to watch it. I ended up falling asleep for about ten minutes during this panel. If you know me at all, you know I can't sit around all day and do nothing. I have to be up doing things. Well, after this long day of sitting in conference rooms, I couldn't take it anymore and took a little cat nap. We watched the rest of the panel and met up with Nikki and Carlos afterwards.

It was about 7pm and the convention center was closing for the night. We went to Fifth Street and found a rooftop bar to go to. It was really cool!! It had a seesaw, other playground toys, and cornhole! I was like a kid in a candy store hahaha. After a couple drinks at the rooftop bar we headed back to Sixth Street to the Coyote Ugly Bar. The Austin Coyote Ugly was a lot more lively than the Nashville Coyote Ugly Bar that I went to back in December. The guys were in heaven here of course, but the bartenders did a good job of making it a good time for everyone. After a couple drinks with the Coyotes we headed to the Marriott Hotel for a dance party. We ended up getting there early so we had some more drinks at the hotel bar. We stayed a little too long at the hotel bar and missed the entry to the party but a few people left early so we got in pretty fast. The dance party was fun but definitely not my scene. I'm glad I experienced it once though. After we danced for a little bit we headed back to the Air BnB and fell asleep. 

Our failed attempt at the Titanic pose.

Sunday, July 9, 2017- We didn't get up super early on Sunday, but we still got up before the activities started at the convention center and headed out of town to visit Stage 5. Stage 5 is the home office of RoosterTeeth where all of their videos are filmed. I also found a lone palm tree that I had to go take a picture with because I love palm trees. They remind me of Charleston.

We didn't really eat breakfast today, we ended up going to Whataburger around 10am. One of the workers was wearing an old fifties styled diner hat and I had to have one! I asked the worker and he said he had to ask his manager. When they brought the food out to us, I asked him again for one. I don't think his manager wanted to give me one but the worker brought two out for me. It made my day!! Also, the burgers there are GIANT, like as big as my face.

Alex found a nail in one of their cars tires before we left Whataburger so they had to decide what they were going to do. They were planning on leaving on Sunday but they had to go get a new tire now and most tire places are closed on Sunday. But they still drove me past the Texas Statehouse! The first thing we did when we got to the convention center was go back into the Expo Hall because they were having a buy one, get one free sale on the RT merchandise. Josh got a lot of stuff. 

We then headed into the Off-Topic Panel, four hours before the panel actually started. They capped entry to the panel two hours before it started, nobody could leave, nobody could get back in. Over two thousand people trapped in a room for two hours. We all started going a bit stir crazy. There was a DJ that started playing music for us and a few people started conga line that turned into a giant dance party basically. Josh and I stayed seated but it was really fun to watch. The best part was probably ALL 2,000 of us singing Bohemian Rhapsody. Michael and Lindsay also came out and had a lightsaber fight on stage. The Off-Topic panel was also fun, it was just the AH guys being goofy.

When the panel was over we met back up with Alex, Nikki, and Carlos to head out for dinner. They decided to stay Sunday night and get a new tire on Monday morning. We went to a food truck called Torchie's Tacos for dinner. It was pretty good. There were actually a few food trucks in this little parking lot. One of which was a milkshake truck, so I ordered a couple of those. The guy who was running the milkshake stand didn't get very many orders, so he came out and sat in front of his truck playing his guitar. It was really nice to listen to while we sat and ate our tacos. After we finished eating we headed back to the house. We played cards and Nikki and I drank wine all night.

Monday, July 10, 2017- We said our goodbyes to our friends and Josh and I headed out to explore Austin without having the convention to go to. We took a taxi down to the Colorado River, suitcase and all. We walked along the river for about a mile. It was really pretty and calm, but it was also VERY humid. All weekend was actually. We called another taxi and headed to South Congress Avenue. It had a bunch of stores, restaurants, and some murals. I'm glad that we got out to explore the south side of Austin before we headed home. We didn't do much on S. Congress, we just went into a few stores and took a few pictures. Then we called another taxi and headed to the airport to head back to Columbus. 

We flew from Austin to Dallas first. The landing in Dallas was the roughest landing that I have ever had and that's saying a lot because I've flown a lot in life. I come to find out that Dallas is known to have the roughest landings in the country due to the crosswinds as you land there. The pilots actually have to accelerate as they land, which I found really interesting. We had a couple hour layover in Dallas before we headed back to Columbus. Our flight home was really smooth and it felt really short. We got home around 1130pm and we both fell asleep right away. I had to be up for work at 7am the next morning! 

Overall, I'm really glad that I got to explore some of Texas with a few of my good friends. I am not into RoosterTeeth as much as Josh and Alex, but I still enjoy some of the things they produce so it was cool to see all of the people in person. I'm also really happy that I got to explore Texas with Joshua on Monday. It was nice to spend some time exploring with just him. I like exploring new places! I definitely think that I will go back to Texas at some point in my life, probably not for this convention, but I would like to explore the more country parts of Texas.