Austin, TX January 2010

So when Leiha asked me to host the MacHalo for Austin, TX, I accepted and immediately was excited. Of course when it finally arrived I put it on right away, and that thing is heavy! Took some getting used to, but as we found it is quite efficient in the dark. My family and I marveled at it for a few days and then it was time to meet up with the Maniacs.

On January 16th my two friends Rosie and Teresa hopped in my car and we made our way to a very sunny downtown Austin. We found Tracie, and were then found by Barbie and her daughter, and Melissa and her family. We all passed the MacHalo around and took some pictures. Our first destination was the famous Tower on the University of Texas campus. Thank goodness Melissa’s husband came along, he was the perfect navigator for our little crew. We got some great pictures with the UT Tower in the background, and then decided we’d hit the Texas State Capitol. Once we got there, it was just our luck that a rally was going on. We took some more pictures, and got some contemplative looks from people at the rally. The thing is, in Austin anything goes, so people looked, then shrugged and chalked it up to the fact that we are Austinites. After that, we headed to an Irish pub called Fado’s, where we chatted and found heaven through a dessert called a “Black and Tan” (Brownie with Guiness ice cream, holy crap!) We all had such a fun time just talking about the Fever series and generally being silly! Good times…

The next day I again met up with Barbie and her family, and this time two of my fellow RBL ladies joined us. Su and Joey met up with us at Chuy’s for some delicious Tex-Mex food, and of course some fun pictures. We took pictures at the sign by the side of the road and as you can imagine, got a few honks. Lovely. After Chuy’s we decided to go to Amy’s ice cream, which is a pretty famous ice cream shop in Austin and is absolutely delicious. Anyone get the idea that Austin maniacs also happen to be foodies? Yeah, our meet-ups sort of revolved around good places to eat. But hey you can’t ask for anything more, good company, good food AND the MacHalo? Yeah, it was lots of fun.

Also, as requested by Leiha, my good friend Teresa agreed to take some pictures of me dressed up as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with the MacHalo. We went out in my yard on yet another awesome, sunny Texas day and took the pictures. Yeah, we were pretty much ridiculous, but we had a lot of fun doing it! Lots of fun is probably the best description for the MacHalo meet-ups in Austin. I got to meet some really fun people and help share the legendary MacHalo with my fellow Maniacs:) Thanks again Karen and Leiha!

Casey