Five Shots : Austin Texas

My love of College football, breakfast tacos and SXSW came together with a stop in Austin.  

My 8th city on this trip, Austin brings back great memories of SXSW, an interactive conference that has just exploded in the past few years.  I met up with one of the fearless leaders, Shawn, who was gracious enough to come up to Boulder to Speak at TEDxBoulder two months ago.  He is excited for this year, which I am going to miss.  Huge sad face. 

Joel Bush and I went to the big Texas vs. UCLA game, which was a big upset.  UCLA beats the #8 team in the nation, quite a sight!  

Hot day out there.  Hot, hot, hot.  Most people in the stands had near soaked through shirts from their sweat.  The game was interesting, as the crowd is not used to seeing them lose.  Texas wins championships, and the crowd had a bit of a streak of boos.  They were not happy with Texas football losing.  It just doesn’t happen.

Growing up in the PAC10 TV range, I know what losing looks like, so I was perfectly happy seeing Texas go down.  No trickery, just a plain up the middle running game killed them.  

Super fun.

After I joined an old friend Kristine for dinner and some TexMex.  

Then there was breakfast taco.  Call it a sport down there, but tacos are king.  King.  My favorite spots are Juan in a Million and Torchys.  

Juan has an owner that has a handshake that is just, well, joyful.  He offers to shake your hand, and ask how your meal was, then pulls back and gives you a high five shake that just puts a smile on your face.  One in a million.  Their tacos are massive, and delicious.  

Torchy’s is the closest thing to a fine dining taco that I can think of, the brushfire is fantastic mango and spicy chicken.  The green chile and pork is also quite, quite good.  I often joke when I land in Austin that my happiness is directly associated with how quickly I get to Torchys.