Austin

I went to Austin this week for the Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits. I stayed at the historic Driskill hotel, which was gorgeous! It was built in 1886. I arrived in Austin on Sunday afternoon.



So pretty.



To get to my room, I had to walk through the bar and turn left at the statue of horses. There is a little elevator back there that takes you to the rooms.






The room was amazing! The hotel is supposedly haunted, but I didn't see any ghosts.












Every little detail was great!



The peephole made me feel like I was on a pirate ship!



Conference registration. After helping NBIA run their annual conference for twelve years, I couldn't help but compare every detail of this conference to those!



It was strange being on the attendee side of a conference!



BBCON was a huge, fancy conference.






I met a woman named Janis, and on Monday night we went to the Congress Avenue Bridge to see the famous bats.



It sure was crowded!



LOOK!! That black stream of tiny dots behind the buildings is the bats!



It looks like plumes of smoke, but it is BATS!



Bats!!



BATS!



Afterward we went to Gino's East Chicago's new Austin location. I had never had Chicago-style pizza before. Janis highly recommended it.



It was AMAZING!!!! I loved it!



I LOVE sauce on pizza, so it was pretty much my dream pizza. The crust was buttery crisp and delicious, too.



On Tuesday, there was a Lego tree on stage!! It's hard to see in this photo, but it was cool.



There was mention of unicorns in THREE different sessions I attended. I guess I chose the right track!



Tuesday night I went for margaritas with my coworker Tyler. He's been to Austin a few times so he had recommendations! This is the smoky La Mula at Licha's Cantina.



There was a food truck court right nearby, so I got Pad See Ew at Coat & Thai. It was yum!



Unicorn Pegasus!



When I got back to my room, I noticed that there was an air freshener jammed in the air conditioner duct. Ha!! The cleaning crew must've missed it.



Black Ice!



Ashley Judd was one of the keynote speakers. FAMOUS!






On the last night, we headed to Rainey Street to check out the scene. We decided to eat at G'Raj Mahal Cafe. They had Maui Brewing Company Coconut Porter, which was Ben and my favorite beer from our honeymoon. Don't mind if I do!



I had Saag Paneer with added mushrooms. I wish Athens had more Indian restaurants!



Austin was great! I'd love to go back some day.