Deep in the heart of Texas!

I guess it's time I catch up on some older happenings and posts.  A few weeks ago I had the great chance to fly to Austin, Texas with my dad, brother Carson, and brother-in-law Dan to go see BYU play the Texas Longhorns.  Ever since the teams announced the game last year, my brother and I had planned to surprise my dad with tickets to the game.  As a combined birthday and father's day gift Carson would cover the plane ticket for my dad and I would cover the hotel for all of us.  The challenge was keeping it a secret from my dad.  His birthday is at the end of May so we figured we could wait until then to surprise him.  Unfortunately for us, my dad didn't know of our plans and also really wanted to go to the game and seemed to pester us pretty often about trying to go to the game.  We had to lie to him about how we were too busy and couldn't make it that weekend.  It was all I could do to keep from telling him.  Each time he asked and got a negative reply he seemed so sad and dejected that we couldn't make it happen.  Well, on the morning of May 24th I called to wish my dad a happy birthday.  During our conversation I asked him, "So what are you doing September 9th-11th?"  He wasn't suspecting a thing and replied as cool as could be, "nothing that I know of, why?"  I then finally released my anticipation and said, "Well you're going to Austin, Texas now!!!"  He could hardly believe that Carson and I had made it happen and was so excited.
Now the waiting game really began.  The whole summer we were looking forward to our boys trip to Austin.  I got us hooked up with two rooms at the Aloft hotel in Austin.  It is a really cool hotel that has a very contemporary decor.  Carson and my dad had one room and Dan and I the other.

We flew into Austin Friday mid-day, and fortunately for us all 3 of our flights landed in Austin within 3 minutes of each other.  We picked up the rental car, went to our hotel to drop off our bags and then set out to see Austin.  Dan grew up in southeast Texas, so he served as our tour guide for the trip.  I was very impressed with Austin.  It was much cooler than I expected.  It has some really beautiful architecture in downtown Austin and some very lively neighborhoods surrounding the stadium and campus of University of Texas.

We went down to the stadium the day before the game to do some recon work.  When we walked up to it, all the gates were locked up and there was no access to the field.  We were fortunate enough to run into the director of field management.  He was nice enough to open up a gate and take us out on the field to get an incredible field level view of the stadium.  His friendliness seemed to be quite ubiquitous among all Texans that we met.

Here is a photo of me standing next to the statue of Longhorn great Earl Campbell.

This is where the Texas mascot, Bevo, is kept during the game.  What a cool mascot.  It's too bad BYU doesn't keep a live cougar on the field at all times.  Kind of like a Ricky Bobby type of pet.  Yeah, I'd be all for that.  For those that are wondering, according to legend, Bevo got his name in a very cool way.  That screen in the background is huge, and having it in high def makes it easy to see from anywhere in that monstrous stadium.  Seeing the stadium before game time really got me pumped for game day.

 

After our brief tour of downtown Austin, we went back to the hotel and got ready for some dinner, Texas style.  Dan suggested that we go to the award winning BBQ joint the Salt Lick.  Oh man!  That place was a little bit of heaven.  The moment you walk into the place the smell almost knocks you off your feet.  The saliva instantly began to flow and my stomach began to grumble.  What a fantastic aroma!  Texans definitely know how to barbeque right.  They have inspired me.

Some sausage, brisket, chicken, and ribs.  It was so unbelievably tasty, I actually wished I was a big fat man so that I could just keep eating and eating.  Unfortunately for me at 165 pounds, there isn't nearly enough stomach room to really relish an opportunity like that.  I was stuffed for the next day from that one meal.  I'm drooling now remembering it.

After dinner, as we were leaving the parking lot an armadillo ran in front of our car.  Carson and I jumped out of the car to run it down and get a picture.  I was really wanting to see an armadillo while we were down there, and lo and behold one presented itself.  Unfortunately this is the best photo I got of it in the dark.  But, for the record, I can run faster than an armadillo.  So, if ever I am starving and I see an armadillo, I guess I will survive.  I ran ahead of it to get a good photo, but that dang thing wouldn't stop and ran straight for me.  What a cool sight.

The next day we drove down to San Antonio and met up with my dad's cousin that he hasn't seen in years.  After breakfast with her, we went to downtown San Antonio.  Again, another great city that exceeded my expectations.  You guys are probably thinking my expectations were quite low, but no!  I always heard that these two cities were great, but I was really impressed.  Our first stop in San Antonio was the Alamo.  "Can you say Adobe?"  (Anyone remember what movie that's from?)

Dan was a great tour guide for us as he drew upon his state history lessons that he learned in school as a young Texan.  It's easy to see why Texans have so much state pride and patriotism when you visit the Alamo and learn of the courage and valor of the Texans in the face of obvious defeat.  

After our trip to San Antonio we returned to the hotel to get ready for the game.  For those that don't know Dan, he was quite the football player back in his day.  He was a really good kicker (I guess we can consider them football players) that was recruited by schools like Ohio State.  After his mission he played for the University of Utah, so this picture is pretty funny to have him in a BYU shirt, but hey, he's a great sport.

We went to the official BYU tailgate party at a local church house.  It was impressive to pull up and see hundreds of people dressed in BYU attire.  The food, of course, was more delicious barbeque.  Mmmmm, I'm getting hungry again.

We quickly ate our food and went to the stadium to take in the pre-game festivities.  As we wandered the grounds we could hear some of the Texas alumni tail gate parties with their B-list country singers playing to the fans.  So cool.  We went into the stadium and watched some of the Cougars warming up.

 Our seats were located in the north west corner, almost at the top.  Surprisingly, the seats were still good for being at the top of a 100,000+ capacity stadium.  The BYU attendance for the game set the 9th largest attendance record at just under 101,000 people.  That's a lot of people in once place.  We were surrounded by Texas fans, and not one disparaging word towards us was heard the entire evening.  They were such gracious hosts and were so friendly with us.  They have nothing but respect from me, and to be honest, I'm going to cheer a bit louder for the Longhorns to win anytime they are playing someone not BYU.  One of the best moments at the game is when the fans on one side yell, "TEXAS!" and the other side replies with, "FIGHT!"  And they repeat it over and over again about a dozen times.  100,000 screaming fans provides quite the electric atmosphere.

 At half time I met up with our good friend Mike Dyer, who lives in East Texas now.  That lucky punk got front tickets.  So jealous! It was a miracle he even found me because our cell phones couldn't get through once half time hit, so I was so happy to get the chance to talk with him and catch up.

 In the end BYU lost by one point.  It was sad that BYU lost the game (I blame the coaches for not making half-time adjustments).  But oh well, I had an absolute blast that weekend in Austin, Texas with the boys.  I've told Lisa that if BYU goes back to Austin in the future we will go down as a family, take the kids to Sea World and enjoy all that Austin has to offer.  Thank you Texas for a great time!