{"id":24152,"date":"2011-10-03T13:03:46","date_gmt":"2011-10-03T20:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=24152"},"modified":"2015-03-20T08:53:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T15:53:50","slug":"lunch-with-hobbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=24152","title":{"rendered":"Lunch With Hobbits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin was a cool city. We didn’t get to see much but what I saw looked cool and it reminded me a lot of Portland. It seemed like a big, sprawling city with so much cultural things to see and do you’d never run out. I know the music scene is pretty amazing there. I wish we’d had more time to check it out.<\/p>\n

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\nThe first stop was the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library<\/a> near the Austin stadium<\/a>. It was a sprawling, impressive building and I enjoyed the library.<\/p>\n

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\nIt was cool to see what LBJ did during his career. I admit that I’m a little rusty in my US History because it’s been ages since I was in school. I loved seeing the old handwritten journals, letters and love notes between LBJ and Lady Bird.<\/p>\n

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\nIt was a cool collection and worth the visit. The place was packed with history and fun videos. There was a lot of counter culture stuff too. I loved seeing the clothes and the women’s lib posters.<\/p>\n

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\nThe archives looked impressive but we weren’t allowed to go on those floors (boo!). I REALLY wanted to go onto those floors. But I’m kinda of a nerd.<\/p>\n

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\nI guess all of the museums in Texas are free–which is a great thing. I think everyone should be able to enjoy museums and the history. After the LBJ museum we checked out the Austin stadium (huge!) and walked around a bit.<\/p>\n

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\nNext stop: Franklin BBQ<\/a> for lunch. It came highly recommended by a friend of Michael’s who lives in Austin. It was close to the college and clearly the most popular joint in town.<\/p>\n

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\nThe line to get in snaked through the restaurant, out the door, down the porch, down the stairs and around the building. It was obviously a hot spot.<\/p>\n

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\nWe stood in line for an hour but it was totally worth it. I chatted with a girl I met in line and she gave tips on Austin sights.<\/p>\n

Then we saw some celebrities! Sitting inside the restaurant was Elijah Wood<\/a> and Dominic Monaghan<\/a> from Lord of the Rings (and Lost)! There was NO mistake– I saw Elijah’s bright blue eyes and it was totally him! I have to say it was pretty exciting!<\/p>\n

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\nThey ate lunch with a Hollywood producer, chatted with some locals and headed out. It was pretty exciting! I wish I had gotten a better photo but the others were too blurry and I didn’t want to be obnoxious to get a better picture.<\/p>\n

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\nWe were FINALLY at the front counter. The fatty brisket and ribs were sold out. Apparently that’s why people were in line so early.<\/p>\n

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\nMy family got the lean brisket and I got the sausage. I got beans and coleslaw–and of course it came with white Wonder Bread.<\/p>\n

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Holy crap was the food worth the wait!!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nMy sausage was delicious. Smokey and spicy. Every bite was better than the previous bite. I shared the sausage \u00a0with my family because they gave me three links (so much food!). I also tried a local beer. Meh. Michael said it was Texas’ version of Miller. I am such a beer snob from living in Portland…<\/p>\n

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\nI had some bites of brisket and it was good. I had one bite of a fatty brisket and I could tell why it was popular. It was savory and melted in my mouth.<\/p>\n

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\nWe finished eating around 2pm and the place was sold out of food. Crazy. We drove around downtown Austin for a little bit. We didn’t have time to really stop and see much, which I was bummed about. Since lunch had taken so long we were short on time–which is okay, it was worth it.<\/p>\n

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\nMy brother Andy and his wife (Lisa) rode in our car and we headed toward Waco to the ranch.<\/p>\n

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\nMy sister-in-law (also named Lisa) was wearing almost the same shirt as I was. Ooops. We drove out to the ranch where we’d be spending the rest of the weekend. It wasn’t what I’d call a scenic drive…there was a whole lot of nothin’ out there once we left Austin.<\/p>\n

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\nI can’t wait to show you guys the ranch!<\/p>\n

QUESTION: Have you been to Austin? What are the must-see sights?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austin was a cool city. We didn’t get to see much but what I saw looked cool and it reminded me a lot of Portland. It seemed like a big, sprawling city with so much cultural things to see and do you’d never run out. I know the music scene is pretty amazing there. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[336,33,35,48,75,86,87,95,104,2565,107,134,159,160,167,2559,2806,219,1239,264,4580,281,284,285,2932],"tags":[4583,4594,4589,4600,8584,4596,2844,4597,4599,4598,551,4595,4592,4590,8667,4591,960,999,4582,4601,4593,8746],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/celebrities.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24152"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46200,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24152\/revisions\/46200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}