Well, it’s official- Eric and I are moving to Texas! After a whirl-wind weekend, we are back in California with everything we set off to gain. We arrived in Austin on Saturday and spent the whole day driving around the city trying to take everything in. Somehow we found our way to Lake Austin and ate lunch at The Hula Hut, a crazy place at the end of a little pier. It seemed like every person in the city was wearing an orange shirt- the school color for our new favorite football team- the University of Texas at Austin Longhorns (yes, we admit it, we are band-wagon people!). It was one of the biggest games of the season so everyone was in good spirits, especially because “UT” won.

On Sunday we went apartment hunting with an “apartment finder”- a person who finds tons of apartments based on your criteria and takes you around to all of them. This is a free service that is very common in Austin. After looking at about a billion places, Eric took me to dinner at a beautiful restaurant right on the river. We got to see the famed Congree Ave. bats, and then walked around the city for a little bit.

On Monday, Eric dropped me off at a Starbucks in the city while he went to his interview. As the time went by and I started to get more and more nervous, I decided to just start walking around the city. I ended up at the capitol building and joined a tour that was already in progress. It was very interesting, but could not take my mind off of Eric. Luckily the cafeteria there had WiFi, so I was able to chat online with Sarah, which helped a bit. A little while later, as I was sitting in the park trying to feign interest in a history of Texas magazine I’d picked up in the visitors center, Eric called with the good news- the job was his, and it was everything he’s dreamed of! After discussing our options for a while, and weighing all of the pros and cons, we came to the conclusion that this move is a risk worth taking. We can afford to have the kind of life that we want in Texas, and it just isn’t possible in California, however sad that makes us.

That night we relaxed a little bit and went to the Alamo Draft House movie theater. It’s a cool place where you can order dinner and drinks while watching a movie. The food was good, although the movie was kind of slow (North Country). On Tuesday Eric signed his offer letter, we rented our apartment (a really cute one bedroom in a complex with amazing amenities) and caught a flight back home.

Although we felt like the weekend was a busy whirl-wind of activity, I’m sure it won’t even come close to what the next three weeks are going to be like! Our last day at work is November 8th, and we are plannning to be in Austin by November 15th! Let the next phase in the “Ellie and Eric Adventure” begin!