Pecan Street Festival

Since Billy has lived in Austin over 9 years, its rare that we get to experience a "first" together. Having been in grad school (and working full-time) 2 of the 3.5 years I have been in Austin, it seems like everything is a first to me. So when we realized Pecan Street Festival was this past weekend, I was super excited because Billy had never been. We could have a "first" at one of Austin's biggest events!

According to their website, Pecan Street Festival is one of Central Texas' oldest and most popular events. Local artists, vendors, and musicians fill old Pecan Street, now 6th Street (yes THAT 6th St.), for a free two-day festival. Having and 11AM TCU game Saturday and a 3:25PM Eagles game Sunday afternoon, we strolled down Sunday morning to check out the festivities.

Knowing we were going to walk a bit and grab lunch, we opted to make mental notes of the places we wanted to make purchases. I think I stopped at every homemade candle, soap and bath product table -- I have a mild addiction! I just recently stocked up on some soaps so I decided I didn't need to buy any more right now. Plus, where would we store them in our tiny studio?! I joke.

With the large walls in our apartment, we knew this would be the perfect opportunity to do some art shopping. We stopped and checked out paintings and sculpted pieces, but knew we found our place when we stopped at a local photographer's booth. We both made a beeline for the panoramic photos of the Austin skyline. We finally decided on the piece below for the colors and couldn't help adding the smaller photographs of our Alma Maters.

Randy Smith of Campus Art Prints shared a great story of how he captured the shot of the skyline. He was driving through Downtown and noticed the greatly colors in the sky and as any photographer would, pulled over to capture the moment. As he was taking the photos, he told himself that the photos weren't going to come out well and was surprised with the final result. Its such a gorgeous photo - I can't wait to find frames so these photographs can find a home on our walls!

Not only did we find these great photos for our new place, but we also enjoyed some delicious food. While strolling, we shared a snow cone -- which I ate most of :). For lunch, Billy chose a hot dog while I was a bit more adventurous getting Chicken & Waffles on a stick from Cluckin Waffle. We also indulged on a hand-dipped chocolate covered cheesecake. Yum, yum and a little more yum! There are very few places to sit and eat so the items on a stick were greatly appreciated!

We shopped, we ate and we really had a blast at Pecan Street Festival. We were glad to hear the festival comes twice a year in May and September. I know we will be definitely be making the 2-block hike for it again in May!