i love camping!

My husband knows me so well. I mean he really knows me soooo well.

I found out about our little camping trip on Wednesday. Less than 2 days before we were to begin our adventure. John called me from work to say that we were going camping. My first question of where was answered with, "somewhere in the Austin area." The man wouldn't give up any details because he wanted the weekend to be a surprise. All I knew was we would go out to a nice dinner Friday night and then camp out the rest of the time.

When I left for work Friday morning my bag was packed and by the door so that John load up the car and we could leave right at 5:00 when I left work. When I got in the car I happened to glance in the back of John's 4Runner and noticed there weren't any bags. I asked him about the missing bags and he played it off answering all my questions with "I don't know." That is pretty much how he answered any question I asked about the trip. And I asked a lot of questions.

Once we got closer to Austin, John told me that this weekend was a thank you for the past 4 years (read: the whole time he has been in grad school) and he wanted to thank me for my support. The man just finished 2 masters degrees and I'm the one getting a surprise weekend trip! He's pretty fantastic if you ask me.

It was at this point (John telling me that the weekend was a thank you to me) that I realized that we weren't camping. He knows me pretty well. So we get downtown, and are heading up one street and down the other. I had no idea where we are going and I had a weird mix of excitement and nervousness. I love surprises. But I also hate surprises. I almost can't handle the anxiety but I love it at the same time. I'm weird like that.

We quickly made a very sharp right turn into a small 4 story parking garage. We went up to the very top floor and parked in an assigned parking spot. We got out of the car and saw the most perfect view of the Capitol building. It was beautiful!

But there wasn't much time to stand and take in the view. John took me into an elevator, down to the first floor and then down a short hallway. At the end of the hallway, we went through a door (which was locked and unlocked when John looked into the camera - little did I know, he had a clicker in his pocket). We went down another hallway to another set of elevators and took that up to the 3rd floor. We made our way down another hallway and at the end of the hall John opened a door and we walked inside.

Rose petals, wall-to-wall windows, hardwood floors, the Capitol building, a tent and 2 camping chairs. And our bags. This is my kind of camping!

Where were we? John's mom's friend has a condo in downtown Austin that is 2 blocks from the Capitol. She is trying to sell it right now and it is empty. It was the perfect place for a weekend getaway!

John had arranged everything from rose petals on the floor to chocolate covered strawberries to all the fixins for s'mores! He thinks of everything..remember our engagement story? It was starting out as a perfect weekend.

Friday night we went to dinner at Rio Grande which is in the Real World house when Real World was in Austin. We had chips and queso and yummy tacos. John had pork tacos and I had beef tenderloin tacos. They reminded us a lot of Taco Diner but Taco Diner is much better! After dinner we went to the IMAX at the Bob Bullock Museum to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. After the movie we were exhausted so we headed back to our campsite and crashed! Oh, but not before we had s'mores!

Saturday we slept in which was glorious and we were anxious to get out and get our day startedWe had brunch at Kerbey Lane Cafe (YUMMY!) and then headed out to Zilker Park. It was a beautiful day. The temperature was perfect and I really wish it would be like that all summer. We rented a canoe and headed down the river. I would have loved to have a picture of John and I canoing, but I didn't think it would be a good idea to take my camera on a canoe. It was so much fun and a great upper body workout too! It started raining on us on our way back in but it did not bother us one bit.

We spent the next couple hours hiking around Zilker Park. John mentioned at one point how relaxed he was. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt that relaxed. It was the perfect day!

After Zilker we went to Hey Cupcake! It was the cutest cupcake trailor on South Congress. John got the carrot cupcake and I got the vanilla cupcake. They were so good! Oh and John made his cupcake a "whipper snapper" which means they injected it with fresh whipped cream! So good and so not Weight Watchers friendly!

Our afternoon ended with a trip to a juice bar (John got lemonade and I got watermelon, raspberry and rose water juice) and then back to our condo to get ready for the evening.

Our evening finished with dinner at the best. Chinese. restaurant. ever. and a concert by the Austin Civic Chorus. A friend of our's sings in the choir and it was a great concert!

The weekend was fabulous and much needed. It was relaxing and fun and so enjoyable.

Thank you John for such a fun weekend. We both needed it and I LOVE CAMPING!

And no need for the Sunday night blues!!!! No work tomorrow!