KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD!

Dan and I arrived in Austin this past Friday to celebrate Whole Foods Market's 30th birthday. We won the trip in a contest sponsored by Whole Foods Market. You can read all about how we won the contest here.

The weather was beautiful so we decided to stroll around town.

We visited the capitol building, which had beautiful architecture and paintings of each of the state's governors on the walls of each level.



Back at our hotel, we had a Whole Foods Market goody bag waiting for us. It was filled with organic popcorn, breakfast bars, fresh organic fruit, trail mix, drinks, gift certificates and this ...


Our badges got us into the many events Whole Foods Market planned for us, including the Meet and Greet, for which we were running late!

There, we met many of the people involved in making Whole Foods Market the amazing organization it is today, including Cheryl Galway, who planned and organized this wonderful 30th birthday party celebration.

We were treated to scrumptious food and champagne, wine, etc. and got to meet the other winners.

Then we were taken to some of the finest restaurants Austin had to offer. We ate at Taverna. Our main course was gorgonzola and pear filled pasta, walnuts, arugula and dolce latte cream sauce, which was as delicious as it sounds. Tiramisu for dessert!

I was too busy enjoying the food to photograph it, but here is a photo of our group . . .

(That's Cheryl on the left.)

Here's a picture from the other end of the table . . .

We met so many cool people who either won the trip or worked for Whole Foods Market.

One of my favorite things about Austin was a 13-mile trail along Lady Bird Lake. Against the backdrop of tall, glass-walled skyscrapers was this serene, people-friendly, pet-friendly oasis.

Both Saturday and Sunday mornings were spent on this lovely trail.

Finally, it was off to the amazing BOOK PEOPLE -- a fun, independent bookstore in Austin.

Dan and I were in nerd heaven with Book People on one corner, Waterloo Records on another and Whole Foods Market on the third. (Chicos was on the fourth, but for some reason, that didn't get us too excited.)

We met some amazing Austin writers at the Shoal Creek Saloon for lunch.

(Dan, me, Jennifer Ziegler, Greg Leitich Smith, Cynthia Leitich Smith and Varian Johnson)

What smart, funny people! It was wonderful to finally connect IN PERSON with these talented authors! (And Jen has some amazing news on her blog.)

Whew! That's enough for now. More Austin details in the next blog post . . .