Several people told us we’d have the best sushi in Austin. I was suspicious, but Uchi may have been the best Japanese meal of my life. We dined there on Friday night and had a three hour six-course meal — the pork belly (pictured below) was my favorite.

The next morning it was off to Magnolia Cafe for breakfast: cornmeal pancakes, eggs with garlic and Serrano ham and portabello omelettes. We burned it off walking down South Congress and eventually into Downtown. We saw lots of charming shops (and fantastic neon signage everywhere), but the most unusual was Uncommon Goods, an antique shop filled to the brim with various oddities from clown masks to vintage rubber stamps.

We enjoyed a late lunch at Stubbs (the beef brisket is a must) and then took a taxi home so we could power nap. We went back out to hit the “trailer park” of adorable food trucks on South Congress. I had the best dosa at Nomad Dosa and hydrating water right out of a nutty young coconut. We then proceeded to enjoy a few cocktails, bar games at Doc’s and a 1:30am run to 7-Eleven to get a snack.

It was so fun discovering a new city with great friends. Although we were exhausted on Sunday, I perked up when I realized Benecio del Toro was on our flight home and that we were going to meet Ayesha and Robin’s twin boys who were born while we were gone!