Shopping and Greenpeace

On Monday we had a chance to wander around on our own. We got up and drove over to South Congress for some lunch and shopping. Its very near downtown but its a completely different vibe. I think the locals consider it the more traditional Austin, which is code for hippie/weird/eclectic. It is pretty cool though. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Guero's. They had a salsa bar and also had some good tomatillo sauce. I'm going to have to try to make some of this, it seems to be pretty popular down there.

After we ate we started walking up and down Congress. It is shop after shop of vintage clothing and accessories, shoes, food, and small markets. We went in several places and saw some really cool, random stuff. One cool place we stopped at was a candy shop that was straight out of 1950. Even the person working behind the counter looked like she was from the era. It had a great selection of candy and sodas. We got a few things from the store and headed down the street. Along our way we were stopped by a member of Greenpeace. I told you it was a hippie area. You don't run into Greenpeace members in OKC. She was talking to us mainly about deforestation and trying to get us to sign up for a monthly donation using our credit card. I asked her if she took cash so we could just make a one time donation but she said no because, quote, "that's paper and we are trying to save the trees, right?". Oh yeah? What about all those sign up sheets you printed out in duplicate resting on that wooden clipboard? And where'd you get that pencil ?
Anyway, we decided to pass on the monthly donations, but she did have her pitch down pretty well. You should try to find a sales job that pays you, Greenpeace lady.

Once we left Congress, we went up to Round Rock to Patrick and Andrea's new place. It was the first time we'd seen it since they moved down last summer. Patrick made some delicious chili and we watched a cool DVD called "It Might Get Loud". Its an awesome documentary with Jimmy Page, Jack White, and the Edge getting together in a warehouse and talking about guitars and musical influences and even jamming a little. Its fun to watch.

On our way home we drove by the Dell buildings. We'll visit those again shortly...