Next Time You're in Austin......

I don't know about you, but I just adore Austin, Texas. Where else can you get a bohemian-cowboy-hipster vibe smack in the middle of a cool college town? Add in some fine food and music, and what's not to love? Last summer when C-Man and I tagged along with B on a business trip (and I was finally pulling out of the morning sickness part of my pregnancy with Baby J), we came across the Hotel San Jose. Now, if you haven't already heard about it (we hadn't, but I now know it's very popular), you really need to stay there next time you're in town. Just don't even mess around with anywhere else. We actually checked out of a perfectly nice hotel that we had prepaid for 3 nights to check into this one -- it was that compelling.

For some reason, when I was up with Baby J early one morning last week, I started looking at other people's pictures of the San Jose on Flickr. We have some nice photos too, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the ones I found taken by other people with different perspectives (i.e. chubby grinning toddler is not in the middle of all of the shots). Take a look:

Here's the facade that first drew us in.

Can you see how they mix a rustic Mexico charm with Zen-Japanese-minimalism? (Sorry to you designers out there that I'm sure have a more eloquent way to describe this look.)

A simple, yet stylish, entrance to a room.

Here's the inside of one of the rooms. They are all a bit different, but have the same style.

A nice seating area outside one of the rooms.

The bathrooms each get a different typed copy of a poem on a torn piece of paper. Nice touch.

If you order breakfast in your room, it comes in a pretty little box like this.

C-Man had lots of fun looking at the fish in these little ponds that are scattered about the property.

Beautiful shot of the little pool.

I highly recommend you get your morning coffee next door at Jo's. They have a nice collection of different chairs -- all look like they came from a cool flea market.

And because I know you want at least ONE chubby, grinning toddler shot, here's one of C-Man in front of the old orange Bronco that the owners of the hotel use to run errands around town. Isn't it cool?

One more thing. While there is amazing food everywhere you turn in this town, you simply must go to Las Manitas for breakfast. It's an institution. Have a cantaloupe agua fresca and some egg tacos for me, please. And be sure to take pictures.