Mamiya ShotsOn the way home from Houston, London and I stopped at an artist scrapyard (a gathering/party spot for Burners in Austin) and she snapped some photos of me with her Mamiya film camera. This was her first time using the camera she had recently picked up and was super excited to have in her possession, even though she was clueless on how to operate it.
Fortunately, while in Houston we stayed with a photographer that sat down with London at his kitchen table until wee hours of the night, and showed her all the bits n' pieces, ins n' outs, everything she needed to know about that camera. He even gave her a butt load of film. It was old film and didn't develop very clearly, but it was great to get her started. Even though I was tired from the drive home and lookin' a little haggled, I was happy to be her first modeling subject. Plus, I had a great time checking out all the crazy art in the yard and climbing all over that art bus!Barton Springs
Nestled in the middle of the city inside of Zilker Park is a popular swimming pooled created from natural springs. It is surrounded by big beautiful trees, has a huge grassy lawn area to lay out on, and fresh cool water with a natural rocky bottom. 
We had a great day laying out in the sun and swimming around. London brought goggles and spent most of her time underwater chasing fish. Afterward, we walked through the park and ended up at a dog park along a river. Suddenly I was surrounded by a ton of happy dogs running around off their leashes, playing with each other, jumping around, swimming and fetching balls out of the water. It was so much fun and came to no surprise that London has been wanting to get a dog lately!Keep Austin Weird
After swimming in Barton Springs and playing with dogs near the river, we continued o
ur walk from the park to a bridge over the river and ended up in the middle of the Keep Austin Weird Festival which is an event dedicated to all the people, places and things that make Austin unique. There are funky bands, fun vendors and a 5K run where all the participants dress up in costumes like during Halloween and run through the city. There's always something fun and crazy going on in Austin!Movies, Comedy & Bingo
In Tucson we don't have theaters that serve food and drinks while you watch a movie...so I was thrilled to find out that theaters exist that do this!
The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX has a full bar and food menu with servers to bring you anything from the menu you want before or during your movie . The check is simply brought to you 30min before the end of the film. How neat is that! I guess if you have these kind of theaters in your area, it's not big news...but for me, a big movie, food and beer lover...this was pure excitement! We saw Toy Story 3, which turned out to be a bigger surprise than the theater. One of the best movies I've seen, it made me laugh, made me cray, put me on the edge of my
seat and left me feeling magical. I love that movie and I recommend you seeing it. I am a huge Pixar fan, but even if you don't like animation or haven't seen the first two movies, still see this. You'll enjoy it! It's so good, after I got home from Texas I went and saw it again :)Other nights of entertainment in Austin included a night at a comedy improv theater and another at a bingo hall. Both of which were, BYOB so we could pick up some cheap beer and bring it with us! This is actually common for places in Austin and another reason it is such a great city :)
It was great to see comedians get up on stage and perform skits on the fly. There were several that performed as groups and created jokes by bouncing off each other and the audience.
I sure laughed a lot that night! I also laughed a lot the night of bingo. I had never been to a bingo hall before and was really excited to see what it was all about. I wanted to see a bunch of die hard old ladies going nuts with a bunch of bingo cards spread out in front of them. And they were there! And it wasn't just old ladies, people of all ages were there, all intense about their bingo. They even had numerous daubers in all colors (the ink you blot the numbers with) and even special bags to hold all of them. It was a lot of fun to people watch and once the numbers started being shouted out, I got a little intense too, daubing away, hoping to fill that line and get my chance to call bingo. I was surely entertained for the night, but I never got to call bingo, didn't even get close. Life Drawing Class
One day London picked up some paper, pastels and charcoal and dragged me along to a life drawing class she typical poses for. It was really neat to get lost for a few hours smudging charcoal a
ll over the paper, attempting to recreate a portrait of the model laid out beautifully before me. Growing up and all through high school and college I was very artistic and was always drawing or painting. However, in the past few years, especially since I've started traveling and modeling, i haven't created much artwork. So, it was a lot of fun to take this class. My favorite part was seeing all the different types of portraits created when we were all looking at the same subject. Workout
One of the best things that happened in Austin was that London got me hooked on going to the gym again. She is a member of Planet Fitness, a great gym that has tons of room and machines, but isn't a big open meat market like Bally Total Fitness.
Best part is that it's only $10/month and you can always bring a friend with you. Unfortunately, they don't have any of these gyms in AZ! But when I got home I joined the YMCA . No, no...not the musical group the Village People...the fitness and community center. It's a great place too. I spend more than $10/month, but it is a nonprofit organization that provides a lot for the surrounding community and youth activities. They also have lots of pilates and yoga classes that I can attend anytime. Hopefully I can keep up the enthusiasm I had in Austin and keep working out on a daily basis!
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