Livin' La Vida Local

Kristen came across a list on Facebook of 365 things to do in Austin, including places to eat, sights to see, and events to attend. Being the new kid on the block, I want to hug the boy who created this list. We've decided to try to tackle one thing per week.... not that I'm going to be in Texas for 365 weeks (don't worry, Mom), but we'll at least try to check off the most appealing suggestions.

We started off our venture with a trip to the Live Oak Brewery, a local Austin gem, Saturday morning. Little did we know, and little did the brew-master Julie know, that an obscene number of people had all seen this genius suggestion on Facebook, and had also decided it was how they wanted to jump-start their Saturday. We fell into a line of about 50 people waiting outside of the brewery, most likely waiting for the hour-long tour that was described in the Facebook post. Not so much. As we got closer to the inside of the brewery, I heard the blonde brew-master yelling "GRAB IT AND GO, GRAB IT AND GO", referring to the beer that she was pouring from the keg at lightning speed. Kristen and I exchanged looks of confusion and quite possibly fear, as this girl was not messing around. We wandered back outside, where we joined about 150 more people all either enjoying their beer or eagerly waiting to have one poured. Eventually, we heard Julie yelling for people to come a bit closer so that she could share a little insight about the brewery and the beer we were drinking. The first thing out of her mouth was, "HOW did all of you hear about this tour?" Laughter followed as a few people shared that it was the Facebook post that had divulged this well-kept secret. She told us later that they normally toured up to 100 people on a typical Saturday... there had to have been close to 250 people on this particular morning.


Julie was a one-woman show. We were able to sample five of Live Oak's beers (all delicious, especially the HefeWeizen) and she shared a bit about each beer between the samples. One 30-something girl managed to get 250 people in and out of a tiny damp room (Kristen made the observation that it smelled like Splash Mountain, and indeed it did) five times, in addition to a quick tour of the inside along with a little "beer education", all within two hours. To top it off, she had the best sense of humor (with a streak of sarcasm, which I thoroughly enjoyed), and handled the situation like a pro. She deserves a serious raise. So I raise my glass to Julie and to the Live Oak Brewery... I will definitely be returning with out of town guests.