Night on the Town

I am coming up on my one year anniversary of living in Austin and there are some important "Austin things" that I haven't done. So, the other night I crossed two of them off the list.

Austin is known for its food trailers. Scattered around town, they are similar to the carts/trucks at fairs that sell elephant ears, etc. Here, though, they sell everything from burgers to ice cream to cupcakes to different ethnic foods. In several places there are food trailer parks, with several trailers in the same lot so in a sense you can have a progressive dinner. I hadn't been to a food trailer yet, so after work Heather, Morey, and I headed out. We had Thai food and then I got green tea ice cream from another trailer. (I also tried a tiny spoonful of Wasabi ice and that was plenty!)

It's still 100+ degrees in Austin and as you may have figured, at food trailers you eat outside. We found a place in the shade but Morey was still hot. A man (wearing a cowboy hat with shorts and sandals-gotta love Texans and their cowboy hats!) was watering his grass with a hose and asked if we wanted some water for Morey. We had already gotten him a bowl filled with ice, but Heather asked if we could hose Morey down. The man laughed and agreed and so Morey got a nice cool down. Afterwards he shook and pranced around with a huge doggie smile on his face. You could tell he felt much better!

Our next stop of the evening was "Blues on the Green", an outdoor concert that happens weekly at a park during the summer. We have been meaning to go all summer and finally made it to the last one! It was extremely crowded and we had to park pretty far away. As with most outdoor events in Austin, lots of people brought their dogs and at first Morey was very distracted with everything. He wasn't wearing his vest, but even without that he is expected to behave and not pull on the leash. We had to do a lot of stop and gos at first, but then after a while he settled down. I'm glad he has gotten to the point where I can have him around other dogs without him getting overwhelmed or overexcited.

There were booths advertising and selling things around the edge of the concert area. We stopped by the Humane Society booth that had kiddie pools around it. I thought Morey might want to cool off again, but apparently he wasn't hot or the water was too dirty because he passed up that opportunity. We found a place in the grass to sit and I enjoyed my first outdoor live music concert in Austin. Sad that it took me almost a year and I now live in the live music capital of the world!

The rest of the evening was enjoyable and we stayed until after dark. After the concert was over we waited for some of the crowd to leave before we started back to my van. A man (who had probably had a few drinks before, during, and after the concert) stumbled by us and jumped back when he saw Morey. "I thought that was a rock! But it's not-it's a dog. A giant dog. Wow, he's huge!" (His sense of perception might have been a bit off!) He asked Morey's name and I told him and then he said "Well, big Morey, have a great evening!" And then he continued on his way. Heather and I had a good laugh about that and Morey's new nickname is Big Morey!

It's fun to give Morey opportunities to just be a dog. I always get a lot of compliments about his looks and his behavior-and of course I agree that in both areas he is pretty exceptional. He's a pretty special dog and it was fun to be able to have him join us for some Austin adventures!