Vu has been a long time Formula 1 fan, and a few months ago he decided he wanted to go to the one race that is held in the U.S. in Austin, Texas in mid October.  He has an office there as well, and likes to go out a couple of times a year to visit his team members there, so he decided to combine the 2 and go for the week.  And of course if we were going for the race, then I was going to take the opportunity to go to Waco and the Silo’s as well.  A few of my friends that are also huge Joanna fans heard about it and decided to come as well, which made it much more fun than going by myself.  They just came for the first couple of days and we went to Waco and San Antonio.  I loved all of the Magnolia stuff, the Silo’s, the store, bakery, food trucks and garden.  I wanted everything.  I love how Joanna sets up everything to look like it is in a home and I love the way she makes huge seasonal displays all around the store.  In San Antonio we went to the historic downtown and the river walk and took a boat tour.  I love the river walk, a little piece of Venice in the middle of Texas.  After the tour we had lunch at the oldest restaurant on the river walk, then visited the Alamo before heading back to Austin to take my friends back to the airport.

The rest of the week while Vu worked I explored downtown Austin.  I went to the capitol building which was really cool.  It is a really beautiful building and I loved the cupola, inside and out.  And it’s air conditioned, which is a big deal to me.  Because I really don’t like heat, and Texas is always hot.  I could only go out for a short period of time before I couldn’t take it anymore.  Then I would find the nearest Starbucks and get a cold drink and sit in the air conditioning for a couple hours before trying to head out again.  After the capitol building I walked over to the graffiti park, where the city lets anyone paint the whole area, and it has the best view of the city from the top.  I also walked down to the river and walked and biked along the path and went to the Botanical gardens.  And of course we ate as much Barbecue as we could. 😂

All of the Formula 1 stuff was on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  There were practices and qualifying races on Friday and Saturday and then the actual race on Sunday.  I really enjoyed it, much more than I expected too.  That is the actual driving parts.  There was a lot of sitting around and waiting in the sun and heat on stadium benches between sessions, and I really kind of hated that part.  But the race was fun.  Unfortunately Sebastian Vettel didn’t win though.