The LBJ Ranch

The day after Thanksgiving, we went and did the LBJ Ranch tour with our buddy Rory. It was a lovely day out, which was good because it involved a lot of walking around outside. The tour includes a small museum, the home where LBJ was born, the home where he grew up, the "Texas White House," as well as the original settlement in Johnson City. Let's do a photo-dump:

l

There was a small museum in the visitor's center.

 LBJ gave some speeches from the porch of his boyhood home as president.

 There was a radio in the first house that Brandon was fascinated with. 

 At the schoolhouse, you couldn't go in, but you could look through the windows. This was encouraged at many stops on the tour.

Brandon caught the light just right coming through the trees at LBJ's burial place.

I was asked to pose behind this placard.

While there, I got a feel for how big Texas is, and how beautiful it can be.

Seriously, cows have gigantic heads.

Apparently LBJ was really into gadgets.

This car has a gun rack and a wet bar in the back seat. I'm not even kidding.

The plane used to get from DC to the Texas White House was tiny, so they jokingly called it "Air Force 1/2."

The original settlement site was pretty sweet, too.

Also there was this awesome old tree. 

Here we learn that Texas Longhorns are HUGE. In the background I'm telling a story about horseback riding. I didn't know Brandon was recording. 

After the LBJ Ranch, we drove over to Austin for dinner. We found a gourmet burger and beer place called HopDoddy. It was delicious. 

 

 
The wine was good. Despite being a microbrew, we weren't fond of the beer. We're going to give them another chance, though.

I got an ahi tuna burger, which had wasabi mayonnaise, sprouts, and pickled ginger. 

My burger was amazing. I don't know how to explain this, but it hit the perfect balance between the light, clean flavor of sushi and the heavy, filling flavor of a burger. You just have to experience it to understand. But suffice to say, it was executed perfectly. Brandon got a plain old burger-burger, which he tells me was equally as delicious.

I don't know why my camera kept focusing on the french fries.

That was our day-after-Thanksgiving adventure. We hope you all enjoyed your Black Friday shopping!