Recently Aaron and I spent a few days at a resort that is about 30 miles outside of Austin. It was truly the best of both worlds for us. We were in the “woods,” but really close to our home city. While there we met three different families from Chicago that were in Texas for Spring Break. What are the chances that three different families from the same part of Chicago who didn't know each other would end up in the great state of Texas at the same resort?

The way we met them was through me being all up in their business. Aaron thinks I'm nosy. I call it just being aware of my surroundings! Anyhow, I overheard two of these couples talking about how they were heading into Austin for the day and they didn't know what to do. Y'all I couldn't keep my mouth shut then!

In the three and a half years that we've lived here I have said numerous times how much I love living in Austin and how I could die here because I don't plan on ever leaving. This city has truly captured our hearts and we love all the craziness about it! We love that our kids get to live miles from a very cool downtown and that we frequently eat at lots of crazy places with our kids. I have yet to eat at a chain restaurant, except CFA, but come on, momma needs her chicken biscuits. There are so many fabulous places to eat that are truly local and I love that!

I gave them my advice.

Head to South Congress.

Park your car.

Get out and walk.

Enjoy!

It's that simple. I don't think you can go wrong with those instructions. You can park on South Congress and find some fabulous restaurants, trailer eateries, dessert places, funky thrift stores and a view of the bats coming out at night! It's awesome.

Recently we packed up our kids and told them we were heading to South Congress for lunch and gave them two options. We offered them GUERO'S or HOME SLICE. Two very different restaurants, but both equally local feeling and delicious.

Majority ruled and our family ended up spending our lunch at Home Slice on South Congress. This place has truly some of the best pizza I have ever eaten in my life. We get the exact same thing every time we go, because when you find something that does you right, there's no reason to change. One of my favorite things about Home Slice is that is combines Austin life with NY style pizza and that makes this lover of Austin and NYC very happy!

I met one of the chefs last year and he told me that each year they close down their shop and head to NYC to taste pizza and get better ideas on how to make their pizza better. Oh my I love that!

This place is perfect for kids! Immediately my kids ran to the courtyard where they spent the whole time playing ping-pong and we had to literally drag them away from it! One of my most favorite things about Austin is that people just take their kids anywhere and it all works out well! Kids fit in most places around town and we love that our family can do lots of fun stuff together that's not adult only!

Our next stop was Amy's ice cream and if you are visiting Austin you for sure need to get to an Amy's ice cream during your stop here. They have such great flavors and my kids love getting the works on their ice cream! Nothing beats local ice cream!

Finally, if you're visiting South Congress, grab your camera and your loved ones and get your picture taken in front of the sign “I love you so much!” So fun and it would be a fun family picture to document your visit to Austin!

We love family days on South Congress. Whether we eat at Home Slice, Perla's, a trailer, Guerro's, Vespaio (one of our favorite date spots) or South Congress Cafe, we're going to get great food, lovely family time and lots of fun in our favorite city in America.

$100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

Travel Texas and BlogHer are sponsoring a great giveaway to one lucky reader. Please leave a comment telling me where you'd like to visit in Texas. You can request a free Texas Travel Guide from the TravelTex.com website where you can get lots of great ideas!

Rules:

No duplicate comments.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post

b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post

c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post

d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older.

Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail.

You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 5/1/2012-6/1/2012.

Be sure to visit the Discover Texas page on BlogHer.com where you can read about other bloggers' adventures and find more chances to win!

Jamie Ivey