A Trip to Austin

Earlier this year I started a new job. It’s fully remote, but once a quarter our team gets together for some activities and shenanigans. I missed the last one due to a conflict, and this trip was very much wedged between two others, but I was determined to hang out this time.

Made it to the airport and getting through security was very smooth. I decided to only take the M-A, 35mm Summicron, and three rolls of HP5, not really knowing how much I’d get to shoot. Asked the TSA agent for a hand check. They were extremely polite and happy to do so.

The flight itself was pretty boring. I messed up and didn’t bring a book.

Landed in Austin on time. Took a while to figure out where to get a Lyft to the hotel. They make you walk all the way to a distant parking deck to call a Lyft or Uber.

Made it to the hotel, which was very nice. It’s right beside our office building so I didn’t stay long as I was eager to see the space and meet everyone in person for the first time.

Eddie was kind enough to show me around after I got settled in. We worked for a bit before heading to our first team activity of the week, which was a charcuterie class at Antonelli's (the same place from that commercial .) It wasn’t a competition but our team created a cheese and meat board that appeared to have a sacrificial mini gherkin on it. So clearly we won.

After the charcuterie class we piled in 4 deep in the back seat of Mike’s 4Runner and headed to the Archer . The Archer is a swank hotel with a fancy bar and restaurant. We sat around and chatted over drinks for quite a while. Most of us had never met in person so it was a lot of fun getting to talk face-to-face finally.

There were a couple more days spent in Austin, and I made it through all three rolls trying to document my time there. I did notice some of the photos were a little blurry, when I know I focused on the subject. Nothing terrible, though. I didn’t feel like I should post a lot of photos of teammates or the office on my site so I won’t be writing about the remainder of the trip. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to go back. I only got one full day of working at the office and flew back to Charlotte on the 5th.