Everyday Adventure // Whole Foods Flagship

My sister and I had a free morning to spend in Austin, and we decided that after a run on the Hike & Bike Trail, we would make our way over to the flagship Whole Foods in downtown Austin.  It seems a bit strange to make a grocery store one of your vacation destinations, but I’ve heard great things about this particular store – Austin being the place where Whole Foods got started, after all.

I may also be known to make Trader Joe’s runs when I’m anywhere that happens to have one.  What can I say?

I think you can learn a lot about a person by what they pick up at the grocery store – and you can probably tell a lot about me by what I chose to take photos of.  Crazy awesome floral section? Huge beer cooler? Cookies? Bright colors?  Tea bar? Yup.  These are my priorities, folks.  Ok, so the beer photo was more than likely so I could show my husband.

Emphasis on the flowers and cookies.  I’m not a hard person to please, really.

Also, loose leaf tea bar?  Please, and thank you.  As if I didn’t already want to shop at Whole Foods (but alas, those $$$, yo), I’m pretty glad I won’t be living in Austin if ONLY for the reason that I won’t be tempted to visit this place all. the. time.  That would definitely mean no more $$$ for me.

The prepared foods section was the main difference, really, between this Whole Foods and any other – aside from the thing just being bigger.  It was almost like a food court, with different places you could visit – a taco stand, fresh juice/smoothie bar, coffee & tea bar, etc.  There were also crazy gelato flavors like carrot cake, blue cheese walnut & cucumber lime.  And did I mention cookies?  This place was huge!

Sister & I grabbed some fresh juice – actually it was my first experience with juicing and it was pretty delicious!  Mine was the orange one (pictured at top), a mix of ginger, carrot, orange & apple.  Abbi picked Pretty in Pink which had pomegranate & a bunch of berries & coconut water.  Mmmm – I could probably get on this juicing bandwagon.

If you’re visiting Austin and you want to get as close to what grocery stores must look like in heaven (except – everything would be free there, because it’s heaven, obviously) then you should definitely check out this monster-sized flagship Whole Foods.

{ Images by Annabelle Mintz }