Today was a spontaneous day of finding ourselves all around quaint South Austin…. our first stop and inspiration, Big Top Candy Shop. This old fashioned store had all the candy you could imagine, even made old soda fountain drinks,…  gotta bring my dad next time! Salt Water Taffy, Lemon Drops, Truffles, Chocolate Covered Orange Peels, Gumdrops, Giant Lollipops, Blackjack Gum, Chocolate Dipped Twinkies, Jelly Beans, Gum by the Yard( and many other ways ), Giant Peanut Butter Cups, Twin Bings, Cherry Mash, Beechies, Long Boys, Old Fashioned Hersheys, and so much more.  My mission: to find the infamous chocolate covered bacon an OUT OF TOWNER, @bowerm, told me about! This wonderful friend from California ran the Austin marathon here last spring, had tried some, and as an Austinite I gathered I should have known about it! I wasn’t sure if I would absolutely love it or not be able to swallow it! We peered into the glass cover and couldn’t believe we had finally come across this candy marvel we heard about,… anxiously we waited as she used her nice candy tongs to place the best piece she could find into our little plastic goody bag. Still, we wondered, who came up with this??!!  Will it be edible? Tasty? Fabulous? Well it was go time. I had been commiting to this venture since, I don’t know, April or May? So as promised,

I came,… I saw,… I tasted.

Hmmm, how do I describe it ??  Well, like fried up greasy bacon cooled off and dipped in chocolate. Sound good to you? Mr. @bowerm, I came to a conclusion. After many bites of trying this tasty treat, I decided, if I had run a twenty six mile marathon this would have tasted great to me too! I would have been starving! Famished! Delusional! Tired! Foggy in the head and unable to pass good judgement! That must be what it was! HAHAHA! OK, really, it wasn’t bad, yet an acquired taste one must cultivate over time.

This was a wonderful place to come and visit and my kids were thrilled to be here!!! They have already planned what they are getting next time we come, because it was so very difficult to pick just one thing to try! So, South Austin, it was nice visiting you. Yes, you are weird, yet interesting. Old, yet in a quaint Keep Austin Weird sort of way. I am sure we will be back to the candy shop soon by order or protest of the kids, and to reminisce on simpler times of the past. So glad we came.