Fredericksburg is about an hour and forty-minute drive from Austin, west- north- west, the perfect distance for a day trip. Lyn suggested it because I made a comment that were in need of some quality time together. He’s been wrapped up model airplane building and I’ve been spending most of my free time on the computer, doing one thing or the other.
Fredericksburg is really a neat little town. Germans settled it in the mid-1800s. On our first trip there, about three and a half years ago, it helped dispel some of the stereotypes I had in my mind about Texas. There really is a huge variety in both the people and the places in this state. The only unfortunate thing, as I realized on Monday, is Fredericksburg has really become completely dependent on their tourist economy, which takes away much of the authenticity that made it interesting.
Keidel Memorial Hospital now houses a garden shop and a
gourmet cooking supply store.
First of we ate lunch as The Auslander. They are known for having the largest selections of beer in town, which is saying a lot in a town that hosts the biggest Oktoberfest celebration in Texas. My husband got a Red Stripe, which is a cheap Jamaican beer that I consider a bit mundane under the circumstances, but he enjoyed it. I ordered a Spaten Franziskaner, which they didn't have in stock so the server brought me a Spaten Premium instead. It turned out to be really excellent, very smooth. Lyn got a Rueben; which I gather was so good that he wouldn't share. I had a Opa’s Sausage Sandwich, which is just a nice Tex-German Sausage spilt on a roll with sauerkraut. They have fantastic sauerkraut.
Since Fredericksburg is a small town we split up at first, so we would both have the opportunity to do what we wanted. He went to The National Museum of the Pacific War: George Bush Gallery. It came out that the real reason he wanted to go to Fredericksburg was to see the Wildcat that they house there, because he is currently making a model of one. (So much for getting away from our hobbies.) Unfortunately the Wildcat they have is one pulled out of a crash site, so it wasn’t very helpful to him. He then stopped into the Admiral Nimitz Museum.
We went to both of these museums on our last trip there, so I was much more interested in seeing what else Fredericksburg has to offer. I just walked down Main Street, wandered into a out of shops, and took some pictures. There’s some interesting architecture, but I was thoroughly unimpressed by the shops. None of it seemed special or unique and it went on and forever. Eventually, I just wandered down a side street and looked at buildings and homes until Lyn called me at our prearranged time. We met up and stopped by at the Visitor Center to see what would be a good thing to do on our next time there.
Then the best part of our trip began. We drove just half an hour north of Fredericksburg to Enchanted Rock. We could not have chosen better weather for this outing. It was beautiful. The temperature was down to the mid-80s (around 29C) and while it was sunny there was enough of a cloud cover to prevent you from feeling baked, despite the lack of shade.
The actual rock is great. It's just a solid chuck of pink granite that time and weather have exposed. There are several summits and over seven miles in trails, but I knew that Lyn would find the short steep summit trail the most interesting. Since there was so growth obscuring the view you could see a line of people up ahead of you also conquering the rock like a pilgrimage to a holy relic.
Once you get up fairly high it becomes very discombobulating because you are just walking up a big rock with no growth or landmarks around you. It felt like you were on another planet. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for the exercise, the landscape and the excellent people watching opportunities. The next time I come out I think I'll come out on a day with less usage, and either alone or with somebody whose interested in exploring some of the other trails with me.
My Favorite Martian
There were many signs for peaches on our way there, as peach season has just begun. So on the way back home we stopped at a peach stand, and ate some yummy fresh peach ice cream and bought some local peaches. They had us try a few different varieties to see which ones we liked the best. We choose Flavor Royal. They're a cling peach with a full sweet flavor backed up by a little tart and very yummy. We bought the smallest tray they sold which still held about 15 peaches. They didn't last long and I'm already wanting more. I may have to visit the farmers market tomorrow.
Yucca bravely holding their own on the top of Enchanted Rock.
5 comments:
That looks like a pretty neat place! I've never been to Texas...
Sounds like a great day out, and what lovely photos! Which leads me to a question: do you use Hello to send your photos to your blog? And if so, how do you get more than one in a single post?? Do you have to send them individually and then edit to combine all the posts or is there something I'm missing?
Yes, I do use Hello. I really should credit them on my blog somewhere.
And I just upload the pictures one at a time and then edit them into the post the way I want them.
Looks and sounds like it was a great day- and just what you and Lyn needed! Thanks for sharing!
Enchanted rocks looks like its transported from Australia. I never imagined such a landscape in Texas. Fredericksburg looks like a wonderful place to explore.
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