The Stars at Night are Big and Bright...

Howdy y'all! I am so excited. We just returned from our trip to Texas and I had such a great time! I cannot wait to go back. Every time I go, I like it better and better. We visited Hill Country and it was even better than I remembered it from my visit about 10 years ago.

We flew into Austin and rented a car, which gave us the chance to do a lot of exploring. We spent two days in Austin, two days in Fredericksburg and two days in San Antonio. What really stood out was how clean the cities were and how well taken care of the roads were!

In Austin, we toured the State Capitol, spent time in the Texas History Museum, and watched the Bats come out from the Congress Avenue Bridge. We walked in SoCo on First Thursday and explored the second hand stores and listened to the numerous bands playing along the sidewalks. We zig-zagged through Hill Country from San Marcos to Dripping Springs to Fredericksburg, then from Kerrville to Bourne to San Antonio.

Fredericksburg was much busier than it was 10 years ago, when I was last there, but the adorable Country Cottage we stayed in was enchanting. The Perdenales River was a short hike away and it was great to be able to walk down to the river. There was a severe thunderstorm barrelling through San Antonio when we were in Fredericksburg, so while we avoided any rain or lightning, we felt the effects of the strong winds blowing. It was surreal but not at all scary.

The glass-blowing show at the Wimberley Glass Works was amazing! The glass artists spent an hour making a beautiful swing vase. It was very dramatic because one of the apprentices wanted to give the vase an extra layer of glass, which makes the vase twice as heavy. He spent what seemed like minutes trying to balance the vase on the base attached to the rod until it got cool enough to stay firmly attached to the base. There were a couple of times when we thought he was going to lose the vase, for sure. He got a well-deserved round of applause when the balancing act was finished. I bought a beautiful blue and green bowl from the gift shop, then it was on to Driftwood, where we enjoyed delicious, authentic Texas Bar-B-Q at the Salt Lick.

Our ride to San Antonio was relaxing and there was some culture shock coming from the little cottage in Fredericksburg to the 7th largest city in the United States, San Antonio, but the Riverwalk was just beautiful and very calming. We took the boat tour and learned a lot about the area and the Riverwalk. We were also fortunate to visit the Alamo. It was a sombering experience to listen to the difficult one-sided battle the men faced. From this, the battle cry "Remember the Alamo!" was born.

We also had the opportunity to visit New Braunfels and Gruene, two wonderful areas northeast of San Antonio. The caverns in New Braunfels were beautiful and Gruene was a quaint little area of New Braunfels with antique shops, boutique stores, and Greune Hall, the oldest, continuously running dance hall in Texas. We stayed to watch Two Tons of Steel on Two Ton Tuesday - a fun "countrybilly" dance band at Gruene Hall.

Our trip ended far too soon and I cannot wait to go back. Texas Hill Country is truly God's Country.