Travel with Us: February 2010

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Part 20 Winter Trip - It's SNOWING!!!

We went to bed with the weather forecast talking about colder temperatures tomorrow with a possibility of snow flurries in central Texas. The maps were showing the snow stopping north of Austin so we figured we would see only some rain. Wrong!

Bill woke me up the next morning, tellling me to hurry and look out the window. Falling from the sky were some of the biggest, fattest, wettest snowflakes that I have ever seen. Over the course of the day, it snowed like this three separate times. About two hours after each snow fell, most would have melted and by the next morning there was no trace of the snow.

When we had arrived at the park, one of the first things that Juanette did was to hang up her bird feeder. She was nice enough to hang it where we could see it also! We had a grand time watching the birds during the snowstorm, especially the bright red cardinals. They were not picky, they would eat from either the feeder or the ground.

In fact we had so much fun watching the birds, that we decided that we needed to get a bird feeder the next time we were in town.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Part 19 Winter Trip - Debi's Day

Today was my kind of day... a visit to a yarn shop, a quilt shop and bead shop.... and a pie shop!

We decided that today we would go explore the town of Fredericksburg. On the way there we stopped off at the Wildseeds Farms to pick up some wildflower seeds for a friend. Not only do they sell wildflower seeds all areas of the country, they sell pots of all sizes and colors and even have a gift shop. Unfortunately we were here too early to see the many kinds of flowers they grow for seed harvest in their 200 acres of gardens.

They were just starting to put out plants for sale. It was incredibly difficult but I refrained from buying any plants...

They had several really nice water gardens. In another month this place will really start to be beautiful as the first flowers start blooming. Fiddle sticks that we will have to be heading home before then....

They also have a small sandwich shop and a wine tasting room for Texas wines.

If you are in this area, be sure to stop and check out this store. By the way, I have ordered lots of seeds from them in the past. Their germination rate is outstanding.

The next stop was Stonehill Spinning, Ltd. This small shop had some gorgeous yarn and fibers. Staying true to form, of course I bought some yarn!

While Juanette and I were in the yarn shop, Bill went on line on the Iphone and discovered a quilting shop in town. That was our next stop. Juanette and I both discovered that we must really be into our knitting as neither of us found any fabric that we felt we needed. Strange!

Our next stop was a small beading shop in downtown Fredericksburg. While it was a great little shop... and I bought some beads... the surprise of this stop was Big Daddy, the pet rooster who roams the shop! While we were there he was in the hallway talking to his best friend in the mirror.

No good trip is complete without a food stop so we paid a visit to the Fredericksburg Pie Company. They served tasty... but expensive... pie.

All in all, another great day.

We even wore out Pardner, Don's dog.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Part 18 Winter Trip - Time Out to Make Gracie a Birthday Present

Before we left on this Winter Trip, Gracie was quite fascinated with the octopus. We read stories about them and looked them up on the internet.

So it seemed logical to knit her an octopus. But no common octopus is this one. Rather she is a socktopus with 8 different socks on her legs!

Hope Gracie likes her.

Part 17 Winter Trip - Dinosaurs Walked Here

What is a trip without dinosaurs? True to form I found the Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. It advertised lots of dinosaur tracks so off we all went to investigate.

This museum sits on the site where hundreds of dinosaur tracks were discovered in the 1980's. Excavation was going on to build a commercial building when the tracks were discovered. All building stopped so the tracks could be studied and preserved. These tracks were made more than 100 million years ago. Incredible to be looking at something so old.

This dinosaur walked upright.

This dinosaur walked on all four legs as evidenced by the double line of tracks.

Looking down at the tracks...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Part 16 Winter Trip - Welfare, Texas

One of the restaurants recommended in my Hill Country guidebook was the Welfare Cafe and Goat Barn (old barn turned into an event center) in Welfare, Texas. This was all we needed for a road trip to try out this restaurant.

The town of Welfare has disappeared over the years. But the old Post Office is still standing and that is where the restaurant is located.

It was a gorgeous warm evening so we chose to eat out on the patio.

The food was incredible. They specialize in German dishes and their sauerkraut was yummy.

While we were eating a band called the 'Welfare Fathers' played old cowboy songs.

The Goat Barn Event Center...

Complete with goats!

A fun discovery on the way home was the Cypress Creek. This winding creek is lined with tall cypress trees that are spreading their roots across the banks. These were the tallest trees we saw in the Hill Country.