FREDRICKSBURG

Of course it was no secret that our first stop back on the road was to be Fredricksburg. Here's our funny story to go with this city.

We came through for the very first time during our trip last year - November 2011. Entering along 87 from the north we realized that it was a neat place - so we stopped fairly quickly on Main Street and began to walk. We got as far as the park and then went around the back way to the Visitor's Center - returning to the truck via the park.

As we were driving out along Main Street to carry on along the 87 we realized that we had missed more than half of the businesses on main street!

Well today we were back to right a wrong and finish what we had started! After all, we had seen enough to know that this was our kind of place.

The shortest drive to Fredricksburg from New Braunfels is to cut through on the 1888. This leads to the  1376 which goes right by Luckenbach, Texas.  

Since we stopped in last year we drove right by yesterday. 

It wasn't too long before we arrived in Fredricksburg from New Braunfels. It was later in the afternoon by this point. We didn't leave NB until around lunch time - we were awaiting confirmation of our hoped for summer job! The exciting news came through that we were hired. In the end we had two Parks to choose from - Muncho Lake Provincial Park in BC - wayyyyyyyy up north - or Jubilee Regional Park in Alberta. We choose Jubilee for several reasons but mainly because it comes with a house. By the time we get there we'll have lived in the van for six months - more than enough!

We parked on a side street close to the main downtown park in Fredricksburg - we were going to do a little stealth camping for the night. We figured that we had chosen a pretty good place. The three of us had dinner and then we headed to the playground.

A family photo!

Cassia joining in with the sharing of the peace pipe.

The Vereins Kirche Park is very nice.

I LOVE the stone buildings so prevalent in Hill Country - here's an example across the street from the park.

After the playground and park we began our walk along Main Street. It was early evening by this point but we wanted to get a walk in - we were on a mission.

Texas Gourmet Foods! Worth a visit in the morning.

Our little cowgirl couldn't go without a horse ride - actually this is Cassia's first time on an electric animal ride - she was quite impressed with it all.

We did have a plan to go out for dinner but opted instead to eat in and find dessert as we walked. Boy were we happy with ourselves that we found this place - Clear River Pecan Company - pretty quickly. 

Mmmmm - I had the Raspberry Sorbet - the dark coloured one. Very good ice cream if you ever come this way.

Your kind of place Audrey! 

Good thing that Cassia couldn't see past the ice cream - not sure how we would have talked her out of these. 

LOVE the packaging - they WOULD have been good but I just took a picture.

Lots of neat buildings to take pictures of as we walked.

My kind of place - good thing it was closed. You would have been right there with me - right Teri?!

The busiest restaurant on the strip.

For the history buffs....

The best thing about our walk was that all the stores were closed - Derek and I knew that we could have dropped some serious $$ in this town given the chance. There was one place - the Fredricksburg Brewery - open however....

The back area looked like Octoberfest central.

Derek had actually bought his jug of beer already but he came out to the sidewalk to get Cassia and I to show us around. Or - errr - take us to Germany!

Derek bought one of these jugs of award winning Pioneer Porter made popular by the London Porters of the 18th century. Until we had a sip we were both pondering the price of $18. But that first sip took that all away - now that is GREAT beer. Well worth the price.

Another - good thing it is closed - store. LOVE LOVE LOVE the colours!

The sun was setting on our evening walk.

Our last stop - the Fredricksburg General Store - it was very similar to the Gruene General Store where we visited last year. Cassia managed to talk us into ANOTHER dinosaur.

It was getting dark and cold so we quickly walked back to the van for the night.

Since we had parked beside a construction site we were up very early - about 7:00am. While Cassia and I hung on, Derek moved us over to the Visitor Center parking lot a few blocks down.

A very nice Visitor's Center - we picked up some reading material for our trip north. We decided to continue our Main Street walk and hit a few of the stores that were closed the night before that we really wanted to visit.

With a Master's Degree in Architecture I really appreciated the design of The National Museum of the Pacific War.

Someone was really thinking!

First stop - coffee and breakfast.

The morning was cool and grey so we didn't spend much time looking around. We were glad that we had taken the opportunity the night before.

By 10:00 am we were back on the 87 headed north. I'll post about our day on Thursday (today actually) the next time I have wifi - perhaps tomorrow if I get a chance.

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: If you can believe, we were in Austin the same time that Nomadic Matt was there. I've been following him for a while now. Today he posted a video of himself trying some hot sauce at the Tears of Joy shop while he was in town for the SXSW.

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