This Not-Quite-Southern gal reconnected with her roots last week for the first time in a loooong time!
Our family has planned, reserved, and cancelled (for various reasons) several trips to the Texas Hill Country over the past few years. I get the sense that the good Lord did not want my college-bound boys to get the Texas fever and leave Mississippi forever!
Who could have guessed that the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day could be so warm and dry this year? Well, OK, if I’m honest with myself—I could have guessed it. I remember plenty of Christmases where we sat on the front porch in T-shirts, fanning ourselves and wishing the mosquitos would go ahead and die.
Back to the trip! On our way to central Texas, we stopped at the Magnolia Silos. Wow! It’s all eye candy, but what I loved most of all was the landscaping!
After a quick lunch at Ninfa’s, which is only a short walk away from the Silos, we headed to the Hill Country. We skirted Austin proper on MoPac and stopped at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. My oldest is a naturalist, and this stop had been on his bucket list for a while. It was surprisingly busy with visitors and a wedding. It was also supporting tons of butterflies and moths, even in the winter!
For our first time to introduce our kiddos to the Hill Country, hubby found a sweet little Craftsman bungalow just a few blocks off Main Street in Fredericksburg on VRBO. It reminded us so much of the home we borrowed from hubby’s grandmother when he was in med school.
By the way, in order to reserve it for our little getaway, he had to write a note to the owner, explaining why she should grant him the reservation. He wrote the truth: we lived for a month in Fredericksburg while he was doing an away rotation with a local doc, we had other adventures there while attending UT Austin, and we wanted to introduce our kids to one of our favorite places on earth…. Apparently, she was satisfied with the essay, but we were holding our collective breath!
As soon as we unloaded the car and the kids, we headed to H.E.B. We bought a few groceries (including the most-fun, seasonal food necessity—Sopapilla Tortilla Chips) and got busy. First, we visited the Nimitz Museum, which highlights the war in the Pacific. Then we ate, shopped Main Street, enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and admired the Christmas lights, which were extra special to celebrate the town’s 175th birthday.
The next day, the weather map showed rain all across the Southeast U.S., except in San Antonio, and that’s where we were headed. We ran into friends from church at the Alamo, ate on the River Walk a fabulous meal at Boudreaux’s, and shopped for a little while. My middle child’s whole disposition dramatically cheered up as soon as he saw the Lego Store.
We left San Antonio and boogied to our next reservation—The Cave with No Name. Yep, it was just a cave guarded by a very old man and his house when hubby visited it decades ago, but now it’s a destination. Our tour was the last of the day, and it was packed. We caught an incredible sunset on our way back to the bungalow with pies from Prometheus Pizza.
Thursday was reserved for Enchanted Rock. We put more than 12,000 steps on our feet and traversed many steep rocks. It was fabulous and exhausting!
Later, we visited the Wildseed Farm nearby, ate at Hondo’s after discovering that a lot of places were closed, shopped a little more, and crashed for the night.
Our last day trip was to a world of memories–the University of Texas at Austin. We toured LBJ’s library and then wandered around the tower and told the kids stories of squirrel gangs who took food out of our hands at lunch time, nudists in the free speech area who just wanted students to see how normal it is for people to walk around completely naked, and the fun of dodging crowds on the wide walkways to make it on time to class (almost always the subject of my anxiety dreams).
Another family (large and including several generations) was nearby doing the same thing, presenting their youngsters with pop quizzes on family history at UT, which they had to answer correctly before they could get lunch. They mentioned Torchy’s Tacos, so we skedaddled to Torchy’s to get there first!
After tacos, we visited one of our favorite cheap date sites at Mount Bonnell. It was swarming with people, so we didn’t stay too long.
Ah, the memories! We had the best time, but I’m so glad to be home in good ole central Mississippi!
