For Christmas this year, Jason and I decided that instead of buying each other gifts, we would take the money we would have spent on presents and instead invest in a long weekend getaway in the spring. Well, with baseball and softball, spring turned into summer, but we stuck to our plan and “got away”. It just took us a little longer and the weather got a little hotter, than we expected.
We started the weekend in Salado with a stop at the Yearty’s and spent a day visiting wineries in Fredericksburg, Texas. Kit and Betty’s favorite winery is Rancho Ponte and they were having a special event for members so we enjoyed wine, live music and Cranky Frank’s barbeque to get the day started off right.
Then on to Messina Hof…
And a final stop at Four Points…(this one was new for Kit and Betty)…
After a day of wine tastings, we headed to Cedar Park for dinner at Jardin Corona, a night hanging out with the Campbell family, Sunday worship at Hill Country Bible Church and a fantastic message from Pastor Tim Hawkes, and a day lounging (well, I lounged and Jason entertained the kids) with Jane E at the pool until heading to our final destination, a B&B called Serenity Farmhouse in Wimberley, Texas.
Some of the other tenants at the B&B…eating their breakfast…
While we enjoyed our home-cooked breakfast served to the door of our cottage…
We were only 45 minutes from New Braunfels, so we spent our first evening in Gruene, specifically at the Grist Mill for dinner and then visiting some shops and dipping our toes in the Guadalupe River to try to cool off (with no luck).
We decided the best way to keep cool while visiting the hill country was with a visit to Schlitterbahn Waterpark on Monday. We picked a great day because the park wasn’t crowded at all and we got to ride everything we wanted to by 4 p.m.
After eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch, since we left the jelly in the fridge in Wimberley, we were starving after almost 6 hours at the waterpark, so we headed to one of this girl’s favorite restaurants of my childhood, Pat’s Place. We had chips and salsa and bacon cheeseburgers and home cut fries, just like when I was younger (although I will pay for this cheeseburger later – no doubt). However, I am on vacation and calories are not being counted so I simply couldn’t pass up the chance to eat a Pat’s burger and fries. If only I had more time to also have a chicken fried steak, fried pickles and cheese enchiladas!
We even stopped at Ducky’s and Ducky’s Snow Cones after, just because that is what we do when we are in New Braunfels (at least that is what my family has always done and Jason and I didn’t want to break tradition). So many fond memories from both living here and vacationing here. Jane E and I have already decided we will be bringing the kids back here next summer for some more New Braunfels fun so we can make more great memories.
After a few days of leisure we are now back in East Texas and headed to the softball field tonight for closing ceremonies and back to work tomorrow. It was a fabulous long weekend and we hate to see it come to an end.
