Monte and I rang in our anniversary with a trip through the Texas Hill Country. We had our own mini-Oktoberfest exploring Altstadt Brewery and spent the weekend in Fredericksburg.
We enjoyed the wine and brews of the region and some local good-eats. We also did our share of antiquing and mantiquing and each brought home a little sumpin-sumpin.
The Longhorns have an off-week, but we caught them chilling in the shade near the Pedernales River:
We did a number of laps down Main Street in Fredericksburg. Next week is Oktoberfest in F-burg, so GET DOWN THERE!
You gotta love the Texas wine trail… grape vines and live oaks.
Monte and I took a drive out the Highway 290 wine trail on this windy day in May. Our mission was to pick up our wine club quarterly selection at Becker Vineyards.
Future wine on the vine!
We made a few stops. In Johnson City, we took a pass through some of the antique stores, and found vintage cowboy/cowgirl boots, of course. Take your pick…
It’s peach season! We stopped at an orchard in Fredericksburg, to bring a few home.
We took a drive out through the Hill Country this week; out Highway 290 towards Fredericksburg. It was a beautiful day. We left early to beat the morning rush hour and stopped at Pedernales Falls State Park to visit their bird blinds. We stayed for less than an hour, but saw canyon wrens, ladderback woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, lincoln and field sparrows, ruby-crowned kinglets, black-crested titmice, cardinals, spotted towhees, and more.
Field sparrow…
Lincoln sparrow…
Along the way we stopped at the Pedernales River several times and saw wild turkeys, buffalo and longhorn cattle.
Then we stopped at Wildseed Farms to buy fresh flower seed to plant after the last freeze.
We took a roadtrip to Fredericksburg today – one of my favorite Texas Hill Country haunts. This trip we toured the National Museum of the Pacific War. And, let me tell you, this is one amazingly detailed set of museum exhibits. We spent about two and a half hours walking through the museum, and we still didn’t see everything. You must go.
On the way home there was a rainbow on the horizon, after a few late afternoon rain showers had rolled through. I was taking some random photos out the window as we drove. When I got home I scrolled through the photos I captured, and liked this one in particular, which has been significantly cropped. I liked it because I can see the faint colors of the rainbow through the branches of this tree. But, it wasn’t until I zoomed in that I noticed the hawk perched at the top of the tree, and the two gravestones underneath its branches.
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted something. Things have been very busy lately. So, i’ll take the liberty of a longer post today.
From the base of the Summit Trail.
We took today off, starting a much awaited and long overdue week or so of vacation. The day was overcast and a tad chilly. We set out into the Hill Country – destination Enchanted Rock. This gigantic outcropping of granite rock was formed about a billion years ago. It’s a stark contrast to the tree-covered, rough limestone hills that surround it. The summit trail leads up the 425′ vertical climb to the top, which is 1825′ above sea level. If you look at the picture above you can see a person approaching the top, and a few people along the way – which give a sense of the scale of the Rock.
Autumn in the Hill Country.
It was quite windy at the top. But what great views! We don’t get a lot of autumn color, so I really enjoyed seeing this patchwork of rust, gold and green from above.
The close up views were worth seeing as well. The shot above is of the rust colored lichens that can be found covering the pink granite rocks.
Craggy.
On the way down I couldn’t resist taking this shot of a wind-beaten, twisted, dead oak tree against the sky.
Oh, deer.
After we made it back down we came across several deer, right on the edge of the parking lot. This guy turned to say bye.
Barrel o fun!
On the way to the park we drove through Fredericksburg and stopped to walk through some of the shops. We ate lunch at Der LindenBaum – home of awesome traditional German cooking. On the way home, we couldn’t drive by Becker Vineyards without stopping in for a flight of wine tasting.
Sheila365 