Texas- Hill Country

Day 3

In my perusal of hotel breakfast offerings I have noticed a trend; personalized waffle irons.  They seem to be all the rage.  Tiffany had been to a conference at the University of Richmond (VA) and they apparently had the shape of their mascot pressed into waffles.  Sounds spirited, until you learn that the mascot is a spider.  I don’t have a phobia about them or anything but I certainly don’t want them on top of my waffles!  Well at the good old La Quinta on the 1604 Loop, they had waffles in the form of Texas, no shock there.  Tiffany’s waffle turned out perfectly Lone Star-shaped.  Mine on the other hand looked like Texas after a horrible car crash.  I should have known it would turn out like that when the orange juice container spit out yellow water and the waffle batter was like soup.  But we are made from tougher stuff and a bad breakfast wouldn’t get us down.

Entrance to the Admiral
Nimitz Museum

The plan for the day was to head northeast to Fredericksburg.  Fredericksburg was founded in 1846 and named after the Prince Frederick of Prussia.  With that in mind, it shouldn't come to anyone as a surprise that Fredericksburg became THE place to be for German immigrants.  The main reason we were heading there was for the Admiral Nimitz Museum and National Museum of the Pacific War.  Who knew a small town would have such a big museum?!  It took about an hour to drive from San Antonio; thank you 70 MPH back roads!  You pretty much can’t miss Main St and that’s where all the action is.  The building which houses the Nimitz Museum is odd looking; as if they cut off the top of one house and placed it on the roof of another.  It was actually the hotel that Nimitz’s grandfather and uncle operated.  The small museum chronicled the Fleet Admiral’s life and it was definitely interesting; especially since I admittedly don’t know more than his name and WWII experience. 

Towards the back of the block, sits the actual War in the Pacific Museum.  I have been to my fair share of WWII related sites (National D-Day Museum in New Orleans; D-Day Memorial in Bedford, VA; First Division Museum in Chicago; National WWII Memorial in DC; Imperial War Museum in London; Normandy, France) and this one was a nice surprise.  It was HUGE.  Guides usually exaggerate the number of hours visitors will take going through the museum, but the three hour estimate wasn’t that much of a stretch.  Since I’m pretty well versed in WWII (not to toot my own horn) I can gloss over some of the more general bits; I have never been the type to read every plaque on the wall.  I’ve usually focused more on the European side of WWII so the breakdown of all the major battles for the islands of the Pacific was really interesting.  There were a few sections where I thought they could have gone more in-depth (POWs, the atomic bomb) but then again, they probably would have needed another building!  There were a lot of personal artifacts and videos with veterans and others who lived through that period.  There were a few families with pre-teen children and the kids seemed to keep fairly engaged so that’s always a glowing recommendation. 

Outside, there was a memorial wall and a Japanese Peace Garden.  The memorial wall had nice plaques to ships, military groups and even individuals.  I will say that the garden was a bit disappointing.  I don’t know whether it was not well-cared for or just a small garden but Japanese gardens are usually more impressive.  There was also another part of the museum complex farther down the road, the Combat Zone, but it was by hourly guided tour only and the timing just didn’t work out. 

Pioneer Museum

Vereins Kirche

Instead, we headed down Fredericksburg’s Main Street and did some shopping.  I love streets like this, filled with quirky and one-of-a-kind shops.  If German food is your thing, this is the place for you.  You couldn’t swing a dead {fake} cat without hitting a German Restaurant.  In the town square, the Vereins Kirche stands out against the regular buildings.  The small building was built in 1847 in the octagonal German style that dates back to Charlemagne.  While it’s a unique building, there isn’t much more to it than its shape.  But if you’re walking by, why not take a quick peek.  A little further down is the Pioneer Museum.  This is right up our alley!  The museum was an open air collection of houses and public buildings from the early days of Fredericksburg.  The Sunday House was about the size of the shed you probably have out in your back yard.  It’s called a Sunday House because people who lived out in the country would buy these houses and use them on the weekend when they came in for shopping and church.  I think my bedroom was bigger than the entire house, and that isn’t saying much.  Add to that fact that they probably crammed at least half a dozen people in there.  No thanks!  There was a schoolhouse and bathhouse and it was a nice quick stop.

Now that we had enjoyed the history that Main Street had to offer, we wanted to enjoy some of the wine it also had to offer!  After all, this area is known as wine country.  We’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t check it out.  Fredericksburg Winery was just a few buildings down from the Pioneer Museum.  While I enjoy wine, and wine tastings, I do sometimes get a bit tired of the snobbery that sometimes appears when you aren’t a red wine fan.  Sure, when you first start out on wine you are probably going to go for the sweeter kind but some wineries act like you just suggested opening a fine vintage of Boone’s Farm when you mention, I prefer the sweeter wines.  Our tasting lady was one of those people.  Whatevs, the samples were free and the ones we tasted were pretty good.  We each ended up buying a bottle and then went on our merry way.  Most of the other wineries are on the outskirts of Fredericksburg but before heading out there, we made one last stop- the Fredericksburg Pie Company.  I tell ya, Tiffany can really pick them!  We had a delicious slice of German Chocolate Cake pie, it seemed fitting.  Fun fact: German Chocolate Cake is not German.  It was actually first created in, you guessed it, Texas.  The reason for the name is that the chocolate was German.

Back at the car, I booted up the GPS and plug in the next winery.  Then I made a mistake…I listened to the GPS.  I tend to have a love/hate, leaning more to the hate, relationship with my GPS.  I’m a bit old school when it comes to navigation.  Give me a good map and someone to tell ‘that way’ or ‘this way.’  On the other hand if the GPS is working correctly, and that’s a big if, then why not?  Well this time, it was not working.  We headed out of Fredericksburg expecting to see sign after sign for wineries.  We saw one…in 40 miles.  40 miles of desolate ranch land.  The only thing we saw plenty of is goats.  Fun fact: did you know that goat is the most eaten meat in the world?  That led to conversations about what meat I would eat.  Bison?  No, my residual White guilt precludes me.  Ostrich?  Yes, I don’t like those horrible animals with their beady eyes.  It wasn’t until we hit the highway again and saw the sign for El Paso that I looked at the GPS and said ‘um, I think this is the wrong way.’  A half hour later, we found ourselves in Fredericksburg AGAIN and headed the correct way.  It wasn’t long before we started seeing wineries.

The Texas White House

The other wineries we visited were packed but the wines we did try didn’t exactly blow us away.  Instead of trying more, we headed over to Stonewall and the Lyndon B. Johnson State and National Historic Site.  Our first stop was the state site, it wasn’t much besides a Visitor’s Center but we wanted to grab a map before heading over to the Texas White House.  Of course the couple in front of us was taking their sweet time chatting, so by the time we got the map it was almost 4:30pm.  The ranger told us that we wouldn’t be able to see anything because the gates to the national site closed at 4:30pm.  We grabbed the map and headed over in the hopes of at least getting a glimpse of the ranch over the other side of the river.  Turned out we couldn’t; darn trees!  As we rounded the bend towards the national site, we noticed that the gate was only closed on one side.  If that wasn’t an invitation, I don’t know what is!  We zoomed through the gate giddy with our reckless disregard for official closing times.  Turns out this is becoming a bit of a pattern.  Last year when Tiffany and I were in Atlanta, we went to tour the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.  As we went up to pay for the ticket, the woman told us the museum closed in 15 minutes and it wouldn’t be worth it.  We ignored her warning and did it anyway.  We got through the museum with plenty of time; we even had time to do a little shopping in the gift store.  But back to LBJ, as we made our way to the Johnson family graveyard there was still plenty of people milling about (though they were on their way out).  We jumped out of the car and took a few snaps of LBJ and Lady Bird’s graves, respectably of course.  Just as we were getting close to the ranch house, the road turned one way and we went off on the longest road in the world!  It took us past the show barns, the airfield, the ranch manager’s house, etc.  I was half expecting to drive by the actual White House!  After being tailed by what we can only assume was a ranger rounding up the herds (of tourists), we made it to the Texas White House.  Victory!  Our photo op with the building complete, we figured it was best to hit the road in case we had outstayed our welcome. 

Another successful day, despite a slight detour, was complete and we were again heading south to San Antonio.  We were back on Mexican food and had what I think was our best meal so far at El Mirasol.  The salsa was roasted and my enchiladas a la Mexicana was que sabroso!  It definitely pays to have foodie travel buddies! 

Tomorrow was our last full day in Texas and we’d be heading to Austin.