Vacation Saga ...Rolling on Down the Road

So I took 3 days off for my first Quilt Retreat which was a fun and productive event. Then David and I are took off for the Hill Country for the rest of that week, but before we leave I head to the beauty shop for a hair cut and some low lights. Yes low lights, nature already gave me the high lights. I went to a brand new stylist named Brittney @

Trendsetters in Tomball. It's always scary to try a new stylist but this was a little scarier since she was also the daughter of a fellow quilter. Could be a touchy situation if you know what I mean.

But have no fear Brittney did an awesome job. She now has me as a new client. I tried to get a good picture of it but between showing my mom how to use my camera and me not use to being in front of the camera it was hard.
I was being goofy and thats when my mom

figures out where the button is. Perfect timing. Gee Thanks Mom. LOL

This is something that could scare the mice away.

Anyway we wake up Thursday, pack, load the car and we're off to the Hill Country. Pam came in from Bryan that morning right after her shift at the hospital to house sit and take care of Dexter. She's such a good daughter.

We try to make the trip to the Hill Country every year to celebrate our anniversary. We missed for last year because we were buried under thousands of boxes from moving 15 years of memories and junk.

First stop in our adventure is Austin where we'll stay the night. David saw that one of our favorite performers was playing at The Broken Spoke that night so we called our friends the Jackson's who live in Austin and asked them to join us at the Broken Spoke for dinner and some awesome honky tonk rockabilly music --- Jesse Dayton and his band.  It's become a tradition to meet up with the Jackson's when we go to Austin. Usually we head out to the Oasis' on Lake Travis for sunset, food, drinks and music but changed it up this year. The Broken Spoke was a nice change and the food was pretty darn good.

Before the show began Jesse came by the table and said 'Hi' and We introduced ourselves and let him know that we've been out to Puffabelly's a couple of times in Old Town Spring to listen to him and Davin James jam and cut up.

 

At different times through out his show Jesse would direct some comments our way. He even dedicated his last song to his friends from Houston doing the anniversary thing meaning us. I believe the song was 'It's Motel Time'. He said nothing but the best for us. LOL

The show and music were awesome. Jesse didn't disappoint. I have no pictures to document this night.... because dummy here didn't notice that her camera battery was going dead. Grrrrrr. Just happen to look on his website and see he's playing at Blanco's in Houston 9/29.

Oh and prior to Jesse's show there was a dance class. Pay $15 and learn the 2 step. Probably should have taken but I'm not sure if I'd had as much fun plus the fear of someone laughing at me being a klutz. There was maybe 12-15 couples lined up to learn. There was this one cute couple that had a really hard time and for some reason they would stop in front of me to smile or say something silly as they sorta danced stumbled by. Okay so no big deal right? Well as the night progresses this couple kept coming by messing with me then the next thing I know another couple started coming by saying something or being silly in front of me. Now I know it still sounds like nothing but my husband and the Jackson's were laughing asking me "What are you doing? Why are these people talking to you?" I don't know why but they were. Well I wasn't doing anything but watching and smiling. Now our friend Pam J. and I were watching this one dude dance. He and the girl were really good dancers and both very nice lookin. The guy had sexy eyes. At some point even he started messing with me as they would dance by. Oh Lordy, what is happening? The second little couple finally danced by and the girl leaned over the rail grabbed my hands and goes "We don't know why but we just love you" Oookay.....  Now here's where it gets weird, a fourth couple is dancing by and all of a sudden the guy looks at me and starts singing along with Jesse to me. It's one of those times where You had to be there to fully get the whole picture and just for the record I did nothing to provoke this attention. That's my story and I'm stickin to it! It was just crazy.  What a night!

Friday morning we woke up and headed to Kerbey Lane for breakfast. mmm yum. We go to the one off 183. There's like 6 locations. Our daughter found this place while playing water polo I think in high school or maybe while in college I don't remember now. 

Anyway since then David and I try to go there every time we're in Austin for one of their signature breakfast dishes called 'The Migas 

David had the Migas but I tried something different called Zucchini Eggs Benedict with roasted cherry tomatos.
Instead of a traditional English muffin it had zucchini cakes as a base.
We both had happy plates and our tummies were full.  I should also mention they have a killer Apple pancake. Warning if you go on Saturday and Sunday be prepared for at least an hour wait.

Now that breakfast was over we were ready to head over to Boerne for the next couple of nights and more Hill Country Adventures.

We decided to not stay in a chain hotel and stayed at the Ye Kendall Inn.

It has historic rooms inside and historic cabins behind the hotel. We stayed in this cabin called the Carriage House.

Very quaint but oh my... couldn't believe it but the bed was more uncomfortable than our 12 year mattress at home. (We just got a new mattress. Yay! Very comfy now.)
 

Before actually arriving at the hotel since check in wasn't until 3 we did some exploring. We drove out and stopped at the LBJ Ranch in Stonewall and did a drive thru tour.  

That was cool to see the ranch and the The Little White House as it was called because LBJ took care many of presidential duties there in his home.  We saw lots of deer on the property. In fact we saw lots of deer the whole time we were in the Hill Country. .

 I loved the sections of road that were lined and covered by trees. Now it's still a working ranch so what else would you see but Long Horn Steers. A staple of Texas. After buying the ticket to take the drive thru tour we looked thru the gift shop. We found several books about Texas, Texas Music and David even spyed a book on Texas Quilts for me. We were book pour after that. David even found a book shaped shot glass with hand painted bluebonnets by lady there in the Stonewall area.



Look He's Smiling. Might be because of the
8 wine samples we just finished



Look at the view from Perdanales Vineyards just past LBJ Ranch. To be honest my picture doesn't do it justice. No we didn't just stop for the view but what if we did. We did the wine tasting package too of course.

We even stopped at a couple of antique and rustic shops plus the Wildseed Farm. We  thought about going on into Fredericksburg but it was going on 3pm so we headed on to the hotel to freshen up  and relax(nap) before dinner.

For dinner we went to the Scenic Loop Cafe. We found this place 2 years ago and learned it was owned by George Strait. Right next to it was the San Antonio Rose Horse Center that George built.

This visit we were slightly disappointed with the food. It was lacking in flavor compared to the last vist and they must have changed the margarita recipe. One was enough. Big Bummer. The live music wasn't bad though.

Saturday we did lots of site seeing and maybe a wine stop or 2 but who's counting. I messed around and took so long to get this blog written I forgot all the things we did besides enjoying the scenry as we explored.

We decided to go into Blanco, TX to see what was there but wow so many of the stores were closed up and for sale. The one antique shop we did go into was full of goodies to see and some to touch.

David found him some collectible pilsner beer glasses and stem glass to put in his new cabinet in the game room.

And he bought me a flamenco dancer by Llardo out of Spain.
I have a couple of small collections of Llardo flamenco dancers.
Isn't she pretty?
She looks at home with the other girls don't you think?

Thanks honey for the wonderful gift.

As we meander thru the country side we stopped at Sister Creek Vineyards in Sisterdale where of course we do a little wine tasting. I found a wine or two here that I liked.
Now after asking this woman her name twice I have managed to forget it now that I'm writing this but see the wine bag she's holding.... She's made over 31,000 of them in just over 2 years. They sell them at the winery. That's a lot of wine bags!

We leave Sister Creek and head to Comfort, TX to check out a couple more wineries.
And look what we found along the way..... Whoop



It's just sitting out in the middle of a field.
Not a house in site. Couldn't pass on a picture like this. Only problem I didn't have my zoom lens with me. There was a fence and tall grass between me and the little shack. I don't climb fences and I didn't
want to find a snake hiding in the
tall grass.

We make it to Comfort, TX and found the Bending Branch winery. Wine for me is all about the my taste buds and to be honest I couldn't find one I really liked here but David did. I still enjoyed tasting all the different wines. While there we asked for suggestions of good places nearby to eat at. As small as Comfort is the girls were able to suggest about 3 places.

We chose the one closest by called...Riven Rock Ranch. It has cabins to stay in also.

The restaurant was awesome!. The eating area was outside with hummingbird feeders in the trees near the table area and the food was cooked in an outdoor wood oven. Atmosphere was great. And the food was so tasty. Sorry I didn't take pictures of the food. I get a little ify about taking pictures in the/a restaurant. David did snap some pictures of me when we were leaving.

Okay as we were pulling out of the parking lot and enjoying the view and I couldn't believe the cloud in front of us..                Do you see what I saw?     A Heart.          Now was that timing or what?                  Here we are celebrating our upcoming     34th anniversary and God put a heart         in the sky for us.

Can you see it now if I outline it. I tell you it was amazing. Okay so David laughed at me but had to admitt he saw the heart too. I know it sounds corny but hey what can I say.

We leave Riven Ranch and headed to Helotes, TX home of John T Floores Country Store where Willie Nelson got his start. This place has been around since the 1940's. In fact Willie's going to be there in October I think. Saturday night we listened to Nick Lawrence and his band. I became a groupie and had him autograph the CD David bought. Great music. I'd like to go see him again but leave my purse at home/hotel so we can dance and not worry about leaving it on the table or on the chair.

Sunday morning rolled around and we went to breakfast at a great little place we found 2 years ago called Little Gretel on the way out of town.  David loved their coffee and we loved their food. I wouldn't know about the coffee part since I'm not a coffee drinker.

After breakfast we leisurely drove back to Tomball so we could visit with Pamela before she headed back to Bryan for work next day.

Plus we invited her to go to dinner with us that evening to the Taste of Texas to help us celebrate our actually anniversary that day. She wasn't going to argue with free food and especially not from the Taste of Texas.

Pamela took this picture of David and I as we were leaving for dinner.   She did good.

Dinner was scumptious.

The whole trip and evening were awesome.
Vacation time is over and it's back to work Monday, oh wait I mean Tuesday. It was labor day weekend and I still had one more day to relax.  aaahhhh and visit with the kid.

She got a new hair cut too. She had about 5" cut off. She has gone to the same lady.. Petite @ Visable Changes since she was 3 years old. Her hair looks really cute.

 













So ends my rambling vacation saga sooooo




Until next blog..... 
“You don’t get to choose how you are going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you are going to live. Now.” ~ Joan Baez~