sticky note it: Hill Country hi-jinks

Over Memorial Day weekend, I introduced Craig to the joys of Texas Hill Country by journeying to Fredericksburg with many good friends (all of whom have already managed to blog about this trip, whereas I'm the slacker who can't get around to it until two weeks after the fact) - and we had such a fantastic time. Some of the details...

Vaughns picked us up for the trip down on Friday morning, and it's just impossible to head south on I-35 without making a stop at the Czech Stop. Where else are you going to get your second breakfast of kolaches and awesome things like jalapeño peanut brittle? Which is delicious, by the way - basically normal peanut brittle with a little kick at the end, and it just happens to be an unnaturally bright green.

Our relatively painless trip continued with a stop for lunch at Hyde Park Bar & Grill in Austin (one of my favorites!)...

...and another very important stop in Blanco for a tour at Real Ale. It was remarkably information and really fun, even if it was a little bit hot and windy, which made the trip into the massive beer cooler and our frosty samples all that much better. Go forth and drink Fireman's #4, y'all!

We successfully made our way to Fredericksburg, picked up the keys to our extremely adorable rental house for the weekend, and quickly met up with the Reynolds to go grab dinner at Ausländer, which was extremely German and extremely delicious and fondly reminded the Vaughns and I of our extremely awesome time in Germany...and provided extremely large beers, which made Craig extremely happy.

We spent the rest of the night chilling at home, welcomed the Keffers, and turned in early to accomplish a very important vacation goal - rest rest rest. The next morning Uncle T manned the kitchen to turn out a very tasty breakfast, then we hit the streets to take on another very important vacation goal - shopping!! So many cute, cute things in this town. I'm 100% in love with red and basically want to buy everything in that entire store, but I resisted.

More German awesomeness at Rathskeller for lunch, then more shopping...

I'm obsessed with all things kitchen-related, and especially whisks...

A stop at the toy store resulted in a very entertaining puppet show for Gracie

We then spend a very large chunk of the afternoon and evening on the spacious patio at Silver Creek, enjoying some beverages and tasty food and delightful live music, even if it was a touch on the warm side...I mean, Gracie needed a dose of water on the head, which very obviously lead to a stylish mohawk.

A relaxing evening at home consisted of a rousing round of horseshoes (Craig and I were the undefeated weekend champs!! Ok, yes, only two games were played, and if Mrs. Keffer had played us again with any partner at all, I'm guessing we might have gone down...the girl has a knack for horseshoes), an excessive amount of pie...

Can you say margarita key lime, buttermilk, cherry, and peach praline? Maybe a little bit overboard, but I'm a firm believer that there's no such thing as too much pie

...and quality front porch time. Thank goodness for the sun going down and some cooling breezes.

The next morning we had a museum contingent (Admiral Nimitz Museum and National Museum of the Pacific War) and a home contingent, and let me just say that the museum contingent had their heads filled with more than they ever knew about what went on in the Pacific during World War II. I could have spent days in that musuem. I actually had no idea that Admiral Nimitz was raised in Fredericksburg. And did you know that Craig's dad served on the USS Nimitz? I was actually really impressed with everything the museum covered.

After a heavy morning of war and submarines and Operation Toenails, we certainly needed some relief in the form of Mexican food for lunch. Nothing like margaritas to get your mind right.

Get your mind right for visiting wineries, that is. We made our way to Rancho Ponte, Grape Creek, and Becker for a wonderful (though very windy) afternoon of tastings...