Hill Country Anniversary

Today is a day that Winnie the Pooh would categorize as "blustery." I know we're not bearing the brunt of this winter storm, but it's still a good morning for a slow start- a cup of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, and a moment to look back on some of our warmer-weather adventures from this past weekend.

Our anniversary is not until this Sunday, but Andy and I went out to my favorite hill country locations- Fredericksburg and Muleshoe Bend Park- for an early celebration. (Andy has drill this coming weekend, so no time to celebrate).

The road on the way out to F'burg is called "Wine Road 290" and boasts that it is the nation's "#2 Wine Destination." Andy and I aren't really what I would call "into" wine, but we've watched a couple of episodes of a PBS show about becoming a wine vintner and it's pretty fascinating.

"Wine Road 290" has more than ten vineyards where you can stop in for a wine tasting. Along the way, you'll pass peach orchards and longhorn cows- true signs that you're in Texas hill country. We stopped in at two places, but our favorite by far was Becker Vineyards. Becker is both a vineyard and lavender farm, and also boasts a Bed & Breakfast. Their wine tasting room was housed in a beautiful stone building with this impressive fire place. I think Andy was taking measurements so that we can have one like it in the future...

Ten dollars let's you taste six wines (out of over 20). We had a really helpful guy who poured the wines and told us all about the vineyard.

Even though it was a little overcast, we picked a great weekend to go out to the hill country. One of the employees said that they are usually four times as busy in warmer weather- though the highs for the day for us were in the low 70's. We walked around the property a little bit and listened to some enchanting live music on their "verandah".

Check out this beautiful potted succulent. The purple from the plant was really brought out by this wine-colored paint on the window sills.

One of my favorite things about my husband is that he is so easy-going and fun. Here he is being a little silly over one of the barrels of French Oak (Notice the pinky finger) The guy who poured for us told us that each barrel can cost $1100!!

And here he is being even sillier once we got to Fredericksburg. We didn't get there until mid-afternoon, so there was not time to take many pictures. I wanted to take Andy to some of my favorite stores that I've discovered on trips to F'burg with my mom or by myself. His favorites were Rustlin' Robs- a store that sells Texas foods like jellies, dips, salsas & jalepeno everything! You can sample everything in the store- and a jewelry store that has a "man cave" in the back where Andy discovered helmets, battle axes, knives, swords and this very attractive suit of chain mail.

We had dinner Saturday evening at a restaurant that boasted "German and Texclectic food." I don't know if I'll ever be able to try Texclectic food in F'urg, because the town's German influences leave me craving one thing only- Jager Schnitzel, and that's exactly what we had! It was delicious! We ate outside and listened to some more live music. To top it all off, the band played "Going to Carolina in My Mind".

Sunday morning we stopped in at another favorite F'burg location - the Fredericksburg Bakery. If I lived any closer to F'burg, I'd never fit into my pants again because their strudel is so incredible I cannot stop myself from devouring it! Andy got a German pretzel and I got my strudel and we headed on down to the road to my favorite place to mountain bike- Muleshoe Bend Park.

Andy had not yet been mountain biking with me, and Muleshoe Bend is a great place to start. Half the track is more beginner/intermediate and the other half is intermediate/expert. Andy was a champ! He's been doing P90X and I can tell he's really getting back into shape. I'm so proud of him! :)

I don't tell my husband this often enough- but I am so thankful for him. He is truly God's precious gift to me. I am so proud of him for who he is and what he does. Andy, you are so much more than I deserve. Thanks for being my sweet husband! I love you!