Beach Getaway

Time for the annual trip to Port Aransas, Texas! Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate, so we didn't have that much time on the beach. We did get to go kayaking around Shamrock Island, and made friends with some pelicans.


Usually the water is clear and marine life is easily seen. Due to recent rains, the water was stirred up and we didn't see too much....

We stayed at the Mayan Princess, a venerable place about 10 miles from town. The place is showing her age (lots of rust on the stairs), although our condo had been reasonably updated. Definitely stay in #305 if you want a HUGE master and a TINY second bedroom! And bunk beds! If you like to sleep in bunks, then this unit is for you! We liked the wraparound sectional with the recliner chair and the lift-up coffee table. They have a nice swimming pool complex and lots of chairs. A DVD player would have been nice.

2 places to eat: The Pelican Club in Port A for the atmosphere. If the weather is tolerable, they have a great deck overlooking the harbor;

The Bakery Cafe (take the car ferry to Aransas Pass; turn left at the corner by the HEB). Great cafe food and homemade pies. It's been spruced up but not changed. It's usually packed on the weekends!

Saturday night we played a few games of pool at Shorty's (the oldest bar on the island!). Loads of beachy atmosphere. Band on the porch. Ceiling covered with caps. Too dark for photos....

We played Monopoly while it rained, and that was fun. No tears! We're all getting more mature!

Next year, we hope to sit on the beach under our tent for a longer time!

Weekend in the Hill Country

As often as we can, we try to spend time in the Texas Hill Country. We sit on the porch and look at the water, fish a little, shop a little, really trying to do as little as possible. Recently, we tried 3 restaurants for the first time. (Not all in the same weekend).

In Fredericksburg, we ate at Rebecca's Table, owned by chef Rebecca Rather. (She has a great bakery in Fredericksburg and several cookbooks.) We really enjoyed the ambience and the food was very good. DH had to send back a steak because it was too rare (really raw in the middle), which seems to be happening to us a lot lately. But I think we'd go back there for sure.

The other place we've been in Fredericksburg is August E's. Very nice with a medium-sized dining room and very comfortable chairs. Modern and chic decor. There is a sushi bar, but we didn't try any sushi. We had steak. Excellently prepared and delicious. Also, one of the best creme brulees I've tasted. They got the sugar crust right!

The 3rd new place we tried was in Marble Falls, a longtime favorite of locals and travelers, The Bluebonnet Cafe.
This is a piece of coconut meringue pie. They have 14 pies on the menu every day. This is solid cafe food, and in the RoadFood books. Also very busy, especially on the weekends. We hit it on a Saturday night sort of late, and the place was filled with families having picked up their children from area summer camps. We noticed several tables with pre-teens and young teens ordering coffee-do they drink that at camp??
And, yes, I ate the whole piece, except the crust. Everyone knows most of the calories in pie are in the crust.... DH ordered apple pie, which was also good.



We also went to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. If you want to know all about how the U.S. fought the Japanese in WWII, this is the place for you. There are dioramas with some animatronic people and planes, and a large building devoted to all the battles in the Pacific, with maps and artifacts. You can also tour Admiral Chester Nimitz's family home, which was the first building in the museum complex. For all the times we've been to Fred. this was our first time in the museum.

The plane pictured is the same model (B-25) flown by the Dolittle Raiders.
This group led the first U.S. air attack on the Japanese in retaliation for Pearl Harbor. The prop works and there are sound effects.

One of my favorite stops is the Super S Food Store in Llano. They have great mounted animals on the walls! Llano is big with hunters! Sometimes they have special displays, like the Dale Earnhardt, Jr. one. I hope he caught that javalina!
Happy roadtripping!