For Christmas, along with my heart necklace, Joey told me that I could choose anywhere that I wanted to go for a weekend retreat. Since I love to plan (and I love to travel with him), I ran with this idea. My first stop was the calendar. The weekend was going to need to be planned around two things - hunting weekends and our weekends with the kids. The more I thought about dates, I came up with the notion that it would be sweet to combine this gift with Valentine's Day. After choosing the dates, the next stop was to get approval from my principal to take a Monday off. (I had to wait a week until we went back to school to get this. And, for those that know me, I am not a patient planner.) I chose these days because I found it to be much more affordable to stay on a Saturday/ Sunday night vs. a Friday/ Saturday. After the final approval to get a sub, tne next stop was finding the "perfect" location. I had one requirement - a fireplace. My favorite place that we have been to so far is Granbury and I would have loved to have gone back, but there is something adventurous about going somewhere new. After facebook status "polls", I decided on Fredricksburg. (I had to resort to the opinions of friends because Joey is sweet enough to always say - wherever you want to go is fine with me. He has some input but his main concern is always wanting me to be happy. How did I ever get so lucky?!) Thanks to absolutecharm.com, I found a bed & breakfast that looked and sounded like a fabulous place to retreat to...
Saturday, February 11th: We left around 11:15, just an hour later than "planned". Our first stop was for food, thirty minutes down the road. After that, it was nothing but highway for the next three and a half hours. I have to say, one of my favorite parts of any trip with Joey is our time cooped up in the car. "Are we there yet?" never even crosses my mind. I love the time that we have to just sit and talk about everything - it's this communication that continues to strengthen our relationship and the strong bond that we have between us. The conversation, no matter what the topic, is always lighthearted because of his sense of humor. There's always laughter and a million smiles between us. When I get old and have laugh lines, they will be the story of our relationship.
We made it to Fredricksburg, starving, around 4:30. I had a bucket list of things I wanted to do, well, eat, on this trip: pizza, candy apples, homemade ice cream and peach cobbler. (Granted, the last three came to me after passing signs advertising these gourmet items.) We crossed one thing off quickly with Mr. Gatti's pizza. Buffet heaven. From here, we went to Walmart because both of us forgot our toothbrushes. Yikes. Finally, we headed 15 miles to our b&b. It was a quaint little room with a jacuzzi tub and a fireplace. Perfect! We unloaded, read the guest book and headed back into town for some nightly entertainment. I had spotted a saloon with live music and dancing, that sounded like fun to me. We went in, looked around and quickly realized that it wasn't like the saloon that we are used to - down home country music with a big dance floor. Instead, it was a steak and shrimp restaurant with a bar area that didn't have much room for cuttin' the rug. We left there and went to the Rockbox Theater. This place had gotten rave reviews and the brochures were at every stop. We got there and got tickets 45 minutes prior to showtime. I enjoyed the complimentary chocolate covered strawberries (both of ours), Joey purchased a $2.00 can coke and we waited. The larger the crowd grew, the quicker we realized that we were the youngest ones there. Anyone young that came in (maybe four others) must've been with their grandparents. It was too late to change our minds, so we stayed ... and listened to a gig just like any you may find in Branson. There were love songs from the 50s and 60s, three cowboy brothers with striped pants, handlebar mustaches, tall cowboy hats and pants tucked into cowboy boots singing old western tunes (maily ones that they had written). Intermission came and we were the only ones to break out our cell phones. The rest just sat there and anxiously awaited the second half. We chose to Facebook, take pictures of ourselves and search Craigslist. Two hours and ten minutes after it started, it was finally over. The highlight of our night was deer spotting on the way back, we saw a field full of deer and some bedded down in yards. My spotting skills are sharpening up. Back in the room, we started a fire and turned the heater down low.
Sunday, February 12th: We woke up to a burned out fire and sleet. It was cold. The continental breakfast - breakfast burritos and fruit were good enough to get us ready and on the road back to town for a day full of 'where to go and what to do' decisions. Our bed and breakfast was located in Stonewall, which was 17 miles from Fredricksburg. We slid into Mamacita's mexican restaurant for lunch and then went and enjoyed some shopping. It's always fun to look at all of the overpriced items and get ideas. I had three missions.My first mission was to get a Fredricksburg Christmas ornament. There were none in the Christmas store, dadgum. Second mission was to get Joey's picture with the big M&M (because of an inside joke with the Superbowl commercial to the tune of 'I'm Sexy and I Know It'). That happened. Third, I thought surely the fudge and candy shop would have the candy apple I was craving. Not so much. Instead, they had chocolate covered pickles, bacon and jalapenos. One out of three missions accomplished wasn't a complete fail.
From the downtown shopping area, we got back on the road with no destination in mind, until we decided to visit the Enchanted Rock. This was a 30 minute trek up and around cliffs - in the rain and sleet (thankfully, it was not sticking). We saw huge deer along the way that were first thought to be elk but turned out to possibly be red stag and groups of smaller deer - white tail and black bucks (for all of you hunters out there). This was the 'scenic route' for Joey. Since Enchanted Rock is a state park, we had to pay to get in. I could've just enjoyed the view but he wanted to drive around. It wasn't until after he paid that he learned there are only 2 very short roads and both lead you to the trails. What's not to love about hiking trails and rock climbing in 20 degree/ wet weather? (I'll tell you what is to love - him reaching out his hand to help me or to hold up low limbs for me to get under. He's so awesome.) It turned out to be fun and memorable as we watched for each other's cautious footing and leaping from one rock to the next. I was, of course, glad to find several flat enough rocks to set the camera and it's self-timer to capture a few memories throughout the adventure. After the adventurous day of braving the cold, sleet and rain we made another quick stop at Walmart for snacks and cokes. We ended up having dinner in the next town ... at Dairy Queen. Apparently, everything good shuts down on a Sunday night in a tourist town. We went deer scouting again, not seeing as many, and then back to the room to unwind by the fire.
Monday, February 13th: Check-out time was 11:00 so we didn't have to be in a big rush. Joey enjoyed the egg casserole and fruit and I enjoyed the Chips Ahoy from Walmart. With the bags packed and the car loaded, we hit the road home around 10:30. I wanted to take a different route back home and go through Austin rather than Marble Falls. We wound our way around the drought stricken Lake Travis and then found the State Capitol. We took ourselves on a tour, which both of us remembered doing as young kids, and enjoyed a little Texas history. The older you get, the more you appreciate the history. I was hoping to catch Rick Perry on the fly but he was nowhere in sight. From here, we stopped in Round Rock for lunch at Salt Grass, the Czech Stop in West for dessert and our final destination was home.
It was such a fun trip and just what we needed. There's nothing better than roadtrips with my love. We never fight, fuss or argue - only play, tease and laugh. We truly enjoy going everywhere and doing everything together.
Happy Valentine's Day to us. The memories will be cherished in our hearts forever. And as the sign in our bathroom read, it's never too late to live happily ever after.
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