Mini-Vacation - Hill Country

After coming down with a terrible cold (or flu) late Tuesday evening I was worried that our mini-vacation to Hill Country (near Austin, TX) would be cancelled. I willed my fever to break and was feeling better just in the knick of time.

So Thursday around 3pm we headed down in a caravan with my sister and her family along with my mom to visit my aunt in Johnson City, TX. It's about an 8 hour drive.

Friday morning we had some breakfast and took a gander at my aunt's land.


We met her longhorns - Lucy and Ethel.


Then we took a little trip to the Natural Bridge Caverns.


We explored some 20 million year old caves.


And discovered a 3 foot deep pile of bat poo.


I did see this fabulous chandelier in the lobby area.

I think with our stuff we could rock it.

That evening we headed over to Fredericksburg, TX. It's a small German-Texan town with a very touristy shopping strip.

We stayed the night there and spent the next day shopping.


We had a treat at Rather Sweet. This little bakery has been featured in tons of publications, including Oprah's magazine.

My favorite was a huge antique store we came across.

Jeremy looking very... European.

And then amongst a bunch of old wood chests and creepy old medical tools I found these mid-century wire chairs.

For $360 a pop we couldn't take any home.


This was my favorite little corner. I regret not buying a few of those yellow letters. Also, here you can get a better view of the chair.

It was a lovely little town. My sister and I daydreamed about relocating and opening a little design boutique where we could custom design paper-products and sell them on consignment to all the little boutiques. It was a fun daydream while it lasted.

Later that day we had a large BBQ dinner and afterwards decided to head down to the river.





Jeremy caught a minnow.

The river fun wore off after about 5 minutes.

The next morning we started our adventure back home. We stopped in Austin and enjoyed some Kerby Lane migas and pancakes.


Then we made our way to IKEA to pick up another FADO hanging pendant for the kitchen and a few dishes for our cabinets. That's for another post, though.

Then we stopped at the Czech Stop for some Kolaches.

Kolaches are these popular little pastries in the area that you can get filled with fruit, cream cheese, sausage, cheese, kraut - just about anything. We had a pleasant drive back and got home just in time for Mad Men.

How was your weekend?