A day in Fredericksburg, Texas

October 19 – After breakfast I dropped Bill off at the National Museum of the Pacific War.  It’s a huge complex including the George H W bush Gallery, Admiral Nimitz Museum, Pacific Combat Zone, Memorial Courtyard, Japanese Garden of Peace and the Plaza of Presidents.  To really absorb it all you need a couple of days.  Bill was there from 10:30 until after 3.  He really enjoyed it and got to meet some WWII vets. 

Our nice yard

After I dropped him off I went to an Amish store but didn’t buy anything, a German smoked meats store where I did buy some meats and then to Wal-mart.  Only picked up a couple of things there and headed back to the RV.  I stopped in the office to see what the problem is with the wifi. Of course he said his wifi guy wasn’t there but he’d reboot it and see if that worked.  Thankfully it did!

I managed to get a few blogs posted and my photos caught up.  I set up our newspapers to be delivered and our TV Weekly schedule.  Still need to get the wifi and TV back on.  I paid some bills and tried to get my scads of paper work organized. 

In addition, I did a load of laundry and found homes for a few more things that need to be better secured.  There is just so much space to go around!

Vereins Kirche

When I picked Bill up we discussed going to see Enchanted Rock but it’s 30 miles from town and I didn’t want to take the hour or more to go.  We stopped at the town square to see the replica of the Vereins Kirche, which is an 8 sided reproduction of the town’s first church. Now it has rotating exhibits on the history of Fredericksburg and Texas and the Immigration of Germans to the town and state.  It’s manned by volunteers, most of whom are descendents of the first German families.

Downtown buildings

There are tons of wineries and shops of course!  I had planned to visit some of the tasting rooms on Main Street but have no where to put any more wine or bottles, so I didn’t visit any, but Bill and I went to several of the shops.  Two are like old time (when I was a child) 5 and 10 cent stores.  They carry a little bit of everything and have nostalgia items that you used to get when you were a kid for a dime.  Now they are $4-$5.  I enjoyed my short trip down memory lane and did buy a few little things.

We stopped for Blue Bunny ice cream but were a bit disappointed that the coffee flavor wasn’t really very coffee tasting.  Bill got to sample all flavors of popcorn too.

One of the many beer and
wine establishents

Further down the street was a fabric store.  That was an awesome place!  A quilter’s dream, I’m sure.  I saw several patterns I liked but have no idea what I’d do with them so just enjoyed strolling around.  They did have a huge selection of oil cloth and had sample outdoor pillow covers made from it.  What a great idea if you have outdoor seating and you can just wipe the dust off with a damp cloth and not have to bring them in and out of the house or wash the covers so carefully.

der Lindenbaum

It was about 5 by now and rather than go back to the RV and then back to town for dinner we decided to be “old” folks and eat early.  I knew I wanted German and according to the reviews, der Lindenbaum was one of the better ones.  We were quite disappointed.  They do not have spaetzle at all, and that is one of our favorites.  Pretty much all of the meat choices are served with the same sides, sweet red cabbage, potatoes and pickles.   A basket of “mixed” German breads was extra and Bill ordered it thinking there’s be crusty rolls, but it was sliced rye bread.  It all tasted good but just wasn’t what we expected.

After dinner we did a little drive around town on some of the streets off the beaten path.  We stopped at the HEB grocery that I’d seen earlier when I was looking for the meat shop and I went in to see if they had a better selection of produce than Wal-Mart.  Of course they did!  What a great grocery store, puts Publix to shame!  It’s HUGE and each department is huge and the selection was huge (get my point?)!  I bought a few things and Bill was surprised how little I bought considering how long I was in there. 

Then it was home to the RV and readying up to hit the road again tomorrow.  Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t on due to the Charlie Brown’s Halloween special so I was back on the computer until time to read for a bit.