2nd Anniversary

I really wanted to bless my wife this year for our anniversary, so I planned a trip. I wanted to get a bed & breakfast somewhere in Texas, because I didn't have the funds to put a more elaborate trip together. But we've been blessed this year to be able to afford more things than last year. So I budgeted and found a cool place in Comfort, TX, about 3 hours away. It's close to Fredericksberg, Kerrville, Boerne, and San Antonio, and there were lots of places to walk around. So I booked us in January and had to wait until July to go on it. I also had to try to keep it a secret, so it could be a surprise, something I'm not good at, when it comes to keeping surprises from Leilani.

I managed to keep my lips sealed for an unpresidented 3 months (at least I claim it was that long; Leilani says it was less time). But we were both really excited about going, and counting down the days until we would get to leave was fun. I messed up with interpretting stuff, and we got to the B&B way too early. I thought we had to check in by 3PM, so I tried to get us there around 1. However, we weren't supposed to check in UNTIL 3. But John and Mary were very kind and understanding and let us in early.

We had a lot of time to spend just in the first day, so we tried to plan out what to do for the rest of it. We had to be back by 8:30 for dessert, but had 7 hours to kill. So we took off down I-20 into Boerne. Leilani and I had been there before a few times. We quickly figured out how to get to the downtown area (after getting momentarily lost). We found a place to park, and walked around for a while. Like most touristy places, the main street or business highway is the town center, and there are countless shops and places to go in around there. There happened to be some sort of festival in the town park with some live country-western music. We walked around and looked at some cool booths, and found this one with naturally made soaps and stuff. The lady that ran it was very interesting and told us a lot about soap making and natural lotions and stuff.

We wanted to get dinner there, but many of the places were closing around 5. We met this intersting man who apologized for his business closing but invited us back later. In that same moment, a lady asked us if we wanted to find a place to eat and we said yes, suggesting a place we were thinking about going. She kind of laughed at the mention of this restaraunt and suggested we go to the the Dodging Duck, which she claimed had better food, better environment and right across from the Creek's side. So we walked 3 blocks down and ate there. It really was a good restarant. I had a thick brown ale that had definite flavors of coffee and chocolate. It was really good. Then we went across the street and sat by the creek side and looked at ducks. The water was really clear, so clear you could see about 3 feet deep out in the middle of the creek. There were a lot of really big turtles, and you could not just see their heads sticking up but their whole bodies floating, and you could see them dive down into the water. It was really interesting. The weather had been really nice all day and we enjoyed talking and observing the nature and beauty all around us.

We got back to the B&B around 7:30, spent time in the room and rested and then joined John and Mary for dessert. Mary had made this incredible chocolate brownie cake with fudge topping. It was incredible. We ate with them out on the front porch and talked for a while. It was wonderful.

We slept in (sort of) until 8:30 and had breakfast Monday morning. Breakfast was excellent. Mary and John helped us figure out where to drive to get to the places we wanted to go to, starting with the Becker vineyards. It was a really pretty drive out there, going into Fredericksburg, then turning onto the state highway and heading 10 miles out towards Stonewall, and then arriving at Becker vineyards, tucked away off the main road on a dirt path that really only one car could drive down safely at a time. And getting there took us through the vineyard. We were the only ones there, and we got personal service by one of there workers who took us on a private tour of the facility and let us taste some of there stuff. We ended up buying a bottle of one of there best wines. The grounds were beautiful and we walked around and took some pictures.

We left Becker and drove back to Fredericksburg, running into our friends the Carlisles as we came in. They prayed a sweet blessing over us and we said goodbye. Leilani and I spent the rest of the day travelling by foot all across the town of Fredericksberg, journeying probably 4-5 miles total. We walked from one end of town to the other to go to the Fredericksberg Herb garden. After we arrived, we were hot and tired. Leilani got a glass of herbal tea, which was delightful. After we rested a bit, we walked around their grounds and smelt some great herbs. It was beautiful. Feeling ready, we walked the half mile back to town and went into some antique shops and another winery. The wine was good but we didn't pick any up. We then went into this great store that had every kind of sauce and jam you can imagine. There were probably 10 or 15 counter tops filled with sample jars full of the salsas, sauces and jams and baskets full of chips and pretzels for trying them out. We filled up on those, and almost bought 3 or four jars, except that they cost like $7 a pop. Then we went to the Fredericksberg Brewery for dinner. We figured since we were in a German town we should at least have a German meal, so I ordered a plate of Bratwersts, German hashbrowns and an ale. This one was lighter and more ale-flavored. I liked it, but Leilani thought the Dodging Duck's brew was far better. Dinner was good, but because we'd eaten so many crackers, we didn't finish and got a to-go bag. We walked around for another bit, but our feet were pretty tired from the day's journey so we went back to Comfort early.

We rested for a few hours, slept and watched the Cooking Network, then had another great dessert by Mary and a lovely talk outside on the porch. They have a cute cat (named Mr. Cat) and two funny little dogs. We watched the dog and cat play with each other in a play fight. It was really funny. We called it an early night from being tired and had a peaceful night's sleep.

The plan for Tuesday was to shop a bit and then meet with Leilani's old room-mate and her family for dinner. We decided to revist Boerne again and check out their shops, since most of them were closed on Sunday when we were there. We walked around a bit, and noticed the sky starting to get dark. We went into a specialty shop and had a fun and humorous conversation with the lady who run the store, bought a few things and then got on the road just as the rains came in. Having grown up in Houston and learning to drive in crazy traffic, I wasn't as nervous as I could have been. But also after spending the past 7 years in small-town Abilene, I wasn't used to the craziness, coupled with the weather only added more stress. So needless to say it was a tension-filled journey into the outskirts of San Antonio. I wanted to go to a Half-Price bookstore, and we knew (vaguely) where one was. So after finally arriving there, we used the remaining hour and a half until our dinner date to detox from the drive. I was kind of disappointed at the selection in the store, but realizing that it was a new place, that might explain it. We bought only a few things and then went right down the road to Kelly's house. I met her mother and father, and siblings, as well as Leilani's old room-mate Kelly and her husband John. They got married a few weeks ago and had just returned from their honeymoon in Niagra falls. It was really fun to spend time with them, as well as their very large dog (named Sport; he was what they called a mountain dog, but reminded me of Howard Huge from the comics in Parade magazine; no lie, he was a HUGE animal). We were tired from the busy and stressful day and drove back around 10, settled in and went to sleep.

We were fortunate to get to sleep in a bit and eat a late 9:30 breakfast and spend more time on the grounds before we had to leave. We took some great pictures and enjoyed the rest of the time. Just so you know, we stayed at the Holekamp Bed & Breakfast in Comfort. It was a wonderful place, a beautiful house, and John and Mary are very hospitable and wonderful people. We left around noon and took our time driving home, stopping in Fredericksberg one last time to get some tastey peaches.

It was a great trip and a wonderful way to spend our anniversary. We look forward to doing something similar to it again next year.