travel

What a great  Cristmas Emil and I had.

We got to see both sides of the family  and made time for oursleve, too. And, this is the first time in a long time that we didn’t get each other a same gift.

Armed with new toys and gadgets (this blog post is coming to you from our couch via the new bluetooth QWERTY keyboard for my iPhone), we have a few days of R&R planned. We’ll see you all in 2012.

Happy New Year!

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At Thanksgiving, we learned that one oft he Amanda’s is pregnant. Today, we learned the other one is too. The first cousins will be born in June and July. If my count is correct, these will be our 20th and 21st great neice/newphews. That’s a lot of babies in just 10 years.

Day 3 was a relaxing “get back home” day for us.

After cleaning up the cabin and packing, we headed back to “town” for lunch. On the way out, Emil drove us over the river so I could grab these pics.

We tried the Wimberley Cafe for lunch. Good thing we were leaving because we’d tried all the good restaurants in the town! I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of vegetarian options; my veggie sandwich sans cheese was quite good. And, this was the WiFi hotspot of the town. Lots of folks were there to work.

Even though Lizzie had told us that the old store was only open on the weekends, Emil wanted to try to go see what she had described. Of course, it was closed, but the drive there was pretty. The Devil’s Backbone is the top of the ridge line with valleys on both sides. It’s quite pretty, even at this time of year. We drove on up to Blanco. We tried to find their buggy museum (as in “horse and” not as in “grocery cart”), but it wasn’t at the address we had and we didn’t care enough to look further. I guess we are pretty lazy tourists at times.

Just north of Blanco, we spied a “lighthouse” tower of some sort, so we drove closer and found a vacation rentals place that must have a fabulous view! Maybe that will be our next adventure…

Day 2 of our mini-vacay brought us much fun!

After a late night of hot tubbing, we slept in. Actually, I slept until about 8am when I could no longer breathe. I blogged and wrote our Yelp reviews from the day before; Emil was up by ~11am. We ventured out to have some lunch. The Leaning Pear was too foo-foo for Emil and a too carnivore for me (but the Fried Green Tomatoes sure were good). It was just lunch, so we were fine. It was nice to see that they make an effort to use local farms and organic ingredients. I made a note to blog about the differences between vegetarian/vegan and organic and raw. Many assume those “land” among the others. This is not the case.

Next, we hit the “other side” of the street to patronize the businesses we missed on Day One. A couple of them were weak. They need a secret shopper in this town to tell some of the business owners that the “perfume” of the business is too strong. :/ I will say this about Wimberley, they certainly include the “girly” in any girl. From petticoats to jewelry to wine-oh-MY, they reach the BFF and Girls-gone-not-too-wild weekend crowds.

We finished shopping just in time to leave for our Zip Line Adventure Tour. Getting there early, waiting to gear up, and “Flight School” was brrrrrr cold on the windy day, but the rides were well worth the effort. Once we got properly geared, the rides were super fun! And, now that we’ve been on one of the Adventures, we are eligible for a night tour complete with glow sticks! We also learned there is a zip line tour in Austin, so now, we’ll need to check them out. The whole event was well worth the price of admission and the red wind-burned cheeks on this blustery day.

It would seem that riding a zip line would be lazy work, but there was a lot of hiking and other effort to the whole Adventure. After the tour, we headed to a local fave, Kate’s Place, for supper. I was lucky to find several vegetarian items that could easily be made vegan. Our food was delicious and the service was impeccable. The funny part of our visit here was the group of four grandparents (three women and one man, apparently all just friends) who were celebrating the end of the Thanksgiving weekend and that all their grandchildren finally went home! LOL! Emil and I just grinned to each other when we heard them. Ah, problems we’ll never have!

After a fine meal, we drove back to The Junction to visit the Devil’s Backbone Tavern. I had a couple of beers, we played shuffleboard, and we chatted a lot with the bartender (Lizzie) and some incredibly friendly locals, including one guy I’m practically certain I know from working at Texas A&M. Who’d've thunk?

Our late evening consisted of trying to get the hot tub, well, hot, while I wrote up this diddy about our day. It’s a great day to be a Luza, except for that failing hot tub thing.

Last Spring, on our way home from Canyon Lake, we saw lots of traffic on I-35 (surprise) and chose to take the back roads, instead. We drove through the little town of Wimberley and decided it would be our next destination.

We weren’t able to make it to Paris for Thanksgiving this year, so we took advantage of the long weekend (and a couple of days off for Emil) to get away from it all.

Emil found us a great cabin that was well within our budget.

We spent our first afternoon shopping at some of the quaint and fun stores and dined at the Cypress Creek Cafe. When we checked into our cabin, we learned the town has a new Trail of Lights sponsored by the local theater group. To cap off a great day, we went to Brewster’s for a sampler flight of the seven beers they currently have on tap. We had a lovely time chatting with the owner’s dad and his caregiver. Bruce, the owner, played NFL football and was on the 49ers teams when they won the ’88 and ’89 Superbowls. The place is covered in his memorabilia. Back at the cabin, we took advantage of the big-tub-of-hot water. Mixed with the cool breezes, it was quite relaxing.

Great day one!

No, friends, there is not a naked moment in this story; get your minds out of the gutter. (Heh, I can’t even type that without laughing.)

So, for a music pseudo-contest in high school, I didn’t take a suit with me on the day trip. The park we were to attend—yeah it was a real tough contest—had a pool, but it wasn’t yet open for the season. Thus, I didn’t see any logic in taking a suit.

On the way there, I found one friend and made another. They brought their suits (and books and headphones) to this boring park. So, I was the dork laying out in the sun–back when that was cool–in my shorts and tshirt pulled up and tucked in as far as possible. I felt like such an idiot. I could have brought a suit to change into. My friend Cheryl, a future Homecoming Queen, was really sweet and gave me a jacket or shirt or something to put down on the grass since I didn’t have a towel either.

So: Never. Again.

Since that event, I have never traveled without a swimsuit. You never know when a pool will be heated.

On another high school trip—in the winter—a group chaperone With our students (and now friends: Beth and Leanne) on the Alternative Spring Break trip, we stopped at Ft. Stockton on the way back. With AMay’s advice, we picked a certain hotel with an indoor pool/hottub in their atrium. So, our stop was a nice reward for all our hard work during the week.

I was reminded of all this on our trip to DFW last summer. While it was certainly warm enough for outside swimming, the pool and hot tub at our hotel were both indoors. I never considered they would be, but it makes sense. It was a corporate/office park area of town littered with business-friendly hotels and chain restaurants. The pool was designed for doing laps, not for getting a tan. So, it could be the next “Blizzard of the Century” and I’d have a suit…and then I’d be set for some laps and some flips and some splashes and, in this case, some time in the hot tub and dry sauna, too.

Now, my next mission is to find a swim up bar. Austin is bound to have one (or ten).

Saturday, Emil & I wanted an adventure away from the Memorial Day weekend craziness. So, after lunch at Pita Fusion (OMG was it GOOD!), we drove out to a National Wildlife Refuge near Burnet.

Our Journey

On the way there, we ventured through some developments with marinas and/or boat docks. In one of them, we found this gorgeous windmill.

Next, we took the road less traveled through the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. As is typical with a refuge, there weren’t really any places to stop and get photos, but it was a pretty drive with a lot of low water crossings. (And, now that we have iPhones, we have @waze, so we munched the dots on the entire road and racked up a bunch of points. Bonus!) It was strange to see homes and other obviously personal property inside the refuge. Our guess is that they were living there before it was declared a refuge. The road runs along Cow Creek, so of course we saw a lot of cows.

Just before we exited the refuge, we drove through the town of Oatmeal. I’d never heard of it until I heard Matthew Inman / @Oatmeal speak at SXSW (If you aren’t reading his comics, you should. The entire school system for Australia bought his “10 Words You Need To Stop Misspelling” posters for their classrooms. His stuff is not always safe for work, but it’s funny! And true. And real.) Anyway, they have a building with huge pavilions for family reunions and similar events. It looks exactly like the one in Deanville, Texas. They also have a “silo” piece of art painted like the Quaker Oatmeal container. Cute!

In Downtown Burnet, we found the “World’s Smallest City Park.” It’s just a grassy patch in front of their visitors’ center, but it has a gazebo and a giant bluebonnets statue.

Burnet’s “river walk” is a pretty park with lots of benches and shade.

I wish these ducks hadn’t been so scared. Their spot in the sun blew out all the color on the little yellow fuzzies.

From Burnet, we drove south to Marble Falls where we found a cute bar–with a ranch theme “R-”, the “R Bar & Grill–that had a shuffle board table. We spent most of the afternoon, there. Emil won every game but one. I have two “speeds” in shuffleboard: not worth a point and off the edge. We met a guy in a shuffleboard league who told us we were playing by all the wrong rules! Of course we were: Emil was in charge.

We meandered home via some of the central highways and stopped at the Brick House Tavern & Taphouse for a drink. I had given them one star in my Yelp review because they don’t have anything on their menu that I can even modify to eat. But, it was a nice place to have a beer & a Dr. Pepper and sit on the deck. I may have to revise my score of them.

On the last day of our Mini-vacay, we were forced to get up early and check out of our cabin so we could make…

The morning Gorge tour was a bit early for me: 9am. The people there were clearly more “morning” than I am. But, with the help of caffeine, and after we finished the initial information and started the hike, I was ready.

In 2002 a massive flood hit Canyon Lake. In one day, they got their entire rainfall for a year: 34″. The extreme power through the overflow unearthed a gorge full of our planet’s history. The water flowed approximately 7 feet above the overflow (remember, there is a dam, too!) and then contained flowing about six weeks. The sound of that much water was described as several 747 airplanes taking off at the same time…and the water kept flowing for ~6 weeks!

Between hiking and learning, our tour lasted almost four hours. If you are ever in the area, the tour is a MUST DO! Tickets are only $10 and you only need 24 hours notice to sign up.

We had enjoyed the Lucky Sailor marina restaurant so much, we decided to try their “sister” and had lunch at Lucky’s Kitchen. meh. Once again, I’m reminded of how much I love Austin.

I-35 is always a “guess”, so we headed home back through the back roads that led us to Canyon Lake. This time, we drove through a little more of Wimberly. What a cute little town. We will have to go visit it one of these days!

At home, Emil napped (surprise) while I took care of a few business tasks.

Our vacation commenced with The Princess Bride Quote-Along at the Alamo Drafthouse with Beth and Marc. Best movie experience EVER! SO much fun. As we entered the theater, they gave us blow up swords, bells, and bubbles. They pulled a couple up on stage for a movie-themed trivia duel and gave away Alamo passes to a future show. We were then instructed to ring the bells for any kisses/love, blow bubbles during the wedding scene, stand up and spin in our spots when Westley rolls down the hill, and play along with the swords during the fighting scenes. While most of us were quoting lots of lines of the movie, the first official quoted line on screen was none other than, “As you wish…” I can’t WAIT for them to host a Quote-Along for When Harry Met Sally and Legally Blonde!

(We wrapped up the evening of Mini-vacay Day One with a game of Thunderstone, where Emil decidedly kicked my ass. We were asleep before 11pm…ready to rest up for our day on the water.)

…but the water outing was not meant to be. Watercraft rentals were $70-100/hour and none of those were for sailboats. So, we did some scenic driving: saw a model home and new neighborhood, took in the sights on Scenic Drive, and headed toward Gruene along the River Road.

At Gruene, we browsed a couple of shops and then stopped at the Gristmill. Emil’s food was fine. Mine was not. As you can see on Yelp.com.

On the way back to our cabin (the short/direct way, this time) we passed a sign for the Natural Bridge Caverns. Emil has been before, but asked if I wanted to go. Um, sure, but only if it’s reasonable. The sign pointing “that way” was more-than-just-misleading; it was over 10 miles from the thing. And, it’s $20 admission. Now, on a day when I had the proper shoes for such an outing or if I wasn’t still grumpy from the fubar at the Gristmill, maybe….but not today. So, we left.

On the way back to our cabin (again), we passed the Castle Avalon. With it’s double gate and four towers, Emil had to see what this place was all about. So, we drove up the road and found this:

The nice lady working there invited us in to see it, showed us the bride/groom ready rooms, the ceremony garden, the formal dining room, and the ballroom. They can handle events for up to 150 people. wow!

We finally made it back to the cabin, where Emil crashed into his vacation nap and I worked on a couple of little projects.

That evening, we headed back to the Marina, where we knew I could eat without hassle. We stayed through ’til sunset. One our way back to the cabin, we found the Dam Red Barn (a local dive with a big dancefloor) and stayed there for a little bit.

Once again, we were in bed ~early and got some of the much needed R from our R&R mini-vacay.

With all that is going on and with Emil’s break between jobs, we decided to take a mini vacation. I suggested a lake and to camp for one night, but Emil went one better. He found a cute cabin with our own deck/yard for a very reasonable price.

The view from the back of our cabin. (from my phone; more to come when I can download them from the camera)

So, we set an alarm for 9am and ventured out into the world to run a couple of errands on our way out of town. We stopped for lunch at Veggie Heaven (thank you, again, Emil for going there with me!) where I had vegan “shrimp” that both looked and tasted like the real thing. Emil had faux-chicken quesadillas and said they were good. yay! I hope that means he’ll go back.

Because we follow TxDOTAustin on Twitter, we knew that I-35 was down to one lane in south Austin for a bridge repair. So, we pulled out our Texas atlas and VZ Navigator and headed there via the back roads. We took a quick break at Bubba’s general store, stopped for a close view of Austin’s Hindu temple (& made a note of when they allow full tours), drove through cute town of Wimberly, and meandered our way to the south side of Canyon Lake. We settled in and headed back out for some adventuring!

We went to the dam and the gorge overlook. In 2002 when 34″ of rain hit the area in a day (their normal amount for a whole year; also: 1.5x the volume in the whole lake is what overflowed). The overflow had to let so much water through that it created/revealed a gorge. We are taking a tour of it on Thursday morning before we head back to Austin, so we’ll have more pictures to share and more information about it.

A view of the lake from atop the dam.

The hills on the other side of the dam. The little white building near the center of the image is a tiny Catholic church.

Next, we drove around the lake to see what there is. It’s a hodgepodge of cool homes/neighborhoods, fun bars/restaurants, seedy looking joints, and former business where the signs were never removed. The Canyon Lake area could use some decent zoning. Still, we found the only bar/restaurant on the water–at one of the marinas. While they don’t have a vegan option on their menu, I was able to create a mostly-vegan meal of a huge salad, garlic rosemary potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Emil had a burger and fries (surprise). We walked waddled down to the marina and found a place to rent boats. If we can rent a sailboat tomorrow, that is our plan for fun!

On the way home from dinner, we did a bit more exploring before heading back to our “private” deck at the cabin. It’s a beautiful night for sitting outside. The half-moon is bright and has a purple hue to it. The park’s resident cats are curious about us. Emil’s eating a Hershey bar and I have a Shiner Blonde beside me.

mmmmm….from a heavenly lunch to a heavenly trip to a heavenly evening with the love of my life.

bliss. zen. nom. namaste. just what we needed.

If there any national parks you want to visit, these are the days to go (or avoid, depending on your point of view.)
http://www.nps.gov/findapark/feefreeparks.htm

• Jan 15-17: MLK Jr Birthday weekend
• April 16-24
• June 21: first day of summer
• Sept 24th
• Nov 11-13: Verterans’ Day weekend