travel diaries : Fredericksburg, Texas part four

Two weeks later, I'm closing out the posts on our girls trip to Fredericksburg. We had so much fun and I took so many pictures! 

Check out parts 1, 2, and 3 here. 

After the winery tour, we went back to the house to change and then headed to our 7pm reservation at Farm Haus bistro. They had a whole commune type of set up with the cutest cabins and an herb farm and event center, the whole works. 

I can't believe that we didn't take any group photos here, but the amazing photographer Sarah did offer to grab a few shots of me for my blog and Etsy page, so we headed out before we paid the bill to beat the sun and get some shots. Here are just a few of the great ones she captured. I love Sarah!!!

After dinner we checked out a few places on main street and then headed to Crossroads, the cutest small town dance hall you ever did see. We were recommended by Ashley from the winery and we had a great time! The rumor is that the owners are also big wigs at the Food Network. Regardless, there were all types of people there and it was super entertaining. Nothing like a small town to make you feel right at home!

We slept in on Sunday and checked out at 11, but not before taking some shots of our rental home. I found this cute cottage on homeaway.com. It is over 100 years old and had the charm and character that shows it. The owner lives on property and is a potter an artist. Her studio is in the back there and the house was filled with her work. It was so charming and we really enjoyed this special place!

These stairs led up to where Emily and I slept.

This room was down a few steps and where Heather and Sarah stayed.

I REALLY wanted to take these chairs home with me!

The books were tempting too. I loved that she had all of these Texas books on display! It inspired me to want to start a collection. Whoever wants to start by giving me my first Texas book, I'll gladly take it! 

LOTS of books, another shelf not pictured. My dad would have been in heaven here!

We headed out for a patio brunch and then hit the road back home. I took the back roads and kept my windows down and radio up most of the time. This is my kind of Texas!

True Texas beauty!

I have dreams of buying land in the hill country, and I think somewhere near Llano would be the perfect place. ;)

Another hill country town with a lot of charm : Goldthwaite. Except for the LED sign, this picture could easily be from 1950 or earlier. I love that about these small towns! 

Back to life, back to reality...Dallas is my home for now. 

We had a wonderful time and are already talking about the next girls trip. I love my friends!!!

travel diaries : Fredericksburg, Texas part three

After lunch, we all headed back to the house (more on that next time) and showered to get ready for the more 'clean' events of the day. Fredericksburg and the hill country in general is climbing the ladder on top wine locations so we had to check it out and become informed. We headed to Grape Creek Winery, the most picturesque place I could find!

After some convincing, we decided to forgo the normal wine tasting and take the tour, which included tastings. We were taken to their production facility and learned all about how the wine is made. The geek in me was freaking out!

Many of their grapes come from Lubbock, another place near and dear to my heart - and obviously good for wine grapes (among other things). 

We then tasted wine right out of the barrels. It was super interesting to taste the difference between the different kinds of wood barrels and how many times they were used. All three barrels that we tasted were the exact same wine but held in different types of barrels and they all tasted completely different. It was crazy!

We then headed into their private tasting room and chose the different wines we wanted to taste. Our hostess, Ashley, was super informative and gave us lots of tips on things to do and see in Fredericksburg. She even took some pictures of us!

The weather was PERFECT and sunny and warm, so we sat on the patio a little while later and enjoyed a picnic I had packed. It was so refreshing to relax in this beautiful place!

One more post wrapping up our "girl's trip 2013 (we KNOW)" to Fredericksburg, Texas!

Travel diaries : Fredericksburg, part two

Mark and I went down to San Marcos last weekend to visit friends. We had a BLAST but I basically took zero pictures, unless we are friends on snapchat or instagram. Over sharer, over here! We went to the Texas State football game and floated the river, as well as tested out lots of local food and drink joints. It was SO fun and relaxing and we had a blast. Thanks so much, Justin and Callie!

I'm not here empty handed, though, because I've totally slacked on sharing pictures from our Fredericksburg trip! 

After our invigorating hike up and down Enchanted Rock, we drove straight to the main street of town (sweat, workout clothes, and all - no shame) to wander the streets and eat lunch. The weather was great, it wasn't too crowded, and there was lots in store for us here!

This was such a cute shop, as evidenced by the sign below!

I LOVED this painting. They had multiple sizes and varieties, one of which was a little smaller with a dark grey background and just two llamas. I know they are bizarre, but I loved them, I don't even care. I will have a llama painting one day!

We went into one shop that had over 600 tastings. We were pretty hungry after our hike but not yet ready for lunch, so you can imagine how excited we were for this!

Emily parked herself here for about 5 minutes...um, Em, I'm not sure that's what they intended for the 'samples'...

Fudge samples!!!

I tried the peanut butter fudge. I have to say, it wasn't quite as good as my mom's homemade PB fudge!!!

Next up we went to Circle E Candles. I thought I would find something here but between the prices and my indecision with THOUSANDS of scents, we all walked out empty handed but high on candles. 

We went into Dogologie, a shop containing the craziest dog items ever!

This store was just super cute and very Victorian with the oil burning lamps. Loved those!

See the "hospital" sign in the iron? I thought that was pretty cool!

My main ladies - Heather, Emily, and Sarah.

We ended up right where we had parked, at Bejas grill. It was delish and we were all satisfied!

Emily and Sarah

Heather and me

But wait, that's not all! Come back later this week for more about our trip including our informative tour of a winery, dinner, and pictures of the house we stayed in!

Happy Monday Tuesday!