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, 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! 

Travel plans

We have a BUSY few months ahead of us. I have enjoyed the last month + of relatively quiet weekends. It used to be rare that we would go more than one week without having some sort of event or function to attend, or even just pre-made plans. Mark has definitely brought out the homebody in me. I can't say that I hate it, either!

Like I've said, we've been keeping it low key. That's why I'm a little anxious about these next few months, because we have travel plans back to back for almost two solid months. Eeek! I'm feeling both super excited about the adventures to come and also super nervous about going week to week without any downtime at home. Let's go ahead and focus on the fun, though, as I share more about our travel plans!




Eisenhower State Park, Denison, Texas : My family likes to "camp" a lot, and they planned their latest trip to this park just north of where we live. Mark and I are making the day trip to hang out, hike, and hopefully do some boating. We decided not to camp overnight because A) it's August in Texas, B) my family camps in pop-up trailers and makes the trip a little less authentic for us,  C) as fun as the weekend can be, it leaves you exhausted at the end and you have to go straight back to work on Monday and D) it's August in Texas.



Fredericksburg, Texas - I already shared a bit about this sweet little town here, but as the days are approaching I'm getting so excited about our girls' trip! We don't have much planned at all, which really tends to make the best trips. There are a few 'must-see's on our list, but mostly I think we will enjoy each other's company and make the best of this little weekend away in the hill country.



San Marcos, Texas - Just a ways down the road from Fredericksburg is San Marcos, the home of Texas State University as well as Mark's friend Justin and his wife Callie. They are a super fun couple that we don't get to see enough so we are taking advantage of a free weekend and making the trip to see them! They are graciously providing their house for us and I'm excited about the possibility of country music and floating the river. Although, I've never seen the river look quite as awesome as the picture above!



Dallas, Texas - Okay, I know this is kind of a cop out, since I have lived and currently work in this great city, but my girlfriends are coming up for a weekend and that typically means gallivanting through town and discovering lots of fun things to keep us busy. I'm not sure exactly what's on the agenda yet, but it's sure to be a good time!!!



Broken Bow, Oklahoma - While I'm gallivanting with the girls, Mark will be doing the same thing with the guys, but maybe with less giggling. This is his fourth trip to the cabin in Broken Bow with his coworkers, who have instilled an annual guys' weekend to do all things 'manly'. There is lots of meat, lots of smells (gross) and lots of goofing off. We will both end the weekend exhausted!



Oxnard, California - I wrote about this trip before, too, but it will be the one to round out the back to back string of traveling. It's a good thing, too, since it will be the longest trip and hopefully the most relaxing! We have two excursions booked and the rest of the time will be spent exploring, laying by the pool/beach, and enjoying the beautiful California weather. Can't wait!



Lubbock, Texas - Okay. I am seriously super excited about this. Like, embarrassingly SUPER excited. I don't know what it is, but my college town makes me so happy and (don't tell Mark) but I could probably totally live there. It's not as small as some might think, it's one quarter of a million in population, but it reads as a small town. I just love it, I really do. I'm roadtripping with my Australian friend Jayde and it's the first time she will be west of Weatherford. I'm SO excited to show her the place that is such a big part of me, and we are meeting up with our mutual friend Jody, who was my college roommate and just moved back to Amarillo from Dallas. SOOOO excited!!!!

That's all that has been planned so far to finish out 2014, but I'm sure some smaller things will come up closer to the end of the year. Football season starts soon, though, and you know how busy that keeps me! It will be fall before we know it!

Happy travels! ;)