Jonathan and I decided to take advantage of the long Memorial Day weekend and take our last trip before the baby makes her arrival! Just like for our honeymoon, we wanted to pick somewhere that would be relaxing but still have a lot to do. Of course, wherever we went would have to be driving distance because I'm too far along to fly! It took a lot of debating because we've been to all the major cities within 3-6 hours away. We settled on a general Texas Hill Country trip. We stayed at a B&B in Canyon Lake which is about 20 minutes west of New Braunfels. That way, we could see some of the smaller towns we've skipped over in the past. We headed out Thursday evening since I could use my 9/80 schedule to take Friday off and Jonathan only had to take 1 day vacation. As per usual, we got a late start but that only meant we missed Houston rush hour! We got there pretty late so Thursday evening was pretty uneventful. Friday morning we woke up to lots of rain. We knew there was a chance of rain this weekend but I thought it was mostly forecasted for Monday. Well we got more rain than we expected but we still made the best of it. We decided to head to the San Marcos outlet mall since they have a Motherhood store. I figured if we were going to go we might as well go on Friday while people were at work and avoid the crowds. I got a few things to last me the next couple of months, including a dress for an upcoming wedding. Jonathan successfully found a few things at the Caphalon outlet store too. From there we decided to drive to Texas State University just because. I'm sure many of you know our weird obsession with visiting college campuses. Although I figured we wouldn't be able to blend in as well with my large baby belly haha. We mostly drove around because it was still rainy but we go tot see all the main sites. We decided to get out and walk to Old Main which was the original building of campus. It's supposedly known for it's gothic architecture but we were a little underwhelmed.
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| We found a pretty park! |
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| Behold! Old Main! |
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| TSU's stadium |
From there we stopped for coffee before heading to Gruene, TX for dinner. We had dinner at Gruene River Grill which was really good! Afterwards we walked around and looked at all that Gruene has to offer. It's a pretty lively town! We found a few shops that were open and stopped at a few places that had live music. It turned out to be a surprisingly eventful evening!
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| Seriously good coffee! |
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| My yummy dinner! |
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| The view of the river from the restaurant. |
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| They had pretty lights everywhere. Very romantic! |
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| I loved the cool eclectic looking buildings! |
On Saturday we drove out to Fredericksburg. The drive was scarier than we expected because it was all back roads full of curves and weird turns but we made it! We were plenty hungry when we got there so we knew our first stop had to be a good German restaurant! We stopped in at a place called Der Linderbaum and I got the weiner schnitzel and Jonathan got the sausage plate. It was so good I ate the whole thing! Ok maybe that normally might not be that big of a deal but it was seriously the most meat I'd eaten in one sitting since before I was pregnant. Delicious! From there we headed to the Pacific War museum since it was still raining some and it's a surprisingly famous museum. We had no idea how much they had there so we had to rush through some of it but it's really well done. I didn't realize how little I knew about the Pacific side of WWII and my grandfather was stationed in Okinawa during the war so it was really interesting to learn more about everything. We thought some of the museum was a little too much information overload and some parts went through things too quickly. We might suggest they make a few adjustments but overall it's a very well done museum. After we finished at the museum, the rain had passed and it was really beautiful outside. We had a little time before we planned on going to mass so we decided to browse a few stores. There's actually a lot to do in Fredericksburg and even more historical stuff we didn't get to see so we'll have to go back eventually. We went to church at St. Mary's which is one of the Hill Country's famous painted churches. It's a really pretty church but still feels quaint and homey. We were even asked to bring up the gifts. Made me feel special and was a first for us to do together. We still have firsts haha!
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The museum had a gorgeous memorial courtyard area.
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| Plus really cool ship stuff from the war! |
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| It's a really pretty area just to walk around even in drizzly weather. |
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| The gorgeous church where we went to mass. |
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| And just a little more German food before heading out! |
On the last day of our trip we stayed in Canyon Lake, just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful weather! We've been to Canyon Lake before but didn't see much of the scenery. The day was pretty much just relaxing and enjoying the scenery and awesome weather! Check out our pictures!
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| Figured we had to get in some belly pictures! |
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| One of the parks is along the dam and it's a great walk with quite a view! |
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| We tried to figure out a way to get all the way out there but were unsuccessful :-( |
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| View to the left! |
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| View to the right! Amazing! |
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| There are deer everywhere in Canyon Lake! |
We ended the trip with a very tasty meal at an Italian restaurant and I took absolutely no pictures lol. You'll just have to trust me! We headed back to Houston just after breakfast the next morning. The drive home wasn't the easiest because we were followed by a huge storm the entire time! We were very happy to get home safely and spent the rest of the evening sprawled out on the couch. We were so grateful for having this opportunity to take a trip before baby girl arrives. Things have been so busy with work, doctor appointments, classes, getting stuff for baby, etc, it was really great to have a long weekend to spend so much together time. Traveling will definitely be different with a kid but we're so excited to get to take our baby girl on trips. We want to show her the world and can't wait!
-Chelsey
