Texas Travelogue

Did you think I had fallen off the face of the earth?  For the past 10 days I spent a lovely time galloping and galavanting across Texas.  I had planned to schedule a bunch of posts for you while I was gone, but only got one of them up.  So I'm going to pretend that people were stocking up on toilet paper, bread, and bottled water because my sudden absence made them fear catastrophe must then be near.  {Just humor me on this one! ~wink~wink~}

We spent a delightful time going from San Antonio with a visit to:

The Alamo!

Did you know that no surrounding buildings 

are allowed to cast a shadow over The Alamo?

The old mission style architecture

and grounds are beautiful!

We dined along The Riverwalk 

 {via}

  

and took a leisurely little boat tour.

 {via}

We visited a lovely and peaceful Japanese Tea Garden

Took a quick jaunt out to Fredericksburg, Texas ~ a charming little German settled town out in the Hill Country.  Lots of cute little shops to visit.  Apparently I missed Rebekah who was also out there the day before.  Wouldn't it have been fun to bump into each other on the street?

We enjoyed this street musician

with his accordion music!

When I think of Texas Hill Country, I think of

the charming white stone like this:

along with gorgeous old architecture

and rustic elements coupled with beautiful linens.

Aaahhh!  I love Texas Hill Country!

It's so rustic, yet elegant!

We spent a crazy amount of time out at Lyndon B. Johnson's ranch.  I mean, somehow hours passed and I'm not sure how!  I think there is a time warp out there or something!  But it was pretty interesting.  And now my husband wants a ranch just like his when he grows up.  I think he just wants his own airplane and runway somewhere!

Then we drove up to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to visit some family up there.    We headed out to a lake to let the kids play in the sand and water.  It was pretty windy so my daughter and I decided to take advantage of it and go for some windblown super-modeling!

After a few days visiting there we drove down to Houston.  The wildflowers are coming out and were so beautiful on our drive down.

We checked out the Space Center ~ we had to find out if you can still be an astronaut when you grow up. 

It was incredible to see these things!

Then we headed down to Galveston.  What a cute and sad little town!  Super cute with all the fun architecture.

It kind of reminds me of Daybreak ~ 

a little community near me.  

But it's sad because at the same time it feels a little run down right now.  There are lots of buildings that are empty or damaged, I imagine from Hurricane Ike.

We decided to spend the night beachfront across the street from this little fishing pier.  We went over to check it out.  This is what it looks like today.

This is what happened to it during Hurricane Ike.

And then, the morning after!

Gone!

But the sign survived!

Incredible! 

My husbands uncle, who works for Fema, said that the reports that came back from Hurricane Ike suggest that the entire little island of Galveston was covered in water from Hurricane Ike and the storm surge.

When I think of Galveston now, I think of one word.  Brave.  This one is one brave little island.  Bravely facing out to the Gulf Coast.

Then we roadtripped it  back to San Antonio again blaring and singing 80's music along the way.  {We have to thoroughly educate the kids you know!  What kind of parent would I be if they didn't know the classics???}

We spent two days out at SeaWorld 

watching the shows

And playing in the water park

{sorry, no pics of that!}.

We thoroughly enjoyed our little tour of Texas.  I feel like there is still so much left unseen.  Guess I'll just have to go back!  Oh bummer!  :D

Btw, most of these pics were taken with my iphone, 

so sorry about the quality and bluriness of some of them!