Showing posts with label Hill Country. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hill Country. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

2nd Anniversary: Fredericksburg, Texas

I can't believe it but Justin and I have been married for 2 years today!! In a way it feels like forever ago but I remember all the details from that perfect day like it was yesterday. I guess since we've been together for 6 years that's why it feels like longer :) Justin and I love to travel and go on a lot of vacations but we rarely ever just RELAX. Last year for our 1st anniversary we went to Travaasa...a beautiful resort on Lake Travis. This year I wanted to do something equally relaxing and neither of us have been to Fredericksburg (I went for the day when I was like 11 but don't remember...shocking I know) so that's where we went! 

We left Austin around 10am and after a Starbucks & gas pit stop we were on our way. The drive was actually really enjoyable...pretty hill country views and jamming out to some music! I had the A&M game feed up on my phone so we followed it until we got to Fredericksburg. We ate lunch at Peach Tree...it was SO good. Thanks for the recommendation friends :)

After lunch we walked up and down Main Street and did lots of Christmas shopping. We really enjoyed the furniture/home furnishing shops drooling over the gorgeous furniture we have no room for...I told Justin when we move we need to come to Fredericksburg with a U-haul because there would be too much furniture we would want!

Super cool wine chiller...we wanted to get it for my mom until we saw it was $250 :(
In the middle of our shopping we stopped at Clear River and shared a Mexican Vanilla ice cream....um can you say delicious??
We stayed at the new Holiday Inn Express...it was SO NICE! Definitely the nicest Holiday Inn Express I've ever seen! Not sure why anyone would need this but we had TWO big screen TVs in our room! haha

Pretty pool with a lazy river and 2 water slides....too bad the pool was FREEZING!
Waterfall, Slide & Spa
After we walked all over downtown we headed over to our hotel and checked in. It was too early to go to dinner so we decided to try the pool/hot tub. I put my foot in the pool and it was COLD...which would explain why there were only 2 people in it...2 crazy little kids! So we went in the HOT tub. It felt good on my sore feet!

After the hot tub we decided it was dinner time so we went back to downtown and had it narrowed down to 3 restaurants. We ended up choosing Silver Creek and oh my, what a good decision! They had live music and the food was amazing! Justin inhaled his chicken fried steak and I had a Santa Fe Steak salad that was so so good. We split a piece of Chocolate Cake for dinner and somehow I also squeezed in a Fredericksburg Peach Margarita...MMM. 


We walked around Main Street after dinner to walk some of that food off. Pretty much all of the stores were closed but we did find an open store that had lots of random "stuff"." They had LOTS of candy - old school stuff and new stuff. We bought my mom a Sky Bar...her favorite candy bar that you can usually only get in New England! After we went back to the hotel and just relaxed.
Only picture of us from the day :)
Sunday morning we were up at 7 of course so we had breakfast at the hotel and got on the road and were home by 10. We are not ones to hang around anywhere on Sundays...we like to get home!

What a great anniversary weekend! We plan to have a low-key dinner at home tonight and try to relax since that rarely happens during the week (and who are we kidding...that rarely happens on the weekends either)! As much as I love little weekend getaways I am SO ready for our next vacation!! Only 5 weeks away!

And one more picture...one of my favorites from our wedding!

Monday, January 30, 2012

Austin Zoo

My parents, my mom's cousin Keith and Justin and I took a family trip to the Austin Zoo out in the hill country this weekend. We had bought groupons last January and they expire on Jan 31st so we decided to use them before they expired! The weather was especially beautiful and we saw a lot of animals. The neat thing about the Austin Zoo is that they are a rescue zoo, as in ALL of the animals are rescues and most of them have their story posted on their habitat. I can't believe I have lived in Austin almost 15 years (minus 4 in college) and I have never been to this zoo. I have been to zoos in lots of other places...including Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, San Diego, Anchorage...and the list goes on. If you live in the Austin area I would highly recommend taking a trip to the Austin Zoo!!

Welcome :)

Zoo Entrance

Dad & the "wild" bird

Cute Cockatoo

LOVED this little monkey...they were so entertaining to watch...then she just decided to sit like a human haha

Pretty lion - he was found in a junkyard and the people that owned him had several other wild animals...his bones were so malnourished his legs and ankles broke because they couldn't support him....but he's healthy now!

Biggest pig I have seen in my life...this picture doesn't do it justice

Tiger!

LOVED this little goat in his jacket!

Feed Me?

Feeding time at the zoo....literally

Another funny goat

Justin and I in front of the huuge chicken statue

Goats will do anything for some food

Beautiful day in the hill country!

Pretty peacock

Old tree

Sunshine

Monday, December 5, 2011

Travaasa - Our First Anniversary

I'm going to back track a little bit. I have a few posts coming that I'm really excited about but first I wanted to share about our First Anniversary. Justin and I went to a resort - Travaasa out by Lake Travis for our Anniversary. It is such a beautiful resort and I never even knew it existed! We got a great Travel Zoo deal on our stay. It included breakfast, dinner, wine tasting, and all activities - such as ropes course, yoga, cooking classes, equine exercises, hiking, and so many more. Unfortunately since we were only there for one night we didn't get to take advantage of any activities except for the wine tasting, but hey - at least we got to enjoy that! When we got home on Saturday we watched the A&M game (aka napped through it) and then went out for dinner for my Dad's birthday. My mom got us a gorgeous (and yummy!) anniversary/birthday cake to celebrate with. My Dad's birthday is on October 21st and our Anniversary is on October 23rd...I think it's neat that every year we will get to celebrate these two special occasions together :) Here are some pictures from our little getaway weekend!

Our beautiful hill country view out off our balcony

Infinity pool overlooking the lake (or lack of) and hill country

The only picture of us from our stay - too bad it was soo sunny!

Sunset at dinner

Our 3 desserts - the waitress couldn't remember which 2 we ordered so she brought us all 3! - Delish!




Our room was in the building in the middle





Our Anniversary/Dad's Birthday Cake
  
Happy 1 year!!

It was a great first anniversary and I can't wait to celebrate 2 years next year! I think we will make it a tradition of doing something special each year because we are so busy - especially at this time of year...it's important to take some time away and relax!