When Can I Go Back?

  Our trip to Texas Hill Country was really great.  Martin actually planned everything and he chose this old mansion home as our hotel for three days.  I was impressed.  It is now a bed and breakfast and supposedly haunted.  I have to admit I'm not really a B&B kind of person - too much familiarity with people I don't know, but this was the exception.  Our hostess was great and she. could. cook.  She converted me to German Pancakes and she made fabulous buttermilk pancakes and french toast.  Yum.

   She recommended this restaurant for lunch.  It was the old Power Plant in Seguin.  That is the old generator that ran the city's power.  They just put the restaurant around it - and the food was awesome.  Win, win!

  They used hydro power in Seguin, so our lunch gave us a lovely view of the river that runs through town.

  As I mentioned, the San Marcos Outlet Mall is about 15 minutes away.  I drove the boys to the water park and then took myself up the road for an afternoon of shopping.  I don't know what I was going on in my head, but I didn't even think about taking pictures until the last stop - the Pottery Barn/Williams Sonoma Outlet Store.  It was bigger than any Sam's Club or Warehouse store I have ever been in.  One of the sales girls told me it was not uncommon for someone to be in there for an entire 8-10 hour day.  This is a photo of some of the WS housewares.  There was so much in the way of PB furniture and decorative items, I didn't even scratch the surface.  The prices were unbelievable.  I fully intend on making another trip down there.  Girls weekend anyone?

The high end outlet stores were some I had never seen before - Saint John, Kate Spade, Burberry and James Perse to name a few.  Even Martin commented on the quality of the shopping there.

 We went through Austin on the way home and had dinner at one of Martin's favorite restaurants.  He used to eat at Threadgill's when he lived there years ago.  It's still standing.  It's claim to fame is the southern menu and the fact that Janis Joplin used to hang out there when she was doing the Austin Music Scene back in the 1960s

Anyhoo, we had a great time and the boys got a taste of Texas Hill Country.  They dug the food and hotel.  Even though the water park was insanely crowded, they thought that was fun too.

Again! Again!