San Antonio, Texas -- Day 6, January 27, 2023

 

San Antonio, Texas – Day 6, January 27, 2023

We ventured outside the San Antonio ring today, traveling through a portion of what is called the Hill Country northwest of the City.  Fredericksburg is a City in the Hill Country with a strong German heritage, a place that we enjoyed exploring most of the day.  A stop at the Visitors’ Center caused us to realize we should spend several days here because there’s so much to do!

We started with The National Museum of the Pacific War, recognized as a world-class culturalinstitution, affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute. Spanning over six acres, it is said to be the nation’s most comprehensive account of World War II in the Asiatic Pacific Theater. Facts, stories, authentic artifacts of the Pacific War … including submarines, both American and Japanese planes, the case of the atomic bomb, clothing and other personal effects of service members, stories of witnesses to the various battles and war-related paraphernalia. We studied for about hour or so before leaving, not even getting through half of all the information.  Bob stayed behind but joined us for lunch an hour later, then went back to continue exploring the museum.  And he didn’t finish even after a couple more hours of time spent there.  You can probably guess that he’s the history buff in the family … and loving it!! 

We never did get over to the Admiral Nimitz Gallery portion of the museum, a tribute to Fredericksburg’s own native and fleet Admiral of the Pacific theater.  There is also the Japanese Garden of Peace and the Memorial Courtyard that would have been nice to visit if we had the time.  But the lure of strolling the Main Street’s boutiques, galleries, cowboy wears, etc., was just too tempting!  Of course, in the spirit of “doing what the natives do”, we opted for a nice German lunch at the Silver Creek Beer Garden and Grill.  Their German beer was very tasty, their German sausages outstanding, and the Rueben and Schnitzel sandwiches were delicious! 

We continued with more strolling in and out of shops along Main Street after lunch, admiring the Cowboy stores with that wonderful smell of leather!  And one cannot pass by a Chocolate Shop without stopping in to indulge … cabernet- or tawny port- or whiskey- or bourbon-filled chocolate … yummm.  The kids didn’t get any of those, of course! St. Mary’s Catholic Church was also a good stop.  The stained-glass windows depicting the various stages of the life of Jesus, the colorful pieta, and the very lovely altar all provided a peaceful respite for a few prayers before leaving town.

But wait … as we came into town this morning we saw a big sign saying “Das Peach Haus” with such a cute antique-type facade, we just knew that this Peach family had to stop there on our way back … which we did.   A peach orchard was planted in 1928; a roadside produce stand opened in 1989, and the specialty food company founded by Case Fisher and Mark Wieser grew from there. They do over 150 specialty sauces, jams and jellies. They host a cooking school plus a tasting room for their wines!  It really was a fun little stop – a great place to find all things “peaches” … or jalapeno, raspberry, berry, salsa, flavored balsamic vinegar, etc. , etc., etc.

After enjoying a day of meandering around a portion of Texas and then picking up a few items needed for tomorrow and the trip home, we relax with a couple movies and chill out with the family. 

God Bless!