We have sucked every last second of fun and relaxation out of our recent vacation.  We knew we were going to take two full weeks because we knew we will not be taking another vacation for at least a year.  At least not an extended one.   The two weeks went by so quickly.  We are home now and I kiss the ground we live on as there is absolutely no place like home.  I was so happy to see Molly and Belle and the chickens and that they had all fared quite well during our absence thanks to some great pet sitters who have cared for our pets for years. 

We have so many happy memories of our trip to Texas.  Here are a few pictures.  Be prepared.  This is just a few of the pictures I took.

  What can I say about a place that has my very favorite birds in it?  I love seagulls.  Some people call them flying rats, but I think they are beautiful and look so graceful soaring through the air.  These almost look like angels coming down from heaven.

  They can stand on one leg.  Not many birds do that.  I don’t know why they do it, but I think they look cute standing that way.

  We took a round trip ferry ride from Galveston.  It was just something to do and I am so glad we did.  I have never seen so many sea birds in one place.

  A man was feeding the seagulls in the back of the ferry.   “Mine, mine!” they seem to be saying. What movie is that from?

  They soar up and down and can catch a piece of bread in mid air. 

   Another bird we saw on our ride was a pelican or I should say lots and lots of pelicans.

Old gentlemen’s club talking about the fish that got away!

I think this is a cormorant.   I could be wrong.  We also saw lots of dolphins.  They followed the ferry back and forth.

On the ferry, Miss Garmin told us we were driving in the middle of the water.  She was having a fit.

David and I were almost the only walk on riders on the ferry.  When we leave Galveston, we will drive our car onto the ferry and cross to the other side.

David did some metal detecting and found one dime.  We’re rich!!

There was a statue on the walkway by the beach which I found intriguing.  Many years ago, Galveston was hit by a hurricane that just about devastated the whole area.   This statue show a mother, father and child with the father seeming to reach his hand to heaven.  Thankful that Galveston is still here.

I don’t know what the sculptor was thinking when he made this statue, but it was a somber reminder for me of what the sea and wind and rain can do to a community.

Alas, we land lubbers had to leave the sea and head inland again.  We loved our time in Galveston and in all Texas for that matter, but home is calling, so away we went.

Onto the ferry.  Here is what I do the entire trip.  Look at an atlas while David makes goo-goo eyes at Miss Garmin. Ha.  I like to see where we are going.

Past colorful beach houses.

Away from the beach and all it’s beauty.

Up…..

up……

and over the bridge that took us away from the sea.`

  With our little scarecrow sitting on the dash, we traveled down the highway, heading north.

Over beautiful lakes and rivers.  Too many to remember.

Past road work.  Lots of road work going on in America.

We like to find local places to eat so we arrived in one town,( I don’t remember which one)(Marshall, Texas) and found this restaurant.  This town was already decorated for Christmas.

Each lamp post had a lighted wreath upon it.  It was really pretty.

The restaurant  looked so cute and we wanted something different so we went inside.

But before we did, I had to take pictures of the colorful planters and tables outside.

Someone likes color and so do I.  Inside there were comfy looking couches and modern pictures on the wall and shelves of books.   We sat at a table and a young woman came up and offered a free sample of homemade peach ice tea.  David liked it and ordered some with his meal.  I am not a fan of flavored teas.  The chicken salad sandwich that I got was so good.

We talked to the young woman who happened to be the owner, baker and waitress.  She told us she had just given away a thousand books from the several thousand she had found in an old building she had bought seven years ago.  So she thought she would give them away to those who wanted them.  Later, as I was looking at some of her books she told me to take one.  This is the one I picked out.

I love history and this was a true story about how one group of people tried to restore a cemetery that had been all grown over for decades.  Slaves were buried there besides many ancestors of  the blacks in the area.  It was about racial prejudice and racial harmony which we all should strive for.

This is the owner. She drew the sign behind her also. A very talented lady.  Her business card reads, General Manager and Baking Goddess.  I could have talked to her longer, but she was busy and we had miles to go before we slept.  But how many places do you go to eat where they give you a book?  If you want to know more about this place go to sweetsabines.com

Driving into Tennessee.  I have to tell you Tennessee people, you sure do have a beautiful state.  We started seeing deciduous trees again which was nice and there was color.

This was the very last antique mall we stopped at and it was the very best one.  We spent two hours there and didn’t see it all.

Well, I could tell you about the books, antiques, fabric and other things I bought along the way.  I made hay while the sun shone since I knew we would not be antiquing for a long time(maybe.)   And I made excuses for all the fabric I bought saying I was going to make Christmas gifts with it and I have already started, so that is true.

Vacations are nice, but truly, there’s no place like home.  Bye.

I have read for years in magazines about the town of Fredricksburg, Texas and have wanted to visit it.  We finally got to make the trip to Texas.  It’s been a long car drive to get here, but it has been fun and interesting.

The town of Fredricksburg sits in the hill country of Texas.  Surrounded by hills, rocky land full of sage brush, cactus and mesquite.  A truly Texas town.  It was settled by German immigrants and they have built so many little houses called Sunday houses.  Houses where the ranchers and families from far out places came to town and stayed on Sunday to attend church and visit with other people.  Now many of these little houses are B&Bs.  Each one is different in its own way.  Pretty little houses decorated outside so creatively.

Now it is a tourist town with shops full of everything.  A general store.  A five, dime and quarter store.  An ice cream, bakery and deli store with the best sandwiches and delicious ice cream scooped in cups or different types of waffle cones.   Clothes stores where I could have dropped hundreds of dollars(if I had hundreds of dollars) clothes right up my alley.  Antique stores with western memorabilia.  I always find a book or two in most antique stores.  I have built up quite a library in this way.  I bought a Laura Hillenbrand book that looks very interesting.

These are just a sample of the Sunday houses.

Another place I have wanted to go to was Wildseed Farms. I order all my flower seeds from them.  So off we went.

The store was surrounded on an acre or two of beautiful flowers.  Most will not grow in Indiana.  I checked.

David is always patiently waiting on me.

This little bird was singing its heart our when we arrived.  I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t seem afraid of people because David had to get really close to get this picture.

Since I wrote about the worst place we have eaten, I will write about a great place we ate.  Wednesday is hamburger day for David and me.  We try not to eat hamburgers any other day.  I could eat a hamburger every single day, but that would be wrong, wouldn’t it??

Anyway we drove into this town looking for dinner. David thought the Country Kitchen looked good.  We parked, walked up to the restaurant, looked in the window and saw it was a buffet and I immediately did an about face and went to the car.  We drove around town and saw this place.

Almost like a little shack with lots of trucks in the drive.  You know it’s a good place to eat if there are a lot of trucks parked there.  But, still, we kept driving around because we really wanted to sit down and order something.  When we could not find anything that looked good, we returned to Brad’s burgers, and we were so glad we did.  We parked in the lot and walked up to the order speaker box.  A waitress came out and explained everything to us, so we ordered two burgers and fries.  When it was brought out, it was in a greasy bag packed full.  The large fries would have fed a family of four.  David and I ordered two! Needless to say we could not eat them all.  We had a five pound bag of potatoes left over when we were finished.  We sat at a picnic table outside and enjoyed the meal tremendously.  One of the best burgers I have ever eaten.  We brought the bag of fries back to our room and they stunk up the room all night and we threw them away the next day.

We spent the morning antiquing and we found one quilt shop which was wonderful.  Did I buy fabric?  Yes, I did.  I have shot my budget clear out of sight.  I told David we cannot stop at another quilt shop.  Think we will manage it?

Here’s to greasy burgers and little western towns.  Bye.