Texas Hill Country

Texas Hill Country is a wonderful place to explore, if you have not already done so.  Located west of San Antonio, TX, it’s a large area of Texas that is known for there beautiful hillsides and scenery.

We spent some time in the towns of Kerrville and Fredericksburg.

Not much to say about Kerrville.  We spent a week at the Buckhorn Lake RV Resort while exploring the surrounding area.  This rv park is nice, but expensive.  It is located just off I-10 so there is some noise from that traffic.  But not much to disturb you.

The area of kerrville is interesting.  You have old historic buildings next to modern day chain stores and restaurants.  The Guadalupe River runs right through the middle of town with a nice park to picnic.

The ranches in the area offer tours of their exotic wildlife, there’s wine tours and a smaller version of the English Stonehenge that you can visit, aptly named Stonehenge II.

We mostly spent the time in Kerrville exploring the hillside and not doing to much more.  I’m sure there would be more good things for me to say if we explored this area and what it had to offer a little more.  But we mostly were in the rest and relaxation mode.

Then we moved on to Fredericksburg, TX.  Just a short 30 minute drive northeast of Kerrville.  This town took us by surprise.  We were only booked at the Hill Country RV Park for 2 nights but quickly extended it to 3.  We would have gladly extended longer but it was getting into the time of Spring break for the Texas kids, and the place was fully booked.  Not much of a park, but it was the cheapest around at $25 bucks a night (cheaper for a week), right in town and in the plaza in front of the rv park there is a really good taco place.  Highly recommended.  We’d stay there again as it’s a nice home base for the area.

We completely fell in love with this town.  Fredericksburg is an old German settlement that dates back to the 1800’s.  A lot of the original buildings still stand today and make up what is now know as Main Street.

On main street there are modern day mom and pop stores, restaurants that take you back to old German food, restaurants with modern day flare high end and lower end restaurants, lots of cute coffee shops, a really good fudge shop (yup, been there done that) and an old 1950’s style ice cream parlor that makes their own ice cream!

I must say, and yes, I’m speaking from experience, this place has very good ice cream.  All home made.  YUM!

We didn’t come across one shop that was a “touristy” shop.  No touristy Fredericksburg t-shirts.  No tourist swag.  I’m sure there was some, but we didn’t really see it.  So it’s a nice tourist town without being touristy.  If you know what I mean.

Things to do in Fredericksburg are boundless.

There are wineries everywhere, which we didn’t get to.

Wildseed Farms were you can go traipsing through the wild flower patches.  And there’s acres of them.  Nope…didn’t get there either.  It was a month to early for the wild flowers.

Fredericksburg Trade Days has over 350 vendors on acres and acres of land.  It’s filled with crafts, antiques, furniture, food, etc.  Nope…didn’t get there either.  We were one week to early for that.

Das Peach Haus, a fruit stand that started in 1969 and has grown into a huge tourist attraction.  They make their own gourmet sauces, dressings and such.  Peaches are a big export of Fredericksburg.  Nope, didn’t get there either.

The first Friday of every month Fredericksburg hosts an Art Walk.  Local artists showcase their works.  Local art galleries open their doors and host wine receptions for the artists.  Restaurants have specials.

Nope, didn’t make it for that one either.

And that’s just to name a few.

Did I mention that 3 days really is not enough time to do and see it all?  I feel like we barely touched the tip of the iceberg.

One of the things we did make time for was the National Museum of the Pacific War.  Now I know you are wondering why their is a Pacific War Museum in the middle of Texas Hill Country.  Well, the Admiral of that entire war, Fleet Admiral Nimitz, was born and raised in Fredericksburg, TX.  So now it makes sense.

The museum is one block off of main street.   So very easy to walk to.  We weren’t sure what to expect from this museum.  The building didn’t look all that big, so we figured an hour or so.

Nope…try three hours, and even then we didn’t see it all.  This place has so many twists and turns, they really jam packed it with tons of artifacts.

This museum is filled with nice modern day technology.  Theirs flat screens everywhere you look.  Interactive boards you can touch and a video will play.  Light shows.  Displays that are larger than life.

They even had an Atomic Bomb. This was the war that the Atomic Bomb was developed and later on used.

But wait…there’s more.

Admiral Nimitz has his own museum. It’s all included as part of the main tour fee of $14 dollars. Which I must say is a steal for all this info and technology.

This museum is housed in the old, historic Nimitz Hotel that his family owned. Right there on main street. So when you leave the main Pacific War Museum, you can take a nice short walk to main street and enter the Nimitz Museum.

Their is so much to see and total information overload, the museum pass actually is good for 48 hours! We decided to do the Nimitz Museum the next day, as we were exhausted from the main Pacific War Museum.

When we went back the next day for the Nimitz Museum, it took us all of 20 minutes. It really is small small small. So don’t plan on a lot of time here.

There is also a large outdoor memorial courtyard that is surrounded by a memory wall. Engraved with names of soldiers from that war. We weren’t able to enjoy this too much as it was pouring rain.

Further down the street is the Pacific Combat Zone where the town of Fredericksburg does a reenactment, living history, of different events from that war. We didn’t get to that.

There is so much to this museum and the grounds that I know I’ve forgotten some of it. Make sure you go to this museum and see it all for yourself.

If you hadn’t noticed by now from our pictures, the sky was really not cooperating those few days we were in Fredericksburg. It rained and got real cold. Another reason why we skipped the reenactment.

However, if in this area, or even if you are not, this museum is well worth the trip. It’s a must see. Highly recommended. This had to have been one of the best museums we’ve come across.

We will for sure be back to this area.

BTW…How cold was it you ask?

It was so cold….

Tory had to sleep in front of the heater just to keep herself warm.