Christmas Adventure

One of our holiday traditions is to have a little “adventure” to the Texas hill country between Christmas and New Years. One of our favorite places to visit is Fredericksburg, especially at Christmas. It is really relaxing after the hustle and bustle of the weeks leading up to Christmas day. We love the small-town holiday feel, the after-Christmas sales, the great places to eat, the candle factory, and did I mention sales? This year did not disappoint. We spent all of our Christmas money on new treasures for next year’s decking of the halls. Now the question is where to store all of this??

This year we tried a new restaurant, the Hilltop Cafe. It’s located about 12 miles outside of Fredericksburg on the highway to Mason. When you look at the outside of the cafe a 5 star rating isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind. I thought that I would have probably passed this on by and kept driving if it had not been so highly recommended.

Here were two of our fellow diners.

The dining area where we sat. (We ate early because we didn’t have a reservation. Before we left at around 6:00 the room was more than half full.)

The area where the piano player and singer sat. We’re talking honky tonk and blues here.

Herb garden by the front door

Just looking at the place you would think hamburger joint. Dan had a bowl of gumbo that was to die for, a flat-iron steak topped with cheese and spinach, fresh okra and tomatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh asparagus and squash. I had cajun fried shrimp with the same vegetables. Our meals were delicious. Other items on the menu were mahi mahi, crab cakes, stuffed pork chops, oyster appetizers, etc. We thought our meals were very good. In fact, one of our usual places to eat on our little Christmas adventure is Boudreau’s in San Antonio. D. thought this was much better. So…if you’re ever on Hwy. 87 about 12 miles outside of Fredericksburg, look for the filling station!

Something else we did for the first time is go to the Museum of the Pacific War which looks as if it has just been expanded. I am embarrassed to say that I have never been before. I took a few pictures of the outside of the building and the gardens.

It is very impressive and well worth visiting. On the wall around the garden you can see where there are individual memorials to men and women that have served in the Pacific. The above monuments are two of those to the presidents who have served.

All in all, a lovely two days!