Don't Miss This

If you visit Fredericksburg, a visit to the World War II in the Pacific and Admiral Nimitz museum complex is a must. During the past year we have been reading a lot about World War I and II. Earlier this month we visited the George H. W. Bush Museum in College Station. But visiting these museums in Fredericksburg showed us we were familiar with the world wars in Europe but not in the Pacific.

This time we learned about the history of Japan and China for the centuries before the wars and gained information about many of the battles held in the Pacific during the first half of the 1940s. Since that is when we were born, we had heard of Midway and Guadalcanal and others but didn't understand them. We learned a lot. In fact we have never spent 4 to 5 hours in museums in one day. It was fascinating.

We didn't take pictures except of the Japanese Peace Garden. It was built by the Japanese in thanks for all Admiral Nimitz did to help the Japanese after the war. (Nimitz was born and grew up in Fredericksburg.)  There is a small building beside the garden was was designed in Japan and the parts made there then brought to Texas and assembled by Japanese workers.

It is a very peaceful place.

What Do You Call It?

If you are in the Phoenix-Mesa area of Arizona you call it either Recreational Shopping or a Swap Meet and it is held year-round on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. In Fredericksburg we found Trade Days that is held the third weekend of every month. When we spent a winter in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas I think it was a flea market. Whatever you call it, it is a place where people set up booths to sell either new items or used. These places attract lots of shoppers.

At the Mesa Marketplace we see all new items for sale--plants, tools, clothing, decorative items. Several booths sell "As Seen on TV" goods. In Fredericksburg we saw some of the same lawn art and clothing. But there were lots of antiques and used items, as well.

The one name for these small markets that doesn't seem to fit is swap meet. I didn't see anybody willing to trade what I had to offer (other than cash) for what they had for sale.

Here is some of the yard art for sale.  Further down the same road we found another huge lot full of similar merchandise.

It seems you can use old bed springs to make lots of things.

Not sure if these items are for sale or we happened on a junk yard.

We both liked these two decorative trailers.

I thought Diana would enjoy all these rusty items.

Fredericksburg

On our tour of Texas Hill Country we are spending 5 days in Fredericksburg. We first visited the town in 2003 on our first long RV trip after retirement. It was a lot warmer when we came here in early October than this week when most of the country is in a deep freeze. This morning the low was 22 and the high today is supposed to be 33!

First we checked out Marktplatz, the location of the Vereins Kirche, Maibaum and Christmas Pyramid. The hexagonal Vereins Kirche was the first church built by the German immigrant settlers. It also served as a fort, storehouse and meeting hall. Demolished in 1896, locals rebuilt it in 1935.

The Maibaum or Maypole tells the story of the history of Fredericksburg, including negotiations with the local Comanche Indian tribes, cowboys, dancers, grapes and peaches, hunting, transportation and Sunday houses. These houses were built by farmers who came to town to shop on Saturday and stayed overnight to attend church on Sunday morning.

The Christmas Pyramid was made in Germany. It reminds me of small Christmas centerpieces that include candles. The heat from the burning candles makes that centerpiece rotate.

Would you believe they have an outdoor ice skating rink in Marktplatz? The temperature was 79 and it seemed out of place. Today I'll bet not many young people are skating because of the cold and wind.

We roamed through lots of the shops, along with crowds of others. This is a great place to do you Christmas shopping. Thankfully, we completed ours before we left Arizona. We noticed these ceramic flowers in one of the shops. It turns out they are holders for tea lights.

In addition to all the shoppers and their vehicles, main street in Fredericksburg is a through highway with lots of truck traffic. We saw at least 5 of these long wind turbine blades being hauled through town.

In past visits, I don't remember there being as many wine tasting rooms in town and vineyards  in the surrounding area.  Here are just a few of the signs that we saw for wine tasting rooms.

It was a fun excursion but we were glad to get away from the crowds when we were done.

Going to Gruene

Gruene (read "green") is an old community in Texas that grew up during the cotton boom in the 1870s. Today is it part of New Braunfels here in Hill Country. We have been there before but enjoyed another visit. It is full of shops and restaurants and bed and breakfast inns, all located in old, really old, buildings. Some have been restored, some have not.

This is Gruene Hall, the oldest continually operating dance hall in the state, built in 1878.

You know you are near Gruene when you see this iconic water tower.

John took a number of what he describes as "artsy fartsy" pictures during our visit, including buildings

Then were were the trees--live oaks with massive branches, sometime so far extended from the tree they need to be supported or they will break off.

This one had the largest set of wind chimes we had ever seen.

This old truck is a great item in the town. We also saw one about this age that was actually still in use.

Some stores and restaurants have more modern things.

I spotted these plants (weeds?) growing in a rain gutter.  You sure wouldn't see that in Colorado.

It isn't long till Christmas. Look at the ropes around this tree, they aren't made of tinsel or popcorn or cranberries, they are lariats.

This will be the 7th year we have been away from Colorado for Christmas but looking at some of the antique decorations for sale in Gruene made me long for the days when we had children or grandchildren to the house for the holiday.

Natural History and Other Topics

One afternoon during the swim meet we went to the Brazos County Natural History Museum with Eric. Denver has a huge natural history museum and Eric is a middle school science teacher so it sounded like a good outing. (Each afternoon Kylie and the other swimmers rest and nap so their families have time to explore the area.) The museum was interesting but it wasn't focused just on natural history. There was a temporary exhibit of shells that had beautiful displays. You can click on any photo to enlarge it.















This mural covers one wall in the museum. It shows 50 plus species that once lived in Texas more than 12,500 years ago at the end of the last glacial period.

We also saw fossil skeletons of two ancient fish.

There were a number of mounted animal heads and a stuffed lion, bear and beaver. Eric and I posed beneath the head of an ibex (I think).

Looking at other subjects, we saw this chuck wagon

Santa Anna's silver which was captured at the Battle of San Jacinto in Texas' war for independence from Mexico

and an unusual vault from an early bank in College Station.

John was caught by a gorilla in the children's classroom at the museum.

The museum was all over the place but it was a good way to spend the afternoon. But first we sampled some of the local barbeque.