Kerrville, Texas - Sat., Aug. 23, 2014

Happy birthday to my son, Michael, who is 35 today! Michael you are a delight to be around, very down-to-earth, funny, gentle, dependable, smart, eclectic, and logical. Bob and I have enjoyed watching you grow and become who you are today. I wish we lived closer so we could go out to celebrate with you.

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It's summer in Texas which means we've got to get up early to go outside for our exercise. Bob headed out to train with his San Antonio marathon group and ran four miles.

I met Susan at her house at 6:30 a.m. for a 66-mile drive to Kerrville, Texas for this morning's Volksmarch. Her son, Kyle, came with us. We started our 10K (6.2 mile) walk at Inn of the Hills at 8:05 a.m. The first part of our walk was along the Guadalupe River where we saw tennis courts, a pool, a park and a restaurant at the river's edge.

The first real point of interest was Riverside Nature Center with its xeriscaped grounds, Texas tallgrass prairie exhibit, and butterfly garden.

Xeriscape garden in Nature Center parking lot

Xeriscape plants like it dry and hot

 

A Native Garden, Native Plant Society of Texas

After a quick loop around the nature center, we entered the River Trail from the Nature Center parking lot. A stand of bamboo grew along the trail.

Bamboo along the River Trail in Kerrville

From the first pedestrian bridge, we had a lovely view of the Guadalupe River.

Guadalupe River

On our walk around Tranquility Island we saw a man feeding a squirrel. As soon as the squirrel took the food, it darted away to a rock where it posed with its food.

Squirrel with food racing away.

Here's the squirrel with breakfast.

Tranquility Island in the middle of the Guadalupe River is a beautiful place, lined with cypress trees. Since we were here two years ago, there is a new paved path across the island.

Old path and new path on Tranquility Island

Bark pattern on a Cypress tree

Guadalupe River with Tranquility Island on the left.

In the photo below Susan is pointing out cypress tree pine cones to her son, Kyle.

Agave (Century plant) in bloom behind Kerrville Library

Flowers in downtown planter

From Tranquility Island we climbed the stairs up to downtown Kerrville which has some beautiful historic buildings.

Captain Charles Schreiner's "home"

Detail of concrete work on the Schreiner home

St. Peter's Episcopal Church

We wanted to find the labyrinth at the church.  It was located in front of the arched entryway.

Susan walking the labyrinth

"Uh-oh, now where do I go?"

Beautiful zinnias

Rain lilies

Oldest family-owned barber shop in Texas

The rest of our walk zig-zagged through one of Kerrville's neighborhoods. We finished our walk in exactly two hours.

The three of us were hungry. We drove 1/2 block to our favorite fast food taco restaurant, Taco Casa. Bob and I love Taco Casa's tostadas. I had two regular tostadas and Susan had one super tostada. Kyled enjoyed his Chilada. It was as good as I remembered.

We drove back to San Antonio and I was home by noon. When Bob returned from his errands, we shopped at Men's Wearhouse, then had lunch at La Madeleine.

After lunch we went to see "A Most Wanted Man" with Philip Seymour Hoffmanand Rachel McAdams. Big lunch + dark movie theater = one snoozin' Susan. I slept through about the first third of the movie. Bob kept waking me up, but I didn't stay awake until I had missed most of the set up of the story. I definitely want to see it again so I can watch the rest of the movie.

All the best to you. Travel Bug out.

Walk with Kevelyn -- Sun., Mar. 17

Are you wearin' the green? Happy St. Patty's Day to you.

This morning, we drove to Kerrville, Texas, for our pre-arranged 10K Volksmarch with Evelyn and Kevin. Evelyn made a good brunch casserole with eggs, potatoes, chicken and cheese and served it with cantaloupe and orange juice. We brought some grapes and had those as well.

Nicely fortified, we set off on the Kerrville "Bridges" Volksmarch. It's interesting that they named the walk that, but I'll explain further down in the blog. The start point was close to their RV park, we only had to drive a mile or two to get there.

We started at Elm Creek Park. We chose to do the 0.83 mi. loop around the perimeter of the park at the beginning of our walk. (We could have chosen to do it at the end of the walk instead.)

Elm Creek Park where we started our "bridges" walk.

Perimeter trail around Elm Creek Park.

Our walk lead us through a residential neighborhood. We crossed TX Hwy 27 and crossed our first real bridge over the Guadalupe River. The only other "bridges" we crossed on this walk were two little wooden bridges in Elm Creek Park. We thought the walk would cross more bridges over the Guadalupe River and maybe the bridges would have interesting history. Nope, not this walk, which was actually pretty boring and hot.

The temperature today reached 87 degrees and there was very little shade. On a slight hill, we had a refreshing breeze.

Here are more pics from the walk today. Only one wildlife sighting.

Guadalupe River in Kerrville, Texas. Notice the fishermen in boats?

The red slider turtle pictured below doesn't have any frame of reference for how big he is. For all you can tell from looking at this photo, he could be the size of a pet baby turtle in a small plastic tub in your home. Actually, this is a medium-sized turtle. I'd say he's about 10" across. There are lots of turtles in the Guadalupe River. They come up, take a breath and dive down out of sight. Poof. One minute they're there, a few seconds later they're gone.

Red slider turtle in the Guadalupe River.

Beautiful clouds today.

The main bridge we crossed in our "bridges" walk.

First time I've ever seen a street named Susan.

The streets in one neighborhood were all named after women. The street we walked on the most was called Lois St. Bob couldn't understand why they didn't name it Lois Lane. And here I didn't think he was a Superman fan. I guess really he's not, he's a Lois Lane fan.

Methodist Church in Kerrville.

By the end of our walk, we were hot, tired, hungry and in need of air conditioning. For supper we went to Mamacita's Mexican Restaurant in Kerrville. Inside their large building, in addition to the restaurant seating area, were a Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory sales display case, game arcade, and Dreyer's Ice Cream outlet.

The menu had excellent options, some I hadn't seen on a Mexican restaurant menu before. I had Pescado del Mar which was filet of red snapper with a lime/honey butter sauce, la charra beans, rice, Caesar salad, and tortillas. It was very good. No photos of food this time.

Mamacita's Restaurant photos:

Mamacita's Kerrville entry chandelier, stained glass,
and tile work on the ceiling.

Kevin and Evelyn

Interior decor of Mamacita's. Our host walking through.

Evelyn and Kevin at our table.

We did not have Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for dessert. There was a sampler of cheesecake back at Kevin and Evelyn's 5er and we had much smaller pieces of cheesecake. It was very good and just the right size after a big meal.

Then it was time for us to head back to San Antonio. Kevin and Evelyn are heading up to Blanco, TX in the morning.

Once again we had a good time walking and talking and eating. That reminds me, I used to have a Volksmarch shirt that said, "Walk, walk, talk; walk, walk, eat." I don't know where it is. It's brand new and I haven't seen it since we've been on the road. Maybe it's in a box in Mom's attic!

Have safe travels Evelyn and Kevin. We look forward to the next time we see you. I hope Wisconsin is warm and dry by the time you return!

Travel Bug out.