Since Vacation... - Sat., July 12

Here's what we've been up to over the past two weeks:

Tuesday, July 1: Susan M. and I did the 10K (6.2 mile) South Leon Creek Volksmarch in San Antonio. The route was an out and back on South Leon Creek paved trail. Lots of bicyclists were out. We truly wish bikers would let us know they're coming. Many bikes cannot be heard at all, add to that I'm hard of hearing (though Susan M. is not), and we were startled many times by bicyclists coming up behind us. A simple "On your left" or bell would be helpful, and good bike/walk trail etiquette.

Wednesday, July 2: Susan M., her two sons Travis and Kyle, and I went to see "Transformers: Age of Extinction." I was prepared not to like this movie because it looked more noisy, more over-the-top, with dinosaur robots (!) no less. However, all of us enjoyed the movie. The action sequences rocked and there were plenty of edge-of-your-seat moments.

Thursday, July 3: Worked ten hours at the RV park office.

Friday, July 4: Worked five hours in the RV park office. At 5 p.m., we headed over to Susan M.'s house for a 4th of July barbeque. Her son manned the BBQ grill, keeping us stocked up on hot dogs, brats and chicken shish-ke-babs. Hamburgers were cooked on the George Foreman grill. I made a big container of potato salad. Susan's neighbors brought watermelon and a pot of beans. Kayla brought a Crockpot of spicy queso and chips. Susan also made pumpkin crunch dessert and had a sundae bar with three kinds of ice cream, sprinkles, Cool Whip, caramel, hot fudge and chocolate toppings. We had quite the feast.

Around 8:30 p.m. we drove to Random Beer Garden in Boerne, TX to hang out and watch the fireworks show. About 10:30 p.m. we headed home.

 

4th of July flag

Saturday, July 5: This was my one day off work all week. At 7:00 a.m., Bob and I met Susan M. to do the 10K Universal City, Texas walk. The walk went through neighborhoods and a park and we were happy there was quite a bit of shade.

Cute fence decor!

Part of the Volksmarch group

AVA Headquarters award patch.

Pat H., me, Susan M.

Another group was doing a 10K run in exactly the opposite direction from us. We met up with another walker, Pat H., who travels all over the world to walk. We loved talking to her about where she's been. However, at one point we missed our turn and ended up doing about 2K more than we needed to. We REALLY got turned around. Luckily, one of the workers at a checkpoint for runners was able to point us in the right direction.

After walking, Bob and I headed home, showered and took a nap before our next activity of the day: a wedding at Random. The theme of the wedding was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. It was quite unique.

Seating for wedding guests

Lots of "homey" decor

Cheshire cat

The head table, bride and groom chairs.

Bob waiting

So adorable!

This young lady looks like a model.

Mad Hatter has been here!

Another fantastic hat

One of the flower girls

 The bride walked down the aisle singing, "This Girl is On Fire" at the top of her lungs.

Lovely wedding gown.

Haley

The ceremony

Husband and wife

Then it was dinner and cupcakes, and off to home for us.

Sunday, July 6 through Friday, July 11: I worked six 10-hour days.

Now we are caught up to today. See my next blog for this morning's events. I have already posted a blog about "Snowpiercers," a movie I went to by myself this afternoon. [Hint: Don't waste your money.]

Travel Bug out.

Random Event Center, Boerne, TX - Sat. - Mon., Apr. 19-21

 

For lunch on Saturday, we met Bob at Random. Random Beer Garden and Event Center is the brainchild of Bob's boss, Michael. Michael is the owner of a small hospital clean room construction company in San Antonio.


One year ago, his boss bought a seven-acre property in the country close to Boerne Lake City Park. His vision was to put in a beer garden and event center on the property. The first improvement to the property was to turn the garage into a beer garden.

Garage on the property

The beginning of the beer garden.

Over the past year, the beer garden has doubled in size and now has 76 beers on tap, including craft beers from Boerne breweries. They have built a bigger bandstand, made improvements to the historic home on the property, and added a large bouncy slide for kids.

Random is open Thursday through Sunday from noon until closing. On any given day, two to three food trucks are on hand for lunch and dinner.

One week ago, a fundraiser event was held out in the yard under the old pecan trees. A wedding will be held on the property in July.

When we were there on Saturday, Susan, Darren, and I helped fill Easter eggs with candy for the kids' Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday afternoon. In total, 600 Easter eggs were put out in the field. (We didn't fill all of them, quite a few had been done already.)

Darren and Susan filling Easter eggs.

Filled Easter eggs

While we were there, the Shabby Bus beer tour came by. About 10 people piled out to sample beers at Random.

The old farmhouse (after some renovation)

Inside the farmhouse

Random beer garden after doubling in size.

 Below are some of the 76 beers on tap.

We had a good time, ate and drank, then headed for home.

On Sunday, Susan and Darren invited us to their home for Easter dinner. Susan put out a wonderful dinner: ham, hashed brown casserole, pecan sticky buns, homemade dill pickles, and a St. Louis Butter Cream Cake (yummy!). I took a huge green salad and deviled eggs. All together, eight people were at dinner. Four of us ate watching the Spurs vs. Mavericks NBA play-off game. The other four sat at the dining room table. The Spurs won.

Tonight, the Blazers vs. Rockets NBA playoff game had Bob on the edge of his chair yelling at the TV. What an exciting game. The Portland Trailblazers won by two in Houston. Yippee!

All About the Lights - Tues., Dec. 31

I'm going to take a moment. Breathe deep. Let it out. Ahh. Life has been kind of crazy since my last blog. Now where was I? Oh, I know, I was ready to tell you about our New Year's Eve.

During the holiday season, we hadn't been out to look at Christmas lights. Since tonight was the last night for many light displays, we made it a point to go to Johnson City, Texas, where Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) goes all out with their holiday lights. See what you think...

Pedernales Electric Cooperative light display, Johnson City, Texas

PEC grounds all lit up.

Looks like "Starry, Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh.

PEC grounds.

PEC building across street

PEC Christmas tree

PEC Building down the street

Johnson City park.

County Courthouse all decked out in lights

Johnson City park

What would a blog be without cats?

Pretty amazing, don't you think?

From Johnson City, we headed west to Fredericksburg, Texas, to see their light displays downtown. The Marktplatz was most impressive.

Marktplatz, Fredericksburg, TX

Marktplatz tree - 30' tall.

The following photo doesn't do the display justice. This Christmas Pyramid is five levels tall (26') and each level rotates with scenes pertaining to Christmas. Look at the people standing to the left to see how tall it is.

Christmas Pyramid made in Germany.

A view toward the Vereins Kirche.

Marktplatz

When we finished our drive around and through Fredericksburg, we headed to Random Event Center for our New Year's celebration. Well, that plus the fact Bob got called in to work as cashier/bartender.

Bob working the bar.

I had been feeling under the weather - scratchy throat, cough, runny nose - so I didn't feel like socializing for four hours. Thankfully, there was a warm back room where I could set up my computer and edit photos, play Scrabble with my Facebook friends, and catch up on email. I felt a bit anti-social, but I didn't want to spread cold germs.

The food truck at Random was The Cinnamon Rolls. For dinner, I had chicken tortilla soup (good for the cold) and a big salad. Bob brought me a small glass of Moscato wine. (It wasn't a very good Moscato, glad it was a small glass.)

Bob was happy, I was happy, and the revelers were having a good time. The night was very cold, but Random has outside fire bowls and firewood. A lot of people had roaring fires going. At 11:15 p.m. the owner, Bob's boss at the construction company where he's Controller, began firing up fireworks.

Moscato wine in Random's back room.

New Year's revelers inside Random's beer garden.

New Year's partiers outside by one of the fire bowls.

The Cinnamon Rolls food truck.

Believe it or not, out in the cold and dark, the kids were having a blast on the bouncer slide/obstacle course. And, no, that's not snow on the ground.

And the fireworks...

The most excitement had to be the two fires out in the field. Apparently boxes that the fireworks had been shot from were still hot at the finish. Everyone came back inside when people started yelling, "Fire!" The boxes, which were on a wooden trailer, caught the wood of the trailer on fire. Luckily, there were two good fire extinguishers which were put to use.

An eventful finish to 2013.

Time to ring in the New Year.

Pouring champagne

Happy New Year (Random revelers).

Mary snapping photos for Random's Facebook page.

Happy 2014!