One of the many things I admirer about my husband is that He is always so sweet to plan fun things for us to do together. I have always been the planner in my life and its such a gift to have something planned for me. Plus He is really good at it! This past weekend He planned a little weekend getaway for us to Fredericksburg. I have always wanted to visit this time of year and see the wildflowers.
Byron took off work and we headed to the hill country Friday morning. The drive was beautiful. That night we met up with some of my friends from Kerrville and had dinner at a local German restaurant. That night Byron had the great idea to go to Enchanted Rock early in the morning to see the sunrise. At the time I agreed but when 5:30 a.m. rolled around I may have thought otherwise. We got ourselves out of bed and made it to Enchanted Rock by 6:15 a.m. and waited for the sun to begin to rise before we hiked to the top. It was beautiful and the views of the hill country were breathtaking. After enjoying the scenery for a bit we went a grabbed some breakfast and went back to our room to catch a quick power nap before the rest of our day began.
Since the main point of our trip was to see wildflowers we headed over to Wildseed Farms. We were able to see acres just covered in blue bonnets and poppies and a mix of Texas wildflowers. You cannot help but be happy when looking out and seeing an ocean of bluebonnets. Then we went back into town and shopped on Main Street for several hours. Main Street is the hub of the town. It is lined with different gift shops, candy stores, restaurants, bars, and antique stores in old original buildings. You can spend hours exploring the different shops that offer a variety of vintage items to newer high end items. One of my favorite shops was called RED and had a really fun selection of modern furniture and accessories.
That afternoon we were able to join a tour of the Garrison Brothers Distillery. Byron has had their bourbon before and happened to stumble across that they were located just 30 minutes away in Hye, Texas. The distillery only has six full time staff members and is surrounded by the beautiful views of the hill country. The Garrison Brothers distillery offers tours all throughout the day for $2o per person. The tour is guided and last about an hour and half. You start the tour by hopping onto a trailer being pulled behind a large farm ATV to drive you up to the distillery to start your tour. During this time you will get to see the whole process that takes place to make their Texas bourbon and you will get to sample the bourbon in its different stages along the way and even see the packaging and distribution process. You will be educated on bourbon, how theirs is made, and the legal requirements that must be met to be considered a true bourbon whiskey. I know more about bourbon than I ever thought I would. The whole process was very interesting and fun to learn about. At the end of our tour we were able to purchase a limited edition single barrel bottle and seal and package it ourselves. The packaging process was the most interesting part for me because I always wondered how they dipped the bottles in the wax. Here they just used crock pots and stamped the top of the bottle with a star. Every bottle that is sent out has been hand packaged and then signed by the owner. This was definitely a highlight for Byron.
Sunday morning was dreary and we headed out around 10 a.m. and drove through the Lyndon B. Johnson National Park on our way home. There is so much to do in the hill country, more than our short weekend could handle, but we are looking forward to our next weekend getaway.