The Rest of Texas II--Fredericksburg

Pie for breakfast one day and ice cream for breakfast the next.  Dave and I spent Saturday, April 22, 2017, wandering around Fredericksburg, one of the most charming of the hill towns.

Fredericksburg is a tourist town, like Park City.  Its restored buildings from frontier times are filled with quaint shops and restaurants.  This ice cream parlor was filled with antiques.

Fredericksburg is in peach-growing country, and the waitress fixed me a first-rate peach smoothie from frozen peaches, peach sherbet, and orange juice.

An old-timer lounged at a table, surrounded by vintage signs.

We wished we had more time to explore shops like this "Lone Star Candy Bar" store.

The streets were lined with old-time limestone buildings with wrought iron balconies--the Pedernales meets New Orleans.

This is Bible Belt country.

It is also country settled by Germans, as well as the Wild Ram, Lyman Wight, and his polygamists.

Fredericksburg also has a first class museum, the National Museum of the Pacific War.  It focuses on the battles against the Japanese during WWII. Admiral Nimitz, who commanded the US Navy of the Pacific, was born in Fredericksburg.

 I bought "Helmet for My Pillow" in the museum gift shop and finished it before we flew home.  It tells the war experiences of Robert Leckie, whose story was included in the recent HBO series, "War in the Pacific."

 The real Robert Leckie, who became an Associated Press reporter and then wrote 30 books.

 David's hero is Jimmy Doolittle, who led the bombing of Tokyo in 1942, a daring mission to lift American morale and frazzle the Japanese.

Next stop was Ft. Martin, outside of Fredericksburg.  It was supplied with lumber from the 1840s sawmills of the Mormon polygamists living in the Hill Country.  A museum nearby honors the Texas Rangers, the pioneer sheriffs who dispatched frontier justice.

The fort was nearly deserted when we visited.  It evoked the early 1840s, when it defended against the Comanches. During the late 1840s and early 1850s, it was a stop-over on the road to the California Goldrush for the many Southerners who headed West.

We spent an hour at Wildseed Farms, the largest research center on wildflowers and heritage vegetables in the country.

A singer entertained the many visitors who bought plants at the Center, or who just came to stroll among the wildflowers.

Dave and I ate lunch at Der Lindenbaum Restaurant, a homey place that honored the heritage of Fredericksburg's German pioneers.  Notice the Texas limestone.

My jagerschnitzel (pork cutlet with mushroom sauce) was delicious.  It was served with stewed red cabbage and rye bread.

We spent the evening at Luckenbach, a Hill Country center for music and drinking.

We listened to a concert of country music and even danced.

This fellow, sitting in front of us, was as entertaining as the singers.  He asked at least six women around him to dance, and gave each of them good squeezes.