Spring has almost Sprung

Saturday was a very nice, sunny day with highs in the 60s.  We decided to have breakfast at a coffee shop "The Daily Grind") in downtown Boerne.  We were luck to get there before the crowds.  Very good food.  The place was still cool from the overnight hard freeze, but they had several space heaters.   Somehow one of the heaters found its way to point directly at us and we were warmed.

Boerne had what is called a "Market Day" which occurs once each month year round.  It is an outdoor market with vendors selling their wares including food, jewelry, clothing, rugs etc. with much of it manufactured in Mexico.  Some one of a kind art was also for sale.  The downtown area was very busy with Market Day shoppers as well as downtown strollers.  Beautiful weather brought out many people to keep the merchants happy.

The morning ended on a high note with a spur of the moment trip back to Fredricksburg (about 40 miles north of Boerne).  It was a good day to explore, and we drove back to this small town founded by German immigrants.   The downtown area is a mecca for tourists and locals who walk from one end of the business district to the other and then double back on the opposite side of the 4 lane main street.  We explored several shops including an old 5 and 10 store, an antique book store and a western wear shop among others. 

On our tour, we ran into a couple sitting on a bench wearing Packer garb.  They were from Sussex, Wisconsin (near Waukesha) and were down to visit their son in San Antonio.  Their son and friends had tickets for the Super  Bowl and convinced their parents to attend with them.  While the others were in Jerry Jone's ego-palace, their son paid $200.00 each for his parents to watch the game outside the stadium on large screen TVs.  Unfortunately, it rained, they got soaked and left for the comfort of their car at half time.  They listened to the remaining two quarters on the radio in the car.  They said they would have enjoyed the game better in their living room. 

After about two hours of successful shopping, we had lunch at an outside beer garden/restaurant which beckoned us in with its very good two-piece blues band playing original music.  Again, the place was very busy, but with short waiting lines.  The menu boasted German specialties--Donna ordered a schnitzel sandwich with a side of horseradish and I had a pastrami Reuben.  While we waited for the food, we decided that a cold beer would be an appropriate accompaniment with the music (MGD and a Spaten Oktoberfest).  We tried to remember when the last time we had a beer (I think it was sometime in the last decade).  Food was good, the beer was refreshing and the music was excellent.  The only downside was that the seating was outside.  Though we were mostly in the shade, the highly polished stainless steel table surfaces reflected up in our face.  I felt like George Hamilton. 

On the way back to the truck, we found this interesting "tree" in a downtown park depicting the history of the town:

I guess you had to be there.  It was a great day!