Jennifer’s 30th Birthday

To my wife with love

To celebrate Jennifer’s 30th birthday, Nana and Pappy watched the kids, and Jennifer and I snuck off to San Antonio.  On the way down, we stopped for lunch at Rudy’s BBQ, then hit up Ikea and the San Marcos Outlets for some shopping.  Nana let us use her reward points for a free hotel on the Riverwalk.  After checking in, we walked down the river and got some Mexican food and margaritas.

The next morning, we met up with Jennifer’s college roommate, Kim, for breakfast and some sight seeing.  We went to a great place, the Guenther House.  Afterwards, we walked through a flea market and picked up some souvenirs for the kids.

I tried to get a deal on these guitars, but could only negotiate 10% discount (tax).  I bought one for Nathan anyways.  It broke after only 2 days playing with it.

After the flea market, we visited the Alamo

That afternoon, the weather was beautiful so we made the short drive out to Gruene, one of our favorite hill country destinations.

There was a great band playing in Gruene Hall.  They were called Flat Top Jones and played mostly classic country and western swing music.  The entire band were former professional musicians and were all extremely talented.  We danced a few songs, but mostly just sat back and listened to the music.  It was really fun.

My beautiful wife, Shiner Bock, good music, Gruene Hall, and great weather. Doesn’t get much better than this.

The lead guitarist also played a pretty mean fiddle

After the band was finished, we walked over for dinner at the Gristmill.  We scored a table overlooking the river.  Jennifer had the chicken fried chicken, and I had the chicken fried steak. It was just about perfect….as you can tell from the empty plates. We also had pecan pie with ice-cream for dessert.

After dinner, we strolled around town a little and did some more shopping before heading back to San Antonio.  It was a gorgeous evening and the weather was great.  Gruene is really pretty at this time of night.

The next morning, we got a five pound cinnamon role for breakfast.  It was from Lulu’s Bakery and is apparently somewhat famous.  This thing was about the size of my head.  We ate on it for about three days after we got home.

On the way home, we took 281 and stopped at Longhorn Cavern State Park.  Jennifer had never been in a cave, so we took a tour.

In this passage way, they told everyone to duck or bend over.  Jennifer didn’t have to.

This was a pretty neat cave.  It was formed by an underground river, so it is long, narrow, and doesn’t have many ceiling formations.  I’m looking forward to taking the kids back one day.

That evening we finally made it home and the kids were excited to see us. 

Hannah had been practicing riding her bike and was eager to show off her new skills.

What a great finish to an outstanding weekend!