Exploring Texas

This morning Jim, Julia, Micahel and I headed to Gruene, Texas. It's about 20 minutes outside of San Antonio. It was a cute little "old-timey" town with lots of little shops, restaurants and a dance hall downtown. They were having a flea/craft market downtown also. We spent some time looking at the flea market and shopping downtown.

Downtown Gruene, Texas

                Bottle tree for sale at the flea market                                Giant wind chimes

Michael & Julia walking down the street in Gruene. (not the best picture but the only one I have!)

When we were done in Gruene we drove through New Braunfels. This was supposed to be our "big stop" of the day, but we didn't even get out of the car! The town is "advertised" as a German town so we were expecting something similar to Helene, Georgia. Instead it was a party town with an overly priced waterpark. The main attraction seemed to be tubing down the river, which was obviously out with Julia so we kept on driving.
We had lunch at Rudy's B-B-Q while we revamped our game plan and decided what to do next. As usual, Julia enjoyed lunch. :)

She loves TRYING to feed herself with a spoon or fork.

We decided to go to the San Antonio Zoo or Natural Bridge Caverns. Since the Natural Bridge Caverns were close by and it was so hot, we decided to go there.

Michael and Julia trying some "Cavern Water" before we headed down.

Since I had on sandals and the floor was slick the boys wouldn't let me carry Julia into the caverns. There was no protesting from me but I'm glad Jim was there to give Michael a break!

 Mr. Jim and Julia taking a break at the top of the cavern. It was over 90% humidity in there making it feel cooler outside than it was inside!

 Julia & Daddy sharing a frozen strawberry bar on our way back from the caverns.

 More, Daddy! Please!

 Looks likes someone enjoyed it!

Tonight we went to the Old Pearl Brewery area and had dinner at La Gloria, a Mexican street fair restaurant. The dinner was good, but a little overpriced for what it was. Julia was particularly fond of the guacamole though.

 She got fussy before we were done eating, probably because she absolutely refused to nap all day long, so Michael took her outside while I finished eating. They had a big grassy area with lots of balls for the kids to play with. She had fun chasing them and trying to keep up with the older kids!