Waffles and Wildflowers

As i start this post I am just shy of my 65th birthday. If you are seeing this post, then I have passed that milestone. Al & I have been known to create a theme for a trip, hence the waffles and wildflowers. Not a bad way to mark having reached the arbitrary age when the government says I can go on Medicare. For the most part, I will leave that to be the subject of another post, but choosing Medicare will give me the freedom to have more control over my work life as it will give me the power of “No”. For the next few months, however, my work status will stay the same.

This was a relatively short trip and did not take us all that far from home. We ventured south to Texas hill country, spending time in the Austin area before heading over to Fredricksburg and then back home. As I contemplate having more time at home in the coming year, my interest in gardening is rekindled. I have been spending time cleaning up problem areas and studying ways to improve some of our landscaping using more native plants and perennials, as well as incorporating the cottage garden approach of including edibles and herbs amongst the other plantings. The reason for visiting Austin stemmed from my desire to finally visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I have long wanted to visit, but we have never managed to fit it into any of our past trips to Austin, so it was one of the primary focuses of this trip. Austin is also a great foodie destination, so we knew we’d have no problems finding interesting and tasty food. In addition to eating and spent some time hiking at McKinney Falls State Park, visiting both the upper and lower falls. A side trip including a drive along part of the Texas’ devil’s backbone with stops in San Marcos, Wimberly, Dripping Springs, and Bee Cave before looping back to Austin took up the rest of our time in the Austin area.

Fredricksburg was our last planned destination before heading back home. It is the closest town to Wildseed Farms, a place we have visited before and one that I very much wanted to visit again. Wildseed Farms is great place to visit if one is looking for Texas wildflower seeds and garden accessories. They have interesting things in the gift shop and also have a winery, so it can be fun to visit even if you’re not into buying garden stuff.

We started our little adventure with a breakfast stop in McKinney for our first waffles. Neither of us had ever been to Bill Smith’s Cafe, a second generation eatery established the same year I was born. So it seemed like the right call and neither the food nor the atmosphere disappointed. It is an old fashioned family owned cafe with plenty of regulars, but great service even if you’re a newcomer. The waffles were tasty, as was the side of bacon, so we were off to a good start. Like every other waffle we tried this past week, it had a unique, but delicious, flavor.

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We stopped in Waco for a little exercise break and took a long walk on the river walk. It’s a beautiful area and everyone is so friendly. Almost every person we encountered greeted us and it provided a nice break in our drive south.

Our first activity in Austin was a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The late Lady Bird Johnson was a great lover of wildflowers and donated the land to the University of Texas to establish the center. It is a combination of arboretum, wildflower gardens, and research station. If one is lingering long enough there is a cafeteria where lunch can be obtained. While spring is really the most glorious season for wildflowers, there are still plenty to enjoy this time of year. The center is divided in sections based on the plantings. There is a pollinator garden, mostly for bees, a butterfly garden, a family garden, complete with a playground, and a prairie garden. There are plenty of woodland areas, some with little streams, to complement the more open areas. All of the plants presented are native to Texas. My favorite wildflower name was yellow sneezeweed, a pretty little flower. I loved all of the butterflies flitting around the garden and we found a couple of other critters as well.

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Before heading out to the Wildflower Center, we had breakfast at the hotel. We were overly optimistic about what they might be offering. It is one of the uncertainties of travel these days as some hotels are almost back to “normal” with their breakfast fare and others are pretty iffy in their offerings. Our hotel was at the latter end of that spectrum. We tried their little packaged, previously frozen, microwaveable excuse for waffles simply as a matter of keeping with the theme. But, waffle is open to interpretation, so the best waffle of the day was at lunch. We ate at Waterloo Ice House and the sweet potato waffle fries, like the burger, were most excellent. 🙂

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We spent a few hours exploring McKinney Falls State Park later in the afternoon. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, this time of year is typically pretty dry so the falls were barely a trickle. A small stream of water ran through the rocks and over the edge of both the upper and the lower falls. But the hiking trails were still fun, despite the heat, and just being outside can be interesting. The park is named after the person who had originally settled the land and there are remnants of some of the old buildings in the park. One of the trees along the creek, nicknamed Old Baldy, is a 500+ year old bald cypress. It was a very impressive specimen. In general, the cypress trees that grow in the park have some very interesting root systems, undoubtedly necessary to support their massive size in the very rocky soil. We also came upon a little lizard that was willing to pose for a portrait.

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Our third day of waffles was from 24 Diner. Their waffles are very yeasty and hearty. I have never cared for chicken and waffles, but I think the waffles at 24 Diner would be the perfect waffle for this popular dish. They do serve it, but we just had the waffle breakfast. The photo is deceiving as it looks like half a waffle, but it is in fact two halves stacked one upon the other. There was an interesting old truck in the parking lot when we left. I loved the bumper sticker on the back. You just have to celebrate the junkyard survivors.

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We spent most of the day roaming the area around Austin. We made stops in San Marcos, county seat of Hays County. As historic Texas courthouses go, their courthouse is kind of bland, but still worthy of a photograph. Next stop was in Wimberly, a shopping mecca, perfect for a weekend of shopping and exploring wineries. We toured a couple of galleries and paused in the shade long enough for Al to pose for a photo. Next was lunch in Dripping Springs before a stop in Bee Cave to visit their sculptures garden. It was a surprising little find in a city of less than 10,000. My favorite exhibit was a mosaic frog, because it has hidden icons among the tiles. If you enlarge the photo below you can find several, including a Texas shaped tile, a heart, a star, and a flower, to name a few. It made for a fun little game of “I spy” as Al and I searched the entire sculpture to see how many we could find.

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On my actual birthday we headed to Fredericksburg. I must confess that I had by this time had my fill of waffles, so had breakfast tacos instead. Al, in keeping with the theme, had yet another waffle. I did have a taste of it, and, as with the others, it had it’s own distinct flavor profile. We made our first stop at Wildseed Farms, the location of the photo at the top of this post. After wandering through the walking paths and looking over all of the plants available for sale, we made our way into the gift shop. I bought a new birdbath and several packets of wildflower seeds. I’m hoping for a productive gardening season in the coming year. Of course time will tell if I live up to that idea. The Gillespie County courthouses, the “new” one built in the 1930s, and the original one, completed in 1882, warranted a couple of photos before we found a cafe for lunch. After lunch in town we had time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we made a little side trip to Kerrville to visit the Museum of Western Art. It was time well spent. While it is not a huge museum, their collection is top notch and varied. I would encourage anyone who makes their way to this area to take the time to stop and visit the museum. Then it was on to our hotel, the Hangar Hotel, located at the airport. Built to look like an airplane hangar, and furnished to create a step back to the 1940s and the era of WWII. We have stayed here before and totally enjoyed it. We happened to be there the same time as the International Bird Dog Association, so there was quite a collection of Cessna L-19/O-1 aircraft. We had a long, enjoyable visit with another traveling couple, who, like us, also just happened to be there.

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Having accomplished our mission of eating too many waffles and looking at and buying things related to wildflowers, we headed home the next day, settling on granola bars for breakfast instead of more waffles. We decided to take the scenic route home in lieu of heading back to the interstate and going through Dallas. This gave us the opportunity to travel through Strawn, Texas. The point of that was to stop at Mary’s Cafe and try the chicken fried steak. Pretty much every TV show that talks about places to eat in Texas has had an episode on Mary’s Cafe. In a recent viewer vote on Texas Country Reporter, Mary’s was named as the best chicken fried steak in Texas. So, we HAD to try it. It did not disappoint. It is more like the chicken fry that my Mom made than what is typically found in Texas. The accompanying mashed potatoes were delicious and the gravy was excellent. I would definitely go back if I were in the area again.

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This gave us a few days at home before I have to head back to work in the morning. It will be a short week for me as I will be headed to St Louis to spend a long weekend with my sisters in the coming week/weekend. I’m very much looking forward to our time together. In the meantime, I hope everyone has a great week ahead.