fredericksburg tx

We celebrated the extended Labor Day weekend with a trip to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg seems like it's in the middle of nowhere (especially when it's the closest town with an emergency vet and you're passing upward of 30 deer along the road in the middle of the night), but it's an adorable town (or maybe a city?). The main street (and some of the side streets) are mostly filled with boutiques and restaurants. Fredericksburg thrives on tourism, so there are lots of bed and breakfasts, too (we stayed at Terah's Garden). The city is also dog-friendly and it's apparently the only city in the state where it's perfectly legal to walk around with an open alcoholic beverage.

Fredericksburg is located along the wine trail in Hill Country, so we stopped by William Chris Vineyards on the way. Not only was it my first wine tasting, but it was our first as a couple.

Afterward, we grabbed lunch at Mahaley's Cafe. They serve a pretty good veggie croissant and have a nice selection of pastries. We relaxed at the b&b for a while before heading out to visit a second winery. We checked out Messina Hof, which has a nice selection.

We ate dinner at the b&b to save money and spent the evening chatting and watching the news.

We spent the following day shopping. There are a lot of home decor shops. There is also a lot of money needed to buy things in those shops. For the most part, we browsed, but we did pick up some treats at Dogologie (of all of the stores in Fredericksburg, Dogologie was the store I wanted to visit the most). We also checked out Der Kuchen Laden (it was really weird to see so much German in the middle of Texas ... it was like being back in Pennsylvania ... except people wore cowboy boots and Stetsons). Der Kuchen Laden is located in an old hospital along with Rathskeller, which is where we ate lunch.

I thought the photos and ads were misleading--I expected something semi-upscale, but it looked more like a family restaurant. The staff was friendly, however; when a toddler in our party decided to check out the fish in the nearby koi pond up close and personal, they gave us some towels to dry her off and didn't complain about the wet chair.

In all, our trip was exhausting but fun. I definitely think an extra day would have helped--we didn't even have a chance to check out the National Museum of the Pacific War, but I've decided to save that for if/when my parents visit.