I’m currently sitting in the airport lobby waiting for the ticket agent to go on shift. Seems Southwest Airlines or maybe some new TSA rule doesn’t allow you to check in 2 hours before your flight and the airport I’m flying out of is too small to have multiple flights back to back. I learned about the 4 hour rule when I traveled to Utah ( https://maethar.com/2023/06/27/utah-final-day/ ) but this 2 hour thing is new to me.
Now that I got checked in, I asked the ticket agent and found out it’s a local airport policy. The annoying thing is the kiosk self-checks are also turned of π€·. Oh well, got my boarding passes and drink vouchers π… I’m off to my adventure. Check back tomorrow for details of where I am and what I’ve done so far.
Let’s start by saying I’m glad I brought a light jacket because it was cold this morning around 7 AM when I went for a short walk for some Pokemon Go and to feel like I was trying to be healthy on my break. I think it was in the upper 40s as the sun rose and my fingers felt it. All a good reason to charge off to a big breakfast.
My eatery of choice was, Granny D’s. Just 5 or so miles up / down the road from my lodgings. It is a quaint little dinner that is open only for breakfast and dinner most days of the week. Since this is Tuesday, they were open for breakfast. Walking into the dinner I notice 2 different handwritten notes on the doors. One was extremely helpful, this door is broken walk around to the other side and use that one and the second note related to the current egg crises, we will sadly be having to add a surge charge to the cost of all menu items that include eggs. I can completely understand, last time I check egg prices had come down to $6 a dozen but that is still double the normal cost before the whole bird flu supply chain issues.
I chose to have the Big Damn Biscuit and a cup of coffee. I hear you ask, what is the Big Damn Biscuit meal? Well here is a picture of it.
From the menu it was listed as a big biscuit, covered with 2 chicken strips, sausage gravy and an egg. I’m not sure what you thought when you saw the picture, but I was like… wow! I’m glad I’m seriously hungry from my extra, chilly walk this morning. With coffee, tip and the egg surge charge my bill came to just under $20. Before you go all crazy and blame the egg surge charge, which was only $1, the coffee was like $2.99 and the meal itself was $10.95. With bill paid and tummy full, I headed back to prepare for my trip to Wimberly.
The Return to Wimberly
Look I used a subtitle. Not sure I like it or not, but I’m going to go with it for the rest of this post. π
One thing I was concerned about was the number of stores that would be closed. I remembered from last year, that if you wanted to shop all the shops you need to be there on Thursday’s thru Saturday’s. For some reason, Monday’s and Tuesday’s don’t get the same type of love. And yes, I know, it is probably based on economic issues like costs versus profits, blah, blah, blah. I just want the world to work on my terms. Just kidding, well mostly.
To be honest, the shops I wanted to visit were open so I’ve no reason to be whining. It seems the popcorn shop has changed names.
The ordering is still the same, and you can have samples of before you purchase. I went with 2 savory and 1 sweet option, cheddar, jalapeno and sea salt caramel which I purchased in the medium size and not the small size like the others. Sorry no pictures of the popcorn, they are mine and mine alone, I will not even share an image of the bags. π
The second shop I wanted to visit was the, Kiss the Cook. If you had a cooking item you needed, I’m pretty sure you could find it here in this store. They have high quality knives, like ones that will stay sharp for years, good, heavy metal pots and pans, and a variety of baking molds if you wanted to bake a cake that came out of the oven with a personality. While all of those items were tempting, I already have too many similar things in my cabinets that I don’t use as often as I originally intended when they were first purchased. I did purchase a new hot sauce, an adult beverage mixer, and a mix to make scones. I did take a few pictures in the store of some items I found amusing. I hope you enjoy them too.
I wandered into a variety of other stores actively looking to buy things. I checked out a plant shop that sold a variety of cactus and other succulents. They even had Venus fly traps and a variety of carnivorous plants which almost had me but I don’t know how to take care of them and didn’t want to take the time to learn, so on to the next store a candle shop.
I bought a candle from this shop last year, and I didn’t enjoy it; however, my candle addiction is now under control but I still have dozens of used and half used glass candle jars on and in my cabinets. The sales girl had a great suggestions, and it seems to have been a plan from the beginning. When you have used up the candle heat it up so you can get the last of the wax out, clean it real well and turn it into a whisky glass. Absolutely genius idea!! I may or may not be doing that when I get home. Oh, I did purchase some incense which takes up a lot less room and is easier to clean up after it has burned to ash.
I think its time for me to mention all the boots. I think I talked about them last year, maybe I even took pictures, on the off chance I didn’t here are some pictures.
At some point in Wimberly’s history they decided to have artist create cowboy boots to place along the sidewalks and in front of the stores. Which fits perfectly with Wimberly’s artistic vibe, by which I mean there plenty of artist stores selling paintings, stain glass, jewelry and other items crafted by a local talent. Don’t get me wrong, there are still shops selling items made in China, but you can just skip past those stores.
So it is now lunch time and I’m trying to decide what to eat and where to go next. It is too early to head back to the room, but I’ve exhausted all the shops and lost the urge to buy things, well mostly, I do plan on hitting the candy shop as I head back to my truck. I bought a chocolate bar and some hard candy. The chocolate is almost gone, just enough for 1 more bit tomorrow. Oh, lunch…. it was a chicken salad wrap made with BBQ chicken. It was pretty tasty.
With lunch done and the candy shop raided it was time to move to the next destination…
Blanco, Texas and the Buggy Barn Museum
Yeah, you read that subtitle correctly, I said The Buggy Barn Museum in Blanco, Texas. I know what you are thinking, that is a strange niche historical category to want to visit, but I guess I’ve read this far let’s just keep going maybe I will learn something.
But seriously, The Buggy Barn Museum was not my reason for visiting Blanco, Texas. I did end up going to The Buggy Barn Museum and I will share my experience in a moment, but my visit to the museum was a chance encounter with the owner while he was also visiting the Milam & Greene Distillery next door.
If you’ve read a few of my posts, you’ve seen the Old Fashions, and Manhattans in other posts. I like a good bourbon and Milam & Greene makes some of the best. While not everything is distilled at their location, it is aged in the barrel warehouses on property. Their rye whiskey is my favorite. Ok, I need to move on to the Buggy museum or I’m going to open up one of the whiskey bottles sitting on the floor of my room.
So The Buggy Barn Museum….
It looks like an old western town, and in fact the owner rents the property for movie and TV studios to film. Here is a quick blurb from their website:
“We have had numerous music videos filmed here including: “Gringo” by Shatta Wale, “Ride or Die”-Read Dead Redemption 2 by JT Music, an Arthur Brown music video, and a lady from Sweden film some of her music video with us.”
This site houses the 2nd largest collection of historical horse drawn buggys in the United States and the 3rd largest in the world, according to the guide on site. I knew I should have written her name down, but make sure you find her when you are take the tour. She has personally research the history of many of the buggys and can trace some of them back to the person how built them. A variety of them have also been rented to Hollywood Studios for movies, such as True Grit and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. The barn holding the buggys is packed full.
Here is the first example of tailgating, and it had it’s own bathroom.
These boxes are insulated to keep food cold.This seat lifts to reveal a hole in the floor of the cabin
That’s enough about buggys. I do suggest stopping by if you are in Blanco, Texas. Reward yourself with a flight of whiskys from Milam & Greene. π
Until tomorrow’s finally full day adventure… Goodnight, or Good morning or even Good day depending on when you read this post.
Today, was mainly about driving to Canyon Lake, Texas. I am happy to say that the drive was uneventful and I was able to get through a good portion of Dr. AJ’s book on “The Short Stories of Jesus“.
I arrived at my resort, Holiday Inn Club Vacation, Canyon Lake and this time I learned to use my points to get the fancier room, Presidential 2 Bedroom Villa.
I grabbed a burger and onion rings at Canyon City Grill. If you want a burger and some good onion rings, make sure you stop there.
Tomorrow I’m planning on revisiting Wimberly, Texas and visiting as many Wineries that happen to be open and nearby, on a Tuesday.
Sorry this is so short, but not much really happened.
The final day in New Orleans has arrived. I had plans to get tickets for the river boat tour but all the ones being offered included a buffet lunch and I really didn’t want to eat a buffet. So if I return, I will have to remember to book a tour earlier and probably not travel on a major holiday; however, if I had planned better there was an option to take a tour on Christmas Eve the night that the city lights a bunch of bonfires along the levels to help Santa find his way on Christmas.
This morning the day started with fog.
I had been doing on the days before I made a loop around the French Quarter and worked my way back to Canal Street. I stopped at French Truck Company for a coffee and a chocolate croissant. I also needed to use the bathroom and many of the places have a code to the bathroom. I could have bought a cup of water for $1, but I hadn’t have breakfast so why not eat a croissant.
It was still too early in the morning for any stores or many places to be open, most open at 10 AM. So I went back to my hotel room, finished my coffee and typed up my Christmas Day blog.
I left the hotel with a goal to buy a new bracelet and a new ring. I was able to find both, but not at the same place. I’m pretty sure I paid too much for the ring, but it is very hard to find rings that fit my fingers, so I am happy.
I think you can probably guess what will drive the narrative next, it’s lunch time. I tried the Trio Sampler or whatever it was called at Monty’s on the Corner. The meal didn’t disappoint and I got to sample a variety of New Orlean’s cuisine.
After lunch I signed up for a free Tour of The Sazerac House, which is basically a sales pitch for Buffalo Trace and Sazerac Rye Whiskey. You do learn the history of the cities cocktail, The Sazerac and how bartenders changed the recipe from Sazerac Cognac to bourbon and created a unique bitters to New Orleans.
The fog never really cleared out of the city all day. Here are some final pictures from the roof top pool of the hotel I’m staying.
And so ends my trips. The only thing left if for me to drive home. Until the next adventure.
Christmas day is finally here and the next Doctor Who Christmas Special will be airing later today on Disney+ so I will need to be back in the hotel room by 11 AM to watch before all the YouTubers and bloggers post their reviews and spoil the show. But enough of my nerdiness on to the morning adventure.
So I started the morning off with a 1 mile run, followed by a 1.25 mile walk. I planned on running the full distance but decided relax, knowing I was going to still walk a bunch later in the day. You know after the Doctor Who show.
An advantage to being up before 8 AM Christmas Day, is there is little to no traffic, so you can stand in the middle of an intersection and take pictures. This is the view from corner of Dumaine and Chartres
Looking Down Dumaine
Looking Up Chartres
Looking Up Durmaine
Looking Down Chartres
Yes, I realize you can get a better view if you just use Google Street view, but my picture is from Christmas Day, 2024.
Not only did I need to make sure I was back in my hotel room by 11 AM for the Doctor Who show. I also needed to be inside before the rain storm predicted for mid day reported for duty.
Mid Day Christmas Rain Storm
Once the rain storm pasted by the weather cleared up enough for me to go walking about again, but this time to look for a late lunch. But before that, here is a picture of my Christmas cookies, the green icing was a bit too thin, but I did better with the red.
Now, back to lunch… Which was 3 crabcakes on a bed of spinach with grilled tomatoes from The Original Pierre Maspero’s. I was surprised to as many restaurants as I did open on Christmas Day. The drink was called a Black Pearl which is made with Amador Bourbon, amaretto, soda, and sweet and sour mix.
I had to look up the drink recipe so I visited their webpage. They didn’t use stock pictures, but took pictures of the real wait staff and bartender. Just found that interesting. Oh, the crabcakes were pretty good. I’d give them a 8 out of 10. They can’t compare to the ones I had in Maryland back in October of 2023. As a sidenote, I’m going to need to reorganize my categories here on the blog. I’m thinking of adding years under the vacation category. I had trouble going back an looking up where I was in 2023 for the crabcakes.
Look at how the clouds are so low they cover the top few floors of these buildings. Just thought this was cool.
Going to call it an early day, I only walked half as far as yesterday, 5.5 miles and the drinks I had at restaurant followed by the mulled wine I made in my hotel room have made me very sleepy. Until tomorrow’s adventure – the last day in New Orleans.
I started the day off with an early morning walking hoping to get some good pictures of the sunrise over the Mississippi River. The morning was very clear, thus with our clouds the sunrise doesn’t have as many colors, but it was still very pretty.
Earlier PictureLater Picture
The pictures above were taken about 15 minutes apart, well maybe. I wasn’t really paying attention to time.
I think I took pictures of this “love lock” gate/fence thingy last time, but here it is again or possible for the first time.
Sorry this is so fuzzy
If you break up with your true love, do you have to come back and cut off your love-lock?
I continued my morning walk through Jackson Square and then down Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is very different in the morning with all the bars closed and the cleaning crews out picking up the mess from the previous night. If I understood the news this morning, a new cleaning company was hired by the city to clean up the French Quarter and they started this week. However, they started at Canal street and were working their way down Bourbon street, I was walking up the other way so I finished my walk on cleaner streets. I did have the joy of seeing a dead rat, a live rat and some guy on a bicycle offered me marijuana at 7:30 AM. As the guy rode away he kept commenting that it’s legal here… I guess he was hoping I would change my mind. Here are some pictures from along my walk.
Sorry if you looked through the pictures hoping to see the dead rat. I did think about taking a picture but decided I would give the little animal some respect in its death. ππβ οΈ
After getting some breakfast, I headed back to Canal Street to get a street car heading toward the Art Museum and the City Park so I could visit the Botanical Gardens.
Street Car on the 48 Line
I had a nice morning walking around the Botanical Garden; however, it is quite small compared to other ones I’ve visited. It did have a children’s theme park section with playground equipment and mini rides. I didn’t go to that side of the garden.
Taking the street car back toward the French Quarter, I arrive sometime after 1:00 PM and realize breakfast was a few hours in the past, which explains why I was feeling hungry. Time to grab some sea food from Landry’s.
If you are near Landry’s in New Orleans, try their version of an Old Fashion. It was one of the best I’ve had, but it is based off peach flavorings instead of orange. You could easily have a few of them before you realized that last one was one too many. I wanted to get a beignet, but I hate waiting in long lines so I skipped Cafe Du Monde again and tried to get a beignet at Cafe Beignet; however, they closed at 2 PM because of it being Christmas Eve. So I settled for some ice cream.
Oh, I forgot to mention I did do a bit of shopping before the ice cream. I went to two Christmas themed stores looking for, well honestly, I don’t know what I was looking for which is probably why I didn’t buy anything. If I had wanted a statue of Santa or the Grinch I had a great choices to choose from. I was tempted to buy the animated Charlie Brown TV statue, but not so much that I wanted to spend $35. I did stop by a shop selling hot sauces and I dropped $45 on a few hot sauces and spice mixes.
This picture was take on Christmas Day, the day after my visit on Christmas Eve which is why it is closed.
I walked passed this store but the aroma coming out the door drew me back hence the spending of money.
With all this walking, my Garmin watch let me know I had walked double my 8000 daily step challenge for a total of 10 miles of walking around the Botanical Garden and the French Quarter. So with my ice cream purchased I headed back for an early day.
Last year I traveled to New Orleans the day after Christmas for a short trip. This year I decided why not celebrate Christmas in New Orleans. The advantage of revisiting a city is you can revisit the places you liked and look for different things to do.
I arrived in New Orleans around 4:30 PM and checked into my hotel, turning my truck over to the valet to not see it again until I leave on Friday morning. The drive getting here was very much like the previous year, so I won’t bore you, go look for it if you are new here. I can say the same annoying traffic jam on the bridge going over the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge happened. Back to the details I want to say about this trip.
After getting settled into my hotel room, so wish I had a good view out of my windows to show you, but I’m in the back corner on the 10th floor so I get to see the other back sides of the hotels around me and nothing of the city. So if I want to see the city, I’m going to have to go into it.
I was hungry and went to the Vampire Apothecary that I enjoyed last year to try another meal and desert. This time I tried their salmon sandwich, purple velvet cake. (The chocolate cake from last year was better.)
After dinner I walked around to try to find Christmas decorations and lights.
Tomorrow the plan is to see the Botanical Gardens.
After many hours of travel I arrived at the humble Holiday Inn of Tomball. The kitchen had been closed for hours and very few patrons remained awake so I retired to my room, tired and hungry.
Sleep did not take long to over take me; however, it was short because of my excitement of the day ahead. I had been invited to the 50th opening of the King’s court.
I began to stir hours before the sun would rise. I impatiently waited for the kitchen to reopen so I could have my breakfast and hours before I needed to dress and ride to the Festival.
As I traveled to the enchanted lands, the road I traveled was covered in fog adding to the excitement as the miles melted away.
A suggestion to any and all that travel to this enchanted real, have your papers ready. (Print your tickets) I saved probably 15 or 20 minutes waiting on line, if I had brought digital tickets.
The lines to enter.
The land is divided into smaller realms that mirror our world.
You can visit… Tuscany, Burgundy, Poland, Germany… You get the idea. Each area has its “special” food.
You can also find Butter Beer from the magical realm of Harry Potter.
Butter Beer
Along with food and drinks you can find many forms of entertainment, comedy underlies almost everything. Keep a lookout for the ratings shown on the stage. Unless you want to have questions from your children before you are ready. Stay Away!
“R” means adult content which is more than just bad words.
I always enjoy the juggling acts.
3 jugglers with flaming pins
And you should always stop for a magician especially if it is The Merlin.
Merlin has returned from retirement for this year’s 50th
There is also an enchanted garden you can walk through, you might find a shrine or sites to rest and contemplate the universe.
You might be wondering why would parents bring children here if the entertainment could raise questions earlier than wanted or give them ideas that could burn the house down… Well there is a whole area that has carnival games.
You could catapult a frog, catch a fish, throw a lance or axe, and even ride an elephant.
Elephants and camels near the petting zoo
There are also some huge swings, a climbing tower and a bungee bouncing trampoline.
Oh and the vendors… Some are just reselling junk you can buy from Amazon, but other handcraft in wood, leather, cloth and metal.
Wooden Tankard Renaissance hat
I was even able to custom order a chainmail linked bracelet that the artist is going to attach a gem stone that I had in a necklace, but that won’t be ready for a few weeks. If I remember I’ll add the picture or maybe make a new post.
Final thing…
Be sure to check out the extras you can purchase. You could eat a feast and be entertained with the King and Queen, you can do a Scotch tasting or wine
Winery south of Houston
The day ends with fireworks, but I had left the realm before the closing event.
I am currently trying to decide if my feet can take another day of walking after walking 18k steps or 9.9 miles today.
Here is a very short video collage, walking into the venue, juggling, bird of prey and full metal combat.
I had a good thinking in the hot springs this morning and decided I could work up the courage to cross the mountains again. Highway 207 isn’t really that bad, I was in a rental car, and taking those curves at the 45 mph speed limited seemed a bit fast to me. Gladly, I’m an early bird so I didn’t have too many people behind me. I did make up for the slow curves, when given a nice straightaway.
Lake Tahoe and Brunch
I spend my morning between breakfast and the soak in the hot springs, surveying eateries in South Lake Tahoe that would give me a view of the lake. Amazingly, there aren’t that many that show up on a Google search. Parking also is a big problem. The large hotels on the California side all have parking garages, just like Hotel/Casinos do on the Nevada side. This doesn’t allow for much parking spaces. This influenced my choice of dinning to only 2 places, Riva Grill on the Lake (has the best view of the lake), Artemis Lakefront Cafe (decent view of the lake, but set back from Riva Grill) and Empanash (no view of the lake). I went for Artemis, because I wanted to try some Greek food. I got there around 10:30 AM so they were still on their breakfast menu, so I channeled my inner hobbit again and had second breakfast.
Enough about the food, here are some pictures from the beach. Most of the beach is private property and only accessible if you are staying at the resort there, but there is a marina and you can walk out on the pier.
If I’m judging my location correctly, one of those mountains over there is the one I climbed up in yesterday’s post. It’s the one above Emerald Bay.
To the top of a mountain
After doing some shopping at the souvenir store were I bought a Lake Tahoe T-shirt and magnet. (These items are a must when I visit a place.) I decided to visit the sister resort, which is a sky resort, to David Wally’s. So back up route 207 with a left turn to keep going up past lots of different resorts and sky locations. This gave me a really good view of the valley below, which I wish I could have taken while driving; however, I was driving and taking photos would have been a bad idea. I’m going to have to save up for a GoPro or Insta360 camera for my next adventure in the mountains. Enjoy the view looking down at the wetlands. Enjoy the bonus squirrel cameo.
Drinks and Saloons
I returned to Genoa, Nevada to have a drink at the oldest saloon in the State of Nevada. I had what was in essence, a Kentucky Mule, which they called a Six Shooter. It wasn’t bad, the choice of ginger beer dominates this drink and at least that tasted good. What I should have ordered was a Bloody Mary; even if I don’t like the drink, they make the mix themselves and I over heard the bartenders discussing their current supply from when they made up the mix the other day. So if you are in Genoa, stop at the Genoa Bar and Saloon, bend down to open the door and enjoy an adult beverage or too. If you are lucky the food truck will also be open and you can get a burger and fries.
Before leaving Genoa, I visited a few shops that were closed the last time I was here. Bought some desert and local Nevada honey.
I’m going to end tonight at the David Wally’s Saloon and take one final soak in the hot springs before calling it a night. I need to be in Reno by 8 AM to return the rental car, so I’ll have to leave here by 7 AM just to be safe. Until the next adventure, I hope you enjoyed my rambling. Stay safe, stay happy.
This morning when I woke up I debated just sitting in my room and reading a book, but reviewing things to do near Lake Tahoe I decided to drive to the Eagle Falls Trail and walk to Eagle Lake. It’s only a 1 mile hike, up a mountain. Going up took me almost and hour, but coming down was quicker at 45 minutes.
Pictures going up to Eagle Lake
I’m glad they had rocks or logs along the trail that you could sit and listen to nature. The trail was not difficult to find your footing, but the “stairs” were still steep. This was a very popular trail due to the short length, so I wasn’t alone with people of all ages and their canine friends. There were even some individuals that had fishing poles and nets, specifically to fish in the lake and river that feeds the lake. I did see some fish jumping in the lake, but I didn’t witness any one catch any fish.
Eagle Lake
The texture of the bark on the tree fasinated me.
Wow, the water was crystal clear, but I shouldn’t expect anything less. My question is how did the first fish get up to this lake? Something to ponder.
The hike back down
I’m sorry this pictures are not in order. And I can’t seem to make wordpress to order them chronologically. They are basically in reverse order. For example, the squirrel, who I think was looking for a handout, was the 2nd to last picture I took today, the bridge was the picture I took before I took the picture of Lake Tahoe thru the trees.
I only hiked 2 miles, but almost all of it was vertical. I also had the sole of both of my hiking boots started to come off and by the end of the hike I was wearing reverse flip flops. The soles were only attached at the heel.
I’m glad I decided to put my running shoes in the trunk. With my hiking boots out of commission I wasn’t going to try to hike anymore trails plus I really need to get hiking poles that I can pack in my luggage. Just doing some free thinking. Back to the narrative.
So, I put the top down on the Mustang and drove back to the resort to make lunch, do laundry and write up this blog. I’ve got tomorrow (Friday) left to experience the area. Going to take the rest of the afternoon to recharge. There is a part of me that wants to get a picture of the sunsetting over Lake Tahoe, driving some of the mountain roads are nerve racking even in a sports car that hugs the road.
Short video collage of the sounds of nature, with music playing to fill in the dead spots.
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