Fredericksburg

Last week, Wes and I celebrated our fourth anniversary with a trip to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg was founded by German settlers in 1846 and still maintains a lot of German character. It is also the birthplace of Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Forces in World War II. The National Museum of the Pacific War is in Fredericksburg, despite the considerable distance from the Pacific.

We started our time in Fredericksburg with dinner at one of the many German restaurants. We had schnitzel and sausage in the beer garden at Altdorf.

After dinner, we went to see the bat colony at Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area. It was fun to see the swarm of bats head off into the sky. We did not realize how popular the bat watching would be - the lower viewing deck had sold out (it holds about 70 people) and the upper deck was pretty full. The next day, we saw this news story on the website of one of the Houston news stations.

On the way back into town, we passed by an interesting scene. This is the first time I have ever seen sheep-emus! I did not see them in action, but I am sure they are much more impressive than sheepdogs or even Babe the sheep-pig.


The rest of our time in Frederickburg, we explored the various shops and restaurants on Main Street. It is a cute shopping area where they have maintained many of the historic buildings. One of my favorite ones was a kitchenware shop in the building that once housed the hospital. They used the small rooms and passageways very effectively.


We tried several beers at the Fredericksburg Brewery and several wines at the Fredericksburg Winery.

We loved the German influence and local history that we found in Fredericksburg. Unfortunately, sometimes authenticity is sacrificed for the sake of commercialism and things break down, such as this store we saw on Main Street:

"Auer Haus" Home Furnishings

On our way out of town, we stopped in for tastings at two wineries, Torre di Pietra and Pedernales Cellars. We enjoyed both stops, but would recommend Pedernales Cellars over Torre di Pietra because the wine was much tastier.