Vino in Texas!

Imagine our delight when we discovered that Texas has its very own wine county! Beyond giddy and thrilled to check out what the Texas vines had to offer. We headed off to the hills last weekend, them there Texas Hills and surprise, the wine was actually good; Texas belt buckle award winning good, seriously the medals are belt buckles, this is not a fabrication and I was completely amused by this! I might want to own my very own vineyard now just so that I can win one of them there belt buckles! 

Again we had little Miss Ethel with us, so the vineyards had to be pet friendly, and we discovered that most of them were! Woo Hoo! We had the opportunity to check out Becker Vineyards and Singing Water Vineyards, both beautiful and very different.

Becker wines were great, live music, lovely grounds; a perfect place to throw down a blanket, eat some appetizers, sip on wine and enjoy the music. Seriously if we lived in San Antonio or Austin area, I am pretty sure we would spend a good portion of our weekends at Becker Vineyards; excellent atmosphere to just unwind, relax and relish the moment. 

Second stop was Singing Water, much smaller, but crazy dog friendly; so dog friendly that the owners have named their Merlot after their Golden Lab, Lupe.  In fact, they actually let Ethel come in and hang out on my lap in the tasting room and then let her tour the wine cellar with us; they loved her at Singing Water, so much so that I am actually surprised I made it out of there with her without a dognapping!

The Texas Hill Country was quite a pleasant surprise and made for a wonderful day, if you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend you put the Hill Country on your list of must do's! Honestly they have so many vineyards you could spend an entire weekend, all day, everyday that you're there and still not get to all of them. 

 

Oh and one more thing, if you make that way, stop in Fredericksburg, an adorable little German town with amazing German food; stop at The Auslander and make sure to get the beer battered mushrooms!  A-freaking-mazing!!!

Austin

Austin is truly a dog lover and runner’s paradise and all I would ever need to wear would be yoga pants all day and everyday and I would fit right in. Ah, a gym rats heaven! We had the pleasure of a little weekend getaway to Austin last weekend to see the hip side of what Texas has to offer and offer up they did; good food, great weather and a very clean and friendly place to visit. 

Did I mention the dog friendly? We checked into the Omni in downtown Austin and upon checking into the room they had Miss Ethel set up with bowls, treats, toys, a list of dog parks and a fabulous list of pet friendly restaurants for us all to dine at. Oh and the crème de le crème, they had a room service menu just for dogs! Love the Omni!

We spent the weekend eating, walking, eating and eating! We received quite a few suggestions on things to do, but most of the time we spent walking the city, enjoying the parks and the running trails along the river. Why? Because we have a fur daughter, who likes to be in bed early, especially after a long day of walking and/or being carried, mostly carried; so 6^th street not in the cards for us plus I’m old and if I make it past ten these days I think it is a huge accomplishment and deserves a happy dance! Even though we didn’t get to experience the wild side of Austin, it was still a great time and a city that we could totally live in, other than Tom is officially allergic to Texas and is currently addicted to Benadryl!