Hill Country Weekend

This past weekend S and I borrowed his brother's truck, packed it full of food, beer, and swim gear, loaded the pup in the backseat, and then picked up our friends N and H and headed out to Texas hill country for a weekend full of tubing, dancing, s'mores, and fun!  We hit the road around noon on Friday and made it to the San Antonio area just in time for an early dinner at Freetail Brewing Co.  Our friend K was in town and met up with us there as well, where we all gorged on some delicious pizza and beer.  Brisket on pizza is AMAZING.  After we were all stuffed we proceeded on the remaining 2 hours of our drive to River Bluff Cabins, which is right on the Frio River.  The last portion of the drive was not stellar for me as driving in the backseat with a fidgety pup on winding, hilly roads gave me a nasty case of motion sickness.  But we made it!

Our cabin was the perfect size and had a grill, firepit, and porch swing outside.  We unloaded the truck and settled in a bit and then meandered down to the river to take in the views before it got too dark out.  This was a truly picturesque little stretch of the river with some shallow rapids, lots of trees, and there were even fireflies!  It was magical!  Oh, and what makes it even better is there were no mosquitoes!  After exploring the river area we headed back to the cabin where the guys struggled to get our fire going with some damp logs.  They managed a small but successful fire and we all roasted marshmallows and cooked up some s'mores before calling it a night.

On Saturday morning S and I woke up semi early (Pandora started whining at 6 am....).  So I took the pup for a beautiful morning walk (see first picture from this post) while S drove to Garner State Park with his brother to get parking passes for the day - oh yeah, S's brother K and his family were staying in the cabin right next door to us!  We noshed on avocado, bacon, and egg breakfast sandwiches and then proceeded to spend the remainder of the day chilling next to the Frio River at Garner.  We had a canopy to protect us from the sun, coolers stocked with picnic foods and beer, and chairs to lounge at the water's edge.  Pandora is not yet a huge fan of water, so we spent some time trying to coax her into the river with us, and everyone also got to do some tubing as well.  It was a lovely day!

All of the noise and water wore poor little Pandora out and she was zonked out for most of the evening after we got back to the cabin.  The rest of us showered up and then prepped some kabobs for the grill.  We brought a tad bit too much food and were all completely stuffed on beef, chicken, peppers, pineapple, and zucchini.  That night we headed back to Garner State Park for their nightly dance!

I wish I'd been able to get a decent picture of the actual dancing, but the lighting situation just wasn't ideal.  People of every age were two-stepping around an open air dance floor under a star filled sky.  We didn't just sit and watch, though (although the people watching there was AMAZING).  S took me on a few two-stepping spins around the dance floor and I also had a dance with both N and K as well.  S and I started getting the hang of the two-step again a couple of dances in (we're so clumsy..) at which point S felt the need to pick up speed a bit.  He dances like he drives - fast and weaving in and out of all of the other people.  One of his many endearing quirks!

On Sunday Pandora let us sleep in to a more reasonable time (I think she was still exhausted from the previous day at the park).  We cooked up breakfast tacos and then started packing up all of our stuff.  Our group then meandered down to the river for a few hours before we took off to relax in the water a bit more.  It was fun to climb on the rocks and try to maneuver through the rapids.  There weren't many other people around and the lack of noise and stimuli left Pandora feeling a bit more comfortable around the water.  She still wouldn't go in further than chest deep, but she did go in that far pretty willingly.  S and N floated down river a bit to jump off a rope swing at one point and Pandora was frantic watching them float away.  S said she reacted the same when I went wading through the rapids to the other side of the river.  Not sure what has our poor little pup so traumatized by water, but we're hoping to keep exposing her to it to get her more comfortable.  We headed back up to the cabin a little after 11 to take quick showers and load up the truck, and were on the road headed home by noon.  Trip home was pretty uneventful, but it was amazing how quickly the weather went from pleasant and cool to brutally sunny and hot.  The weekend reprieve from Houston's muggy, mosquito-y, 90 degree weather was so nice - we truly got lucky with the amazing weather out in hill country.

After unpacking at home that evening we headed back out to celebrate S's nephew A graduating from high school!  We met up with the whole family for a nice dinner out and to congratulate A on his accomplishment.  Overall, it was a very eventful, and very enjoyable weekend!