From the Old West to the German Influence
I had work waiting for me after all our play time in
,
, and
, so when we got to Fredricksburg, our first stop was the public library.
The minute I walked in the door, I wanted to move in there! When we asked the librarian the best place for us to work for a few hours, she told us to head upstairs where it was quiet. Upstairs, we found large work tables with charging stations and a quiet nook with two armchairs, two ottomans, and electrical outlets - just want we needed. I set up shop in one of the chairs while Tim napped in the other. He said at one point all we needed was a fireplace, but I was perfectly content.
Fredericksburg turned out to be a touristy town, but it took us a couple of days to discover that fact. The town held a lot of contrasts - young and old (people and culture), new and old (architecture and attractions), Old West and German, past and present.
We are still car camping, so one night, we decided to go hang out at the local Whataburger and discovered that this particular location served as the town's diner. Locals of many generations hung out there, and apparently, our presence created quite a stir.
First, the woman who brought us coffee asked where we were from. (Tim's Bama hat still giving us away.) When she learned we were from Georgia and Alabama, she told us about her relatives who lived back east. She went back to work, but soon, we heard her tell someone else that we were from Alabama. Another employee came over and said her brother was from Huntsville. She talked for a while, then brought us a really great map of Fredericksburg that we hadn't found elsewhere. We sat studying the map after she went back to work, but soon, a couple came up and asked where we were from. They said they'd noticed we were looking at the map and wanted to give us a few pointers about town. We invited them to sit down with us, and the wife perched beside me, but the husband remained standing.
We learned all about the
National Museum of the Pacific War
and about LBJ's power and influence in the area (and how he got it). The conversation was lively, although a bit one-sided, but we learned a lot. His wife was precious (although she never uttered a word.)
The downtown area is lively on Saturdays, with shops and many restaurants. Our Whataburger friend told us to try the ice cream shop downtown, so that's how we ended up there the next night.
My favorite part of Fredericksburg was the Lady Bird Johnson city park. We spent a few hours there (over a couple of days) because it was peaceful and spacious - and greeted us with this fun surprise on our first visit.
Fredericksburg is a nice town that proved much more interesting than I expected.
