Riverwalk Christmas Lights

Don't worry, the Riverwalk pictures are coming right up. Tuesday, all the Pink FlaminGoes that could make it showed up at Catalano's Pizzaria in Cibolo for lunch. Catalano's has been around for a long time....it isn't fancy but the food and prices are great. They have a lot more than pizza too. It is an Italian restaurant. They have specials every day and a pizza buffet on Wed and Sat I think. Tuesday was Manicotti which comes with a salad, delicious bread, and ice tea for $6.75. My favorite special is Eggplant Parmesan on Wed. My cousin Shirley in the white top got to meet a few of my RVing friends.

Tonight we headed down to the Riverwalk to see the Christmas Lights. This is the Hilton Palacio del Rio.

The Alamo.

Alamo Plaza.

Down on the Riverwalk itself.

The Arneson Theater.

I think this is my favorite one. Just cellphone shots but still pretty magnificent.

Pearls to Donuts

Saturday morning, the kids, grands, and Angus in one car, with my cousins Shirley and Jack plus Hershey and Harley and me in a second car, convoyed down to the Pearl Brewery for the Pearl Market which is more of an event than a Farmers Market. That pretty building in the background is the Pearl Brewery.

There were actually a lot more people than this picture seems to indicate.  I should say people and dogs. The whole area has been modernized with condos and apartments in the old brewery buildings and other warehouses.

This is the stable originally used to house the horses for the brewery.

We stopped for coffee at Local Coffee. There was a bit of a line but they are pretty fast. In the background you can see a Yoga group on the lawn.

Hotel Emma is also located at the Pearl. It is a really unique hotel. The décor utilizes a lot of the equipment left from the brewery.  There is a huge outdoor fireplace at the outside entrance to the hotel. This is the storage for the wood.

In the lobby area, several of the huge old storage tanks have been cut out with conversation pits inside.

Lots of people were relaxing and enjoying some snacks in the rest of the lobby area.

We found this tapestry in one of the hallways.

Back outside enjoying the market area. The market goes on every Saturday and Sunday. There are lots of booths with different types of food as well as items for sale. The area also has lots of different restaurants and other shops which are open all the time.

Nope, that isn't Harley. There were quite a few other dachsies strolling around.

This is Hershey with my cousin Jack and Harley with grandson Cameron.

The caboose was decorated for Christmas.

 

Steve and Helen met up with some friends and were going on to Gruene but we decided to save that until next Saturday. The grands opted to come with us. Our final stop on the way home was The Art of Donut. Our family foodie, Helen, happened to mention it and Jack and the kids thought we really needed to find it. After my phone sent me several different directions, I realized it was close to the San Antonio Zoo right off Hwy 281.

 

They have this showcase of donuts so you can pick what you want. Of course, it was after 2:00PM when we arrived so they were out of many of the choices. Shirley and Jack had a Cherry donut and Morgan and I shared the Blackberry donut in the lower right corner. Most of the flavoring is in the frosting which was quite strongly flavored. They don't look as big as they really are in this photo....more than large enough to share as they were about 6 inches across.

 

All in all, we had a great day. Jack and Shirley came over for dinner which was a pot roast fixed in the Instant Pot along with some homemade rolls and then the grands stayed overnight so we watched a couple movies.

 

A Day Full of Thanksgiving

We had a beautiful day in the upper 70s for Thanksgiving. My lovely DIL wanted to host the dinner for family and friends and I was happy to oblige. She loves to cook and have company and is very good at it. The turkey was done early. Helen is such a ham.

Her cousin (2d or once removed, I never am sure) came from Austin....they hadn't met before but we all quickly decided she was a very welcome addition to the family.

Morgan, my granddaughter had a wonderful time showing everyone the memory album from their summer trip to Michigan and Maryland.

It was especially wonderful to have my cousins, Shirley and Jack, join us from Strathmore, Alberta, Canada. They are snowbirding here in Texas this year. The food was plentiful as well as good.

 

Lots to be thankful for this year. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Grandparents Weekend

Angus came over on Tuesday night, Halloween, to spend the week with us while Steve and Helen headed off to Florida so Helen could race in the Ironman Florida Triathlon on Saturday. Halloween was kind of drizzly here this year but we still had trick or treaters. Angus needed a little Grandpa laptime.

Then there was a little Willy and Angus blanket time on the couch.

Friday night Angus and I drove up to Burnett to pick his kids. He was really excited to see them. Saturday was a very quiet day at home because Cameron didn't feel good. We tried a visit to the bookstore but it only lasted a half hour so we came home and Cam took a nap and finally felt better when he got up.

Sunday, we had a pancake and bacon breakfast followed by a trip to the Busby Flea Market per request of the kids. Back at home, the legos came out. Harley was very interested in the round green piece on the top of the blue container.

Very interested indeed. He made a play for it every time Morgan's attention was diverted.

Ah, success......but it didn't last long. Willy and Angus weren't interested. I'm not sure if Harley really wanted that piece or he just wanted the kids to pay attention to him instead of to the legos.

It wasn't a wild exciting weekend by any means. The weather was beautiful and I really wanted to take the kids camping but, considering the fact that Cameron forgot to pack any clothes to bring down and then was sick, we were much better off at our house. We found some clothes for him at his Dad's and he was feeling better on Sunday. This is what happens when you give your phone to your grandson so he can talk to his Dad on the way back to Marble Falls......actually there were 12 of these shots.  It was good to spend time together just grandparents and grandkids!

A Strawberry Shortcake Kind of Birthday

On a Saturday morning, Steve, Helen, Angus, Harley, and Willy went to the Pearl Farmer's Market. It was a beautiful day. After lots of walking, many admiring looks, and lots of petting, Willy is worn out. He climbed onto Angus's bed and zonked out before we left the parking lot. Angus is slightly miffed that such a little man takes up half his bed. Harley is on the floor checking things out.

Several days later, Mary Jane and I took Sage to the Gristmill Restaurant in Gruene for a birthday lunch. It was a nice day so we ate out on the patio. We stopped at HEB on our way to get a very, very small birthday cake as a surprise.......

But the Gristmill treated Sage to a huge strawberry shortcake with ice cream when they found out it was her big day (well, a couple of days late but).

So we put the candle in the strawberry and sent the chocolate cake home with her for later.

After walking around a bit after lunch, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop, the Gruene Coffee Haus. I think Sage enjoyed the day and so did we. Always fun to get together with friends.