Enchanted Rock

Climbing Enchanted Rock.

We checked out of the Y.O. by 9am and headed toward Fredericksburg.  North of Fredericksburg is Enchanted Rock, which is a large granite mound of rock that is bursting out of the earth - very much like Stone Mountain in Georgia.  We were there by 10am and started hiking immediately.  We had been hoping to do more hiking in the hill country, but, quite frankly, there are not really many hiking trails.  It makes sense, tho.  This is Texas, the land of horses and oil.  Hiking would have a tough time surpassing cars and horses in this state.  That said, if this beautiful land was in Switzerland, there would be countless marked trails criss-crossing the region.

Bluebonnets everywhere.

But Enchanted Rock offered to scratch our itch.  We put in a total of 6.5 miles over 3+ hours, including a hike to the summit.  It was awesome and the girls were all in.  Quinn and Shelby led the way.  No one complained.  Everyone finished strong.  I was very proud of them.

The girls at the summit.

From there we made it back to Fredericksburg for a late lunch.  Hondo's on Main.  This place is great.  First of all, they have menus on a table outside with sign telling you to pick what you want before you come in and give your order at the bar.  At that point, they give you a buzzer and tell you to grab a table.  When your food is ready, the buzzer goes off and you go to "the window" and pick up your food.  Not a lot of hand holding here.  Just a lot of figure-it-out.  Hondo's looks like it rocks in the evenings.  It smells like a yeasty fraternity house and has a stage where I can only imagine live music plays often.  There was also a second stage outside.  

Death Burger.

Tortilla Soup.

The food was great.  Tortilla Soup, Ham and Cheese sandwiches, Spicy Chicken Sandwiches, Frito Pie, and my favorite, the Death Burger - a perfectly cooked half pound of ground beef, onions and peppers, topped with more peppers.  Delicious.

After some window shopping (Fredericksburg really deserved more of our time, it is a very cute town with lots of shops to hit on Main Street), we headed East to Austin.

It was almost 5 by the time we got to our hotel.  A DoubleTree that is super nice.  The creepy Y.O. is a distant memory now (oh, when I checked out, I asked the person at the Y.O. why it was so quiet there.  She just smiled and assured me it gets really busy on the weekends.  I asked when the busy season was - she said it's always the busy season, except for November and December.  ?  I dunno, I am extremely confused.  The Y.O. mystery will go unsolved for now).

We drove to dinner at 6:30.  Destination: Via 313, the hottest pizza joint in town.  We were surprised to find out that the Via 313 is actually a food truck.  It is in a part of town where other food trucks are "permanently" parked.  It is something out of a State Fair meets Iron Chef meets circus carney.  I guess this little corner of Austin teams with people during the lunch hour, when downtown workers descend on this area for a quick and decent meal.  The Via brags about it's "Detroit-style" pizzas (new to me), which are really akin to a Little Caesars or Rocky Rococos (Via is similar only in shape and style, not in taste or quality).  The pizzas are square panned, and have a thick, airy crust, a rich sweet sauce and quality toppings.  Enough people want these pizzas that we got ours 30 minutes after we ordered.  We ate them on a picnic table covered in bird poop right next to the truck.  Crazy, but fun.  Via 313 was well worth it.

BTW, if I lived in Austin, I would hit each and every food truck on this corner.  All looked awesome.  Something to come back to, I guess.

Are you kidding me?  Who wouldn't eat that!

From there we drove to the Central Market, which is similar to Whole Foods, but less presumptuous.  We picked up some stuff for breakfast (we have a full kitchen in our DoubleTree room, yeah!) and some coffee and desserts.

Central Market cheese isle.  Better than Byerly's,

Austin is so cool.  Obviously very different from San Antonio.  The Mexican/Spanish influence is gone.  In its place is an artistic feeling dominated by music.  The entire town feels like more like a Dinkytown and Uptown mix.  Hipsters, college kids, yuppies, foodies and live music on every block.  Quinn is in heaven.