Month: December 2009

Yesterday we finally went on a hike! Our Austin hosts recommended Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg, Texas. It felt good to hit the road in the morning and the fog had dissipated by the time we arrived in Llano, a small town on the way.

We walked by the river which was clear and green. We also admired all the prickly cacti. The town is picturesque with buildings a little over 100 years old.

After lunch, we arrived at the rock. Morgane and I wanted to go straight up, but it was Ghis’s turn to pick so we followed a trail that made a circle around it. Morgane was a very enthusiastic hiker!

It was steeper around the back, but once we were three-quarters of the way around, we spotted some climbing trails leading up. We attempted them and ended up climbing under and in between enormous boulders.

But the trail proved elusive so a bit further on, Ghis and Morgane scrambled up a steep, but safer slope of rocks. As Morgane said, “I was born to climb!”

I continued on until I found a gentler way up. Once we were all sitting together on top, Ghis realized it was Morgan’e first 360 degree mountain-top view. We could see a lot of Texas and maybe even all the way to Mexico.

It was really windy on top and on the way down, but not cold. The day was sunny and hot, not bad for December 30th.

Once in the car, we headed west and drove a couple of hours to the Caverns of Sonora where we camped for $15. It is very quiet here and at night the moon was so bright, it felt like day.

Austin is proud of being weird. It’s a city full of artists with lots of students thrown into the mix.

Yesterday we finally made it to town. Our first stop was at Whole Foods. Yes, we know the joke: Whole Paycheck! Still it was fabulous. It is the hugest healthy food store we’ve ever been in. There is so much to eat and it all looks so good. We contemplated spending the next month of our trip in their parking lot.

Things got even better – there was an REI next door! That’s like a Mountain Equipment Coop for all you Canadians. I picked up a couple of nice things on sale.

Then we drove to the capitol building and walked all around. It’s on the top of a hill and you can see down a street called Congress Street.

Finally we drove to SoCo – South Congress – which is just across the river. We passed some more Airstream trailers selling cupcakes and BBQ and other foods. We stopped at Fran’s and ate burgers and then I browsed in some of the vintage shops. Vintage is huge in Austin. You could buy old family albums from people you don’t even know.

Eventually we came back to Whole Foods and ate again. We found a skating rink on the roof that was open so Morgane went skating. She loved it. It was real snow, not the plastic that she skated on in Savannah.

We meant to go listen to some of Austin’s great live music, but the place we went to wasn’t starting until later. We decided we were all too tired so we headed back.

This morning Ken and Susan treated us to a Tex-Mex breakfast with eggs and black beans on crunchy corn tortillas and tamales as well. It was excellent and a welcome change.

Ghis wanted to get the oil changed so he dropped Morgane, Adriene and I off at the Children’s Museum. It was busy, but we amused ourselves.

Before they went out tonight, Ken made queso which is a somewhat spicy cheese dip eaten with tortilla chips. Excellent. Another miracle Velveeta cheese recipe.

We are very happy here. Our only complaint is that we are all a bit under the weather. Tomorrow we are taking off – we’re not sure exactly where yet. We’re thinking of heading to Southern California to pass the coldest months and then coming back to New Mexico when it’s warmer.

We may go to a place called Marfa, Texas, which is eight hours from here. We could meet up there with another VW van family and apparently kids can come to bars in Texas so there will be lots of kids at the bar on New Year’s Eve (depending on the bar, I’m sure). We only hope we’ll feel well enough to stay up so late.

We are couchsurfing again and as usual, it’s great. Our last couchsurfing hosts told us they wanted to visit this Austin family and we hope they will.

Our new hosts, Kenneth and Susan (and their two kids) have have an amazing home and life. We were welcomed and given the option of sleeping in the house, but we chose the cabin with the loft and windows looking out over the lake. Kenneth, a dentist, always has extra floss on hand.

For dinner, we had venison that their 12-year old son had shot. He and his friend also ate a squirrel that they had caught! All I can say is he is an adventurous eater. The venison was excellent; I can’t say for the squirrel.

Their house is a work of art. They lived in a trailer while they were building it. They made the floors and the shelves from trees they bought themselves and they have integrated old stained glass pieces here and there. A long staircase leads up to the roof and there is a patio up there with a view of the lake. There is a dome over the kitchen made of bricks brought from Mexico. There are lamps made out of rocks that give off an orange glow.

Today they went to San Antonio so we took it easy here. Morgane bounced on the trampoline and Ghis cooked good Thai food for dinner. I had a long nap.

Morgane is very happy playing with their 9-year old daughter. The girls are watching a movie now before they go to bed.

Tomorrow we will start exploring Austin. It’s supposed to be a special town, a bit weird, full of musicians and more left-wing than most of Texas. We are planning a hike to Enchanted Rock.

Christmas morning: Morgane wakes up and finds stockings on the dashboard of the van. “How did Santa get in here?” she wonders.

Then we opened her bag of presents and she was very happy to get some more calico critters to play with. My dad also sent her (and us) some money so she could pick something out and she is looking forward to that!

Merry Christmas everyone! We may not be with you, but we missed you. Just know that we did eat well and we were welcomed to a Christmas gathering in San Antonio.

We ate prime rib and duck, sweet potatoes and Madeleine’s amazing cranberry-horseradish dip. We cooked cocktail sausages (hot dogs) in maple syrup and they were a hit – they all got eaten. For dessert there was lots of pie and cookies.

Morgane had some very nice girls to play with – one her own age and two like big sisters. She received a bag of surprises from Madeleine so full that she exclaimed, “I KNEW this was going to be the best Christmas!” She especially loves her pink pony stuffie and her pet shop activity book (which she hasn’t stopped working on). We were spoiled as well and given some Texas music, postcards, books and spicy sauces to liven up our daily cooking.

A big thanks to Madeleine and Missy and everyone else for welcoming us!

Christmas Eve – We drove downtown and walked by the river. This is a famous walk in San Antonio. You can sit at cafes and restaurants and it is really beautiful.

Instead of paving over the river after an intense flood, a system was built to regulate the water flow. There is a whole network of sidewalks beside the river and it’s all lower than street level. There are no cars so it’s great for pedestrians and little boats that provide tours. There was practically no one around, which was perfect for us.

After the river, we stood in front of the Alamo. It was closed for Christmas Eve. The Alamo is a symbol of Texas’s independence. The soldiers who fought there were outnumbered and they lost, but they did took a lot of Mexican soldiers down with them.

For dinner, we went out to a great Mexican restaurant (Los Barrios) with Madeleine and her son, William. We had chicken mole (a kind of chocolate sauce) and tacos and something like a taco I think called a Churo.

Then Morgane hung up her stockings – one for her and one for the dog – and went to bed. She was begging to go to sleep for once!

Our first day in San Antonio and I decided it was time to see Sea World – there are three: Orlando, San Antonio and San Diego. Ghis dropped Morgane and I off for the day and it turned out to be good timing! It wasn’t busy at all.

The first thing we did was buy trays of fish to feed the dolphins. The edges of the pool are low so you can reach over and toss the fish into a hungry dolphin’s mouth. We loved it so much that we had to buy more food. Then more because we learned that it was the best way to get to pat the dolphins. It really isn’t the kind of experience we can have back home anyway.

Then we saw Shamu’s show – there are three orcas actually. It reminded me of when I was little and there were killer whales at the aquarium in Vancouver and we all were in love with them. Skana, I think, her name was. In this show, a trainer swam in the water with the orcas and even came out of the water balanced on the orca’s nose!

A highlight of the day for Morgane was playing on a huge climbing structure. She began climbing up the giant net, then turned to me and said, “I feel like I’m five years old again.”

She had to crawl through tubes to get from one structure to the next. By the time she came down, she was red-cheeked and thirsty.

She also got to build her own wooden planter. She was so proud of hammering it all by herself.

Later on was the show I remembered most from my visit to Sea World, San Diego, when I was a teen: the sea lion show! It was as funny as I remember. The sea lions even danced to the nutcracker. Then they read Twas the Night Before Christmas and instead of Santa coming down the chimney, a huge pinky-white walrus appeared out of nowhere!

We saw a 4D movie – a short version of The Polar Express. During the movie, we were actually squirted with water. Our seats also vibrated at times and it snowed in the theatre!

On top of that, we rode the Shamu roller coaster and fed fish to the seals. We even watched the Shamu show again, but this time it was dark and lights lit up the water. No wonder we were exhausted by the end of the day.

Ghis picked us up and we came to Madeleine’s house. She is letting us boondock in our driveway and has invited us to a Christmas gathering.

She is an amazing woman who has travelled far and wide in her van (the same year as ours!). She has a lot of great stories to tell us and Morgane has taken up amusing her cat. She is a very passionate democrat and has been working hard for the past eight years. Her van and yard are covered with political signs, which is pretty brave considering this is Texas.

We have arrived in San Antonio and are going to do the river walk today. It’s already warm and humid a bit. These are some pictures from yesterday’s drive.

We are in Texas now- somehow that seems like a big deal to us. The guy had a booming welcome for us at the visitor centre. We got lots of maps and brochures, one with a family riding horses and a little girl wearing a cowboy hat. Morgane and I decided we should ride horses while we’re here. Ghis is the only one of us with much experience in this area.

Tonight we stopped to see a movie (A Christmas Carol) and are now camped at Wal Mart. Seems like a nice place. There are tons of shoppers out and about and I am using the internet at Barnes and Nobles, just next door.

This morning, I had my great Jennifer massage – definitely not for the wimpy, but I feel good now. Ghis went with Mark to do some work. He has to drive out into the boonies and check some oil rigs. It was quite the experience and I’ll post his pictures later. He drove the truck on a freaky 4 by 4 road and walked through grass where poisonous snakes live (only until he learned this!). He saw rice fields flooded with water where crawfish are harvested. Mark tried hard to find one, but couldn’t so they stopped and got one from a freezer and brought it back for us to see. Then he plopped it into the pond. Morgane and the dogs were very interested!

Then we all had a visit and ate tacos from The Taco Sisters. Very yummy.

Morgane didn’t want to say goodbye to Boon and the other dogs at Jennifer and Mark’s. We had trouble saying goodbye to all our new friends: Becky and John, Jennifer and Mark, everyone from the gumbo party and all the fabulous employees at Pack and Paddle.

This morning Ghis had a wonderful (best ever) massage with Becky and John’s friend, Jennifer. Morgane got to play with Jennifer’s daughter, Ruthie. After lunch, we went to watch Ruthie figure skate as part of a Christmas show. The girls were all impressive with their skating, dancing and bravery. Morgane thinks she might like to try it when we get home.

After lunch we went to Jennifer and Mark’s for a gumbo party – gumbo is served with rice and it’s a beef broth soup with sausages and chicken. Morgane got to jump on the trampoline with Ruthie and we got to hang out with people who dress like we do! Almost everyone was wearing Patagonia.

Ghis has fallen in love with their school bus. They bought a short school bus and took out all the seats and are making it into a camper. They have put in a wood floor and it looks lovely with all the windows. We are envious of all the space it has. The other thing we love about their house is their complete outdoor bathroom.

We even got to play a little music during the afternoon party – guitar, fiddle, dulcimer, accordion and the triangle. Plus we learned some more about Cajun culture and the loss of the French language.

We finally left just before dinner time, but promised to come back the next morning – for my massage!

Morgane and I went out to see the Christmas lights on display at the Acadian Village, but it ended up being a lot of waiting in line and paying money. Too many crowds for me, but a good reminder that it’s not off-season anymore.

We ended the day with an inspiring slideshow of John and Becky’s Appalachian Trail Hike. They walked all the way from Georgia to Maine! I hope we get to do some hiking soon. They’ve given me the bug!

We wanted to explore Cajun Country because we were intrigued by the area’s French history and culture. We were also curious whether we’d understand the local French. It turns out that not many people speak French since a couple of generations ago, the schools punished children if they spoke French. Now some schools are teaching French again.

We started by driving as far south as we could on one road, to a town called Cocodrie. We liked the name because in French, we say “Crocodile,” but Cocodrie is Cajun French.

The drive out was fun for Ghis. The van is not usually that fun to drive, but this road was windy and the land was so flat that you could see if anyone was coming from far away. We could see the charm of boating along the small canals.

There wasn’t much town to see. We saw a lot of houses on stilts and some mobile homes on stilts, too. We also saw a row of condos for rent. They were on stilts with individual docks underneath.

Along the canals, the locals park their shrimp boats next to their houses. There is also a marine research centre. We were just considering parking for the night when an email came in and we got a great invitation to go CouchSurf in Lafayette.

We were enthused to meet John and Becky, two outdoor enthusiasts who own an outdoor store in Lafayette. Morgane was excited because they said we could help decorate their tree when we arrived. Ghis was excited because they invited him to go demo kayaks in the morning.

Louisiana has had much more rain than normal this December. It was nice out this Friday, but at one point the entire road was covered with water. I was a bit nervous, but the van made it through.

We arrived and there was a great dinner waiting for us! It felt great to eat real food. We love John and Becky’s house and their store, too. They have the cutest six-month old puppy. Morgane LOVED unwrapping the decorations and putting them on the tree.

Ghis had a great time kayaking although he forgot to ask about alligator etiquette until he was way off on his own. Turns out the alligators are hibernating now and even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be a big threat. The bigger threat seemed to be the duck hunters whose shots were unnerving.

Back at home, I told Becky that we wanted to see something unique, that I’d been finding that most areas just had the same old tourist stuff. She sent us to Breaux Bridge and that fixed us!

We went to eat in a restaurant that has a band playing Zydeco music every Saturday. When we walked in the door, the music was loud and the restaurant was half-filled with people dancing. There were some cowboy hats and one guy was decked out in a red-sequined shirt. I was like nothing we’d seen before.

Unfortunately it was their last song of the day, but we had a great lunch. I had catfish. It was yummy – no whiskers, thank goodness.

Then we went down the street to a cafe where folks gather to jam all afternoon. There were at least ten people playing fiddles and guitars and other instruments I didn’t recognize. A few couples danced in the small remaining space. Morgane whispered that we could dance, so we did, too.

Tomorrow we are going to watch a nine-year old friend of theirs figure skate and then go to their house for a gumbo party. Her parents are both massage therapists and Ghis has booked himself a massage for tomorrow morning. I, on the other hand, treated myself to some new clothes (Patagonia!) at the store.

All in all, I think John and Becky have inspired us to make the next part of our trip revolve more around hiking.