Texas Hill Country Part 1

I have to write about the Texas Hill Country in 2 blog posts because there is just too much to write about.  This section of Texas is so beautiful!  Since we started traveling this has been the first part of the country that I could actually see myself living in.  The only problem is there is no ocean and I really can’t see myself living in an area that is not near the ocean.  And at this point I can’t see myself living anywhere except in my house on wheels because there is just so much more to see of this country, not to mention I think I have a serious case of wanderlust.  It helps that my husband and kids feel the same way.  Jesse (who did not want to do this) said just yesterday, “I want to live in an RV and travel for 400 years!”  Okay Jesse, let’s hope you live long enough to do that. 🙂

Anyway, when we first drove into this part of Texas, the kids were asking “are those mountains??”  Being from Florida, we’re not used to anything higher than a bridge.  I told them that I think they are considered hills not mountains since they call this the “Hill Country”, but they sure look like mountains to us and they sure are beautiful!

So our adventure in Hill Country began in Canyon Lake at Jellystone Park.  We love to visit Jellystone Parks whenever we can, and this one was just as much fun as the others we’ve been to.

Splash pad:

Jumping pillow:

Indoor pool that we went to every night.  We had the pool all to ourselves for the whole week until the weekend crowd came on Friday.

Judy and Kylie came for a visit on the weekend.  We have really enjoyed spending just about every weekend this month with them, but unfortunately we are getting a little too far for them to continue coming to see us on the weekends.  It was such a blessing to have this time with them and we can’t wait to see them again.

Fun laser tag activity:

Speaking of catching up with old friends while we’re traveling, Chris got to spend some time with his old high school friend Pat that he hasn’t seen in about 20-something years.

Staying at this Jellystone Park for the week was interesting in that we were just about the only ones there for the whole week until Friday.  Suddenly the whole park filled up with so many people for the weekend!  On Friday we watched a steady stream of campers pulling in and setting up.  A camper pulls into the spot right next to us and the strange thing about how these sites are arranged is that they had them pull in the opposite direction as we did which means we share a common area.  You can see what I mean in the picture below — we’re in the tan camper on the left and our neighbors are on the right.  Well, initially this seemed like it could be a very awkward situation having to share our outdoor area that we had all to ourselves for the whole week.  But it ended up being such a blessing in disguise.  We could not have asked for a better family to pull in next to us!  We had so much fun with them and their kids and now we have to make sure we get back to this part of the country again so we can see them again someday.  It really amazes me how quickly we connect with people over a campfire.  We never used to connect with people so easily and quickly before.  By the time Sunday rolled around we were so sad to be saying goodbye to people that we didn’t even know on Friday!

Jesse seemed to really enjoy playing with their little girl.  She was such a cutie!

Just five minutes away from the campground was Canyon Lake and I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful lake.  The water was such a pretty blue-green color just like the Gulf Coast water we saw in Destin.  But the mountains hills surrounding it with all the greenery and flowers were just so incredibly beautiful.

We were not far from San Antonio so we took a day trip to visit there.  The River Walk has always been on my “bucket list” of things to see.  We walked over 5 miles on it!

A little section of the river walk has this really cool cave you walk through that looks like there is a monster inside:

The kids were trying to get out quickly before getting eaten alive by the monster:

We went to visit The Alamo while in San Antonio which was really cool to see since I have heard about it before but never really knew what it was.  After we left I couldn’t get that song about Davy Crockett out of my head.  This is a picture of the outside, we weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the inside.  I’m not sure why, I guess they want you to come and see it for yourselves.

And we ended our tour around the River Walk at Rita’s Tex Mex restaurant on the river.  Yummy!

Stay tuned for Hill Country Part 2!