Livingston and Huntsville

Last Saturday friend D and I got the itch to drive through the pines, so we headed through the Sam Houston National Forest across Lake Conroe and on to Livingston. This is a typical East Texas small town with a typical town square and courthouse building with a pretty gazebo on the corner.

We ate lunch at the Courthouse Whistlestop Cafe in downtown Livingston. We thought Whistlestop was a diner, but the décor was more of a tea room attached to an antiques emporium—except there was a mounted turkey on the wall above my head! D had a hamburger and onion rings. She appreciated the fact that she could order the rings cut thin, and they made them up just for her. I had chicken fried chicken with what I thought was a twice-baked potato. Actually, it was just a dab of mashed potatoes with potato toppings--kinda misnamed. The food was all right but not exceptional.

We didn’t have a destination in mind while in Livingston, so we just drove around to see the sights. I had hoped to see a few old mansions, but we never ran across any. There were some lovely older homes with pretty gingerbread trim.

We left Livingston and looped around the east side of Lake Livingston to Onalaska and then crossed Lake Livingston.  We edged along the northern part of the Sam Houston National Forest and stopped in Huntsville for dessert. Huntsville also has a viable downtown square with courthouse. We ate at Farmhouse Sweet & Eats, which serves confections along with its regular soup and sandwich lunch menu.

There are lots of goodies to choose from at Farmhouse Sweets & Eats

D had a root beer float with chocolate ice cream; I opted for a cherry fried pie. Both choices were tasty, although I would have liked more cherries in the fried pie. We also checked out a couple of antiques stores next door to The Farmhouse before heading home.

Huntsville's downtown features antiques stores, cafes, and a pretty brick sidewalk with old-fashioned lamptposts.

Burton Cafe and Wildflowers



Too many cars in the way to get a decent picture of the front. Business is good!

My sister C flew in for a quick weekend visit, so sister CJ and I took her on a wildflower viewing drive Saturday. Over to Independence on FM 50 and then on to FM 390 (La Bahia) for a winding drive through the countryside. We wound up in Burton, Texas, which boasts a population of about 375 folks. There's a cafe located in an old store building that has attracted visitors for years. I love the old wooden screen door and uneven floors. Feels real! The last time I ate there (a couple of years ago), the cafe served diner-style food with great homemade pies. Now it's a German restaurant with a host of pies and other pastries. There were a few diner options left on the menu along with the new German items. And there's still a daily blue plate special--fried chicken or a bratwurst sandwich when we were there.


I kind of miss the larger diner food menu, but the charm of a small town cafe was still there. CJ and I had bratwurst sandwiches, which are served with sauerkraut and potato salad. C had a grilled chicken sandwich. CJ opted for a slice of chocolate walnut pie, which she announced was worth every calorie.


Burton hosts the The Farmers' and Artisans' Market downtown every Saturday through the spring and summer at the old train depot. Last spring we tried out the Cotton Gin Festival in Burton. These folks do a lot for such a small town!


Wildflowers. Last year it was a drought. This year, we've had record setting rain. The grasses have grown so fast they've nearly covered up the wildflowers in some areas. But everything, weeds and all, was green. It was wonderful to see our roadsides and pastures green again. We're crossing our fingers this really is the end of the drought.

Antique Rose Emporium, Independence

Sunday friend D and I went for a quick bluebonnet drive in Washington County. The wildflowers were coming along nicely, but they'll look even better in another week or so. We wound up in Independence and of course had to stop at the Antique Rose Emporium.

This pic is from last year. This year's roses aren't quite ready for prime time!

I love the pond.

 

I love the petunias, too.  Not so sure about the fake swans (ducks? cranes?).

Besides roses, the emporium has all sorts of other plants. I came home with a new batch of herbs--to replace the ones I let die in last summer's drought. My bad! This time I'll water them! I promise...no, really...

Uncle Bubba's Bistro, Hewitt

Last Saturday, on recommendation from my daughter, sister CJ and I had lunch at Uncle Bubba's Bistro, a diner in the small town of Hewitt, Texas.


The diner is in the front corner of an old, and still operating, independent grocery store. It has its own outside entrance and a tiny little seating area. They have daily specials and sell homemade pies, which were being picked up by several locals as we ate. It looks like the locals like their barbeque, too.


CJ's hamburger and lemon meringue pie were very tasty. The same goes for my open-faced roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy.


Uncle Bubba's has technology! The waitress took our order on an iPad. When we paid, she scanned our debit cards on a Square card reader that was attached to the iPad. We both had our receipts emailed. I had seen Square's website, but that was my first time to be part of a transaction.


All in all, it was a nice drive to Hewitt and back home. The wildflowers were putting on a show, the weather was nice, and we had a great lunch. Life is good!

Huntsville, Sam Houston

It was a lazy Sunday morning. Sister CJ and I needed pine trees, so we made a quick trip to Huntsville. The city sits at the edge of Sam Houston National Forest and Huntsville State Park: loblolly pines here we come!


Huntsville is slightly hilly and quite a pretty little town. Downtown is arranged around a courthouse square. It appears that most of the store fronts are occupied. We don't always see a viable downtown in a lot of the small towns we visit nowadays. It's nice to see Huntsville's downtown is thriving.


Two of our shelties rode along with us, so we stopped to let them stretch their legs. There's a nice park area around the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville.

CJ and Sadie enjoy a stroll across the museum grounds. 

Camera shy Mandy refuses to give me a smile!

The museum was closed, but we weren't there to look at artifacts, especially having pets with us. We just wanted to get out in the nice weather and walk around the grounds.


There were several dog trot cabins on display with their characteristic middle breezeways.



The dogs had a great time sniffing the trees for signs of other canine visitors.

We headed to a diner next, but it was closed--something that happens a lot in smaller cities on Sundays. Next time, we'll make this trip on a Saturday.

Sea Center and Whooping Cranes on the Texas Gulf Coast: Lake Jackson, Port Lavaca, Rockport

After a nice Thanksgiving with daughter, son-in-law and grandkids in Waco, sister CJ and I packed up her car and headed to the Gulf of Mexico. We meandered through more small towns than I can count on the way down, taking in every wonder and commenting on which places we should explore further on future trips.

SeaCenter, Lake Jackson...

Our first official stop was in Lake Jackson to take in the Sea Center aquarium. Sea Center is a hatchery, but it also operates an aquarium display for the public. There’s a “petting” pool for children (and me) and life-sized models of record fish catches. The models were interesting as they are the Texas records for a number of species including the hammerhead shark. I would hate to run into one of those. Best of all, it’s free and open all but a few holidays.

Supper Time...

Down the coast we went to Port Lavaca where we stayed at the La Quinta. We ate supper at El Patio. I had a Mexican plate with cheese enchiladas, beans, rice, and taco. CJ had beef taquitos. The food was okay but not great. Like most mom and pop Mexican restaurants, they serve good iced tea in large glasses—a necessary and appreciated beverage for those of us who like spicy food!

Birding on the Intracoastal Waterway...

The next morning, we continued down the coast to Rockport where we boarded the Wharf Cat. The whole reason for the trip was this boat ride, which would take us to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to see the winter abode of the whooping cranes. The Texas coast hosts the wintering ground for the only wild flock of these magnificent creatures, as much as 5 feet tall. There are only a few hundred left, and the Texas flock has been growing slowly but steadily. Our boat pulled up quite close to one pair that had a chick with them. Mind you, chicks are nearly as big as their parents and have just made a 2,500 mile flight from their Alberta, Canada nesting grounds. The chick stayed with its mother, wading the shallows for blue crabs. The male got a little agitated with our boat pulling up so close. These birds are territorial, so the male sent his family down the shoreline a little while he stood his ground and squawked and whooped at us until he was satisfied that we were sufficiently chastised for intruding.

Lunchtime...
After our 4-hour crane trip, we were ready for a late, no seafood lunch. Just a block from Rockport Harbor is a quirky little restaurant with a frog theme. At first I thought it might serve frog legs and other delicacies I’m not apt to appreciate. But actually the frog theme was just that—a theme. The Lunch Box serves daily blue plate specials, a number of deli sandwiches, and their specialty, which is cheesecake. I had the lunch special: a hot turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes and salad. CJ had a club sandwich. We don’t usually order desserts in restaurants, but we decided to try the cheesecake. We opted for plain with berry topping, but take a look at this menu. Wow, what a variety of cheesecakes! They don’t have all of them every day, but they have a dozen or so, and you can order whole cheesecakes to take with you. The service and food was good, the cheesecake quite yummy. Definitely worth trying again next time we’re in Rockport.

La Grange

Sister CJ and I made a Sunday drive to LaGrange, Texas, this morning. It was a beautiful, fall day with perfect weather. LaGrange's courthouse is the star of a downtown square that serves this town of 4600. The town is situated on the Colorado River and features a very pretty riverside park. There are streets with old, restored homes. The historic area isn't quite as well restored as the historic area in Smithville (just down the road a few miles), but it's a very appealing place nonetheless. 

La Grange courthouse on the square

Episcopal church

We stopped at the Riverside Cafe for lunch and treated ourselves to their delicious turkey and dressing buffet. The turkey was big chunks from a roasted turkey instead of the usual round slices from a pressed loaf. Highly recommended!

Crockett, Texas

A few days ago, sister CJ and I made one of our quick road trips to Crockett, Texas. Crockett sits at the edge of the Davy Crockett National Forest. It's a sort of gateway to East Texas. Crockett is a small town with a lot of appeal. It's big enough to have a few stores, medical offices, and several fast food restaurants. It also has several streets of beautiful historic homes that add a certain charm. We found the Hilltop Kitchen cafe after a little wandering around and had a nice, somewhat diet lunch. The buffet, with its fried chicken looked great, but we opted for chef salads, instead.

The Hilltop Kitchen, a stopping place for Sunday dinner

The pies looked mighty good!

The after church crowd made a beeline for the buffet and its comfort food.

Cameron, Rockdale and Hearne, Texas

A few weeks ago, Sister C and I made a looping Sunday drive through to Milam County to visit a couple of  Central Texas towns. Our first stop was Cameron. I forgot my camera, so here's a shot from TexasEscapes.com.

Milam County courthouse in the background and old jail/museum in foreground

Down the road from Cameron lies Rockdale. To our untrained eyes, it seemed that Rockdale has a more robust economy, although an Alcoa plant closure a few years ago has surely affected the area. We found a number of historic homes that had been restored. The biggest difference in the two towns seemed to be that Rockdale's residents are keeping up their properties more than the folks in Cameron. At least that's what it seemed like as we drove around. Maybe we just saw Cameron on an off day, but it did seemed more run down.


On the way home, we stopped in Hearne to eat lunch. We tried lunch at a new spot this time, the Dixie Cafe. Well, that wasn't exactly a good idea. The food was very mediocre, and frankly, most of it seemed warmed up from a can. Next time, it's back to Penny's Diner, our usual luncheonette when we drive through Hearne. Photos from Google Maps.

Lavender and Bobby Sox

Friend D and I headed to the Chappell  Hill Lavender Farm's 6th Annual Lavender Festival this morning. 

There were booths with all sorts of stuff. Lots of scented oils, potpourri, soaps. D bought some culinary lavender.

The alpacas donated their petting time.

 A puppeteer entertained with her marionette...

 ...and sold puppets

Picnicking...no, that's not me...just some folks enjoying the morning

Bluegrass music kept us entertained.

We decided to check in on Chapel Hill, which is about 10 miles down the road.

It's a tiny hamlet with a couple of antiques stores and several pretty historic homes and a couple of churches.

This one's for sale. I could retire here!

Front yard fences are an art form in Chapel Hill.

Watch for traffic warnings on Main Street!

No school crossing, but they do protect their feathered friends!

It was getting close to lunch time, so we headed to Brenham to try out the Brenham Municipal Airport's cafe. If you fly a small aircraft, you can park outside the door!

Just pull up your plane and mosey inside the diner. It looks like motorcycle folks enjoy diner food, too.

Poodle skirts, bobby socks and a jukebox. Good food, too! 

D's hamburger had the pattie hanging out past the bun. That's how we judge hamburgers. My chicken fried steak was good, too. I really liked the squash casserole and homemade rolls.

We ate and watched aerial acrobatics out the windows. These guys have a fun time.

I was in desperate need of a Blue Bell ice cream sandwich, so we stopped at the Lueckemeyer General Store in Independence before we meandered home.