Having touched down in Texas and had a quick bite to eat, the lovely Jane - our tour guide and honorary mummy for the week- whisked us off to the first few stops of our adventure. We all piled into her fabulously, Texan truck and made out way to Salado, a sleepy town just down the road with natural springs and gorgeous gift shops. Oh and a few beat up old trucks to pose next to! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was amazing to get away from the chilly New England wind. The summer clothes came out for the first time in 2012 and we definitely made the most of it. After our first of many Texan Bar-B-Q's we crashed early into bed in preparation for the next morning's adventures. Caves. Caves and pie!
Longhorn Cavern State Park. If you don't know America very well then you won't know that the country is dotted with hundreds of national and state parks and protected areas. The big national ones being places like Yosemite (pronounced yos-em-itty by the way!) and Yellowstone and so on - both of which are definitely on my bucket list. Some of my fondest memories of my travels in America include these areas as they usually comprise of completely untouched and natural land - ie they're absolutely stunning! These caverns were no different. We disappeared into a hole in the ground and proceeded on our guided tour of below. Now I know rocks aren't that interesting but the history of the caverns was fascinating and the some of the formations were absolutely stunning. In the 1920's, when America was strangled by prohibition, the owner of the land set up a speak easy - bascially an illegal, underground (literally) nightclub. We could still see the graffiti on some of the rocks from 1919 where some of his guests had written their names.
Next stop? The Blue Bonnet Cafe. Famous across Texas and with a queue almost out the door. Many of our fellow tour members obviously had the same idea as us and had also driven half an hour or so down the road to Marble Falls, another sleepy Texas town. It was however a town which hosted the best pie in Texas. And boy was it good. Now I think I may have mentioned my first introduction to Pumpkin Pie in November when I stayed with David's family and since then my love of pie has grown - just another great thing about America. However I have to say that my true love is Pecan Pie. One of my last meals in England before I set off for my year abroad back in August was followed by Granny's delicious Pecan Pie. Well Granny, I apologise. I think I've found better. For a mere $4 (about £2.50) I was granted an absolutely massive slice of the most mouth-wateringly, amazingly, scrumptuously, fantastic pie with an equally massive scoop of Vanilla Ice cream. I've never felt like such a fatty. It felt good!
After that we once again set off for our first big destination of the trip: San Antonio. A city I'd heard people absolutely rave about. But that wasn't the only reason I was excited. Oh no. We were going to see something far greater than San Antonio. Something even better than those beautiful State parks and, dare I say it, better than the Blue Bonnet pecan pie. That's right, we were off to see... SHAMU!
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| Shamu at Seaworld San Antonio! |
Having touched down in Texas and had a quick bite to eat, the lovely Jane - our tour guide and honorary mummy for the week- whisked us off to the first few stops of our adventure. We all piled into her fabulously, Texan truck and made out way to Salado, a sleepy town just down the road with natural springs and gorgeous gift shops. Oh and a few beat up old trucks to pose next to! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was amazing to get away from the chilly New England wind. The summer clothes came out for the first time in 2012 and we definitely made the most of it. After our first of many Texan Bar-B-Q's we crashed early into bed in preparation for the next morning's adventures. Caves. Caves and pie!
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