Month: March 2016

Oklahoma. It’s The Place To Be…For Burgers

Oklahoma. It’s The Place To Be…For Burgers

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We took a day off and went out exploring part of Oklahoma. We’d been to Oklahoma on several occasions, but we’d never taken the boys to the State Capitol so, we loaded up the car and drove the almost four hours from where we were staying so we could officially check Oklahoma off of our 50 state list.

We thought the outside of the Capitol Building looked very impressive. In our state capitol booklet Oklahoma boasts as being the only State Capitol Building with a working oil well around it. We did see one, but it didn’t look like it was working.

The Redbud Trees were starting to bloom around the Capitol grounds! Love that pop of color! The dome was unique to what we’ve seen of other domes so far. Oklahoma chose to use a color scheme that represents their ties to the Native American culture which makes sense because the Native Americans have a strong presense in Oklahoma.

I’m a little OCD when it comes to centering up under the domes, so when I saw that OKC had the floor directly under the dome roped off, I got slightly panicky. I hesitated even taking the photo because I knew when I looked at it the lack of symmetry would drive me nuts. But I really like to share our adventures with y’all, so I took the shot and you get a picture of the dome that’s…not great. Sorry.

There were some nice murals and some very lovely stained glass throughout the building. Like most Capitol Buildings, there was marble everywhere. I’m not complaining…I love the look! We did find a couple of Capitol Building firsts! The OKC Capitol Building has a gym and a barber shop!

We’ve decided we need to add a burger list to our List Page. We decided this after eating at Tucker’s Onion Burgers. Are you wondering what the heck an onion burger is? Back in the 1920s several cafes in Oklahoma started adding thinly shredded caramelized onions to their burgers to stretch the beef further. It was a way for the café owners to still turn a profit even during the Great Depression. The onion burger continues to be a staple in many Oklahoma cafes today. And just so you know…Tucker’s is at the top of our Burger List.

We couldn’t pass up the 66ft tall soda bottle at POPs. POPs has hundreds of different flavors of soda all in one store/gas station/diner. There were a ton of people there and we had to stand in line just to look at all of the flavors. It was insane! Flavors ranged from the usual colas to some very interesting flavors…bacon, peanut butter & jelly, sweet corn, and ranch were a few of the not so usual flavors we found. We each picked something out and headed on down the road.

It’s a tourist road side attraction. There’s a “museum” in the bottom floor, but the loft upstairs was the best part. It’s worth a quick stop if you’re ever driving by. I tried to get a shot of the loft, but it just didn’t happen. You’ll just have to go check it out yourself! And make sure you go to Tucker’s Onion Burger since you’ll be so close!!

See y’all down the road!!

Pizza Roundup Double Daves

Pizza Roundup Double Daves

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Double Dave’s is a fantastic pizza place in Texas that we always went to for pizza when we lived in the Houston area. It was our go-to pizza spot!

Double Dave’s has good service, awesome pizza, clean bathrooms, a pizza buffet,

and cool decorations.

Best of all, Double Dave’s has great dessert pizza! They’ve got chocolate chip and cinnamon. My favorite pizza there is a thin crust, jalapenos and pepperoni. Yum!

Double Dave’s definitely gets a 5 star review for all of that. If you are in the Missouri City area and are looking for pizza, Double Dave’s is amazing.

See you next time on

Pizza Street!

Houston

Houston

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Hey Guys!!

We spent three weeks back in our old stomping grounds. It was really weird being in familiar surroundings after a year of moving to a new city every week or two. Why did we go back to the Houston area when our 50 state exploration isn’t done? We have friends in the area to visit. It’s hard to find good friends, but we’ve found some of the best and we like to chat with them face-to-face at least once a year. We also still have yearly check-ups. I know, I know…we could just find a doctor wherever we might be, but you see…we really like our Doctors. Our Doctor Team is top-notch, super friendly, and they just get us. They understand and support our need to be nomads.

We’ve called the Houston area home for over eight years. You’d think we would have done everything touristy there is to do in the area. But, no. It’s a huge area with plenty to offer.

 We spent a couple of hours at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. The Mandir is a Hindu place of worship, so if you’re interested in going please read up on their customs and beliefs beforehand. I’ve never been to a place like this. It’s absolutely gorgeous! We were wandering around inside and one of the volunteers offered to give us a tour. I’m so glad he did. I mean, the Mandir is beautifully crafted, but until you learn the details you can’t really appreciate what you’re looking at.

Since the Mandir is a place of worship, photos of the inside aren’t allowed. They gave me permission to use the photos from their website. The photos above are of the main dome. What you’re looking at is intricately hand carved Turkish limestone. It was so hard not to take pictures of this place. Everywhere you look it’s fantastically detailed art. There are over 33,000 pieces of Italian marble and Turkish limestone that make up the Mandir. Every piece was hand carved, shipped to the Houston area and then assembled. It took volunteers eleven months to assemble the Mandir.

I would recommend visiting the Mandir to anyone going to the Houston area and not just because it’s beautiful…but also because it’s always good to expand your knowledge of other cultures and beliefs.

There’s a gift and book shop on the grounds of the Mandir…they have cookies… We got the Badam Pista Cookies and the Kadju Rolls. Next year we’re going back for more.

We also went to see the Glenwood Cemetery. Is it weird we went to a cemetery where we don’t know anyone that’s buried there? Cemeteries have always kind of fascinated me. All the different grave markers…like the one in the photo above. How cool is that one? This cemetery was probably the biggest, fanciest cemetery I’ve ever been to. Some of the biggest names in Houston can be found there. While we were looking around we kept noticing these emblems on certain tombstones. We found a couple of others too, but the one in the left photo is the one we saw the most. This emblem is uniquely Texas since Texas is the only state to have ever been its own country.

We also found a really nice view of one of Houston’s skylines while we were at the cemetery.

We got in as much Indian food as possible. We’ve got to figure out how to make these dishes. Indian food is probably our favorite kind of food and it’s super hard to find. Yep, we spent the entire three weeks eating at our favorites. Torchy’s Tacos is at the top of our list for cheese dip and tacos…and soda. They have Maine Root Soda on tap there. It’s glorious… We met some of our friends here and had a great night of catching up.

Alex and Nicholas  took advantage of the smooth pavement in the RV park we stayed at to do some rip sticking and roller skating.

I had a foodie first. What you’re looking at is the Fajita Burger from Lankford Grocery. It was sooooo good!! And the prices were unbelievable. The five of us all got huge burgers, fries, tots, and drinks for less than $50. If you go make sure to try the Tex Mix! The Tex Mix is a mix of jalapeno strips and onions battered and fried!

We were in town for the start of the Houston Rodeo. The horses and carts went right by our RV park. You know you’re in Texas when you’ve got a wagon train going down a major highway and no one blinks an eye at it. Just a normal day here in the great state of Texas!

Something we like to do in each state is go to a distillery. We went to the Yellow Rose with a couple of friends one afternoon. I always enjoy hearing the stories about why and how each distillery is started. Everyone has a different specialty they do. And, you get the chance (at some distilleries) to try/buy items that they don’t sell anywhere else. We’ve found most distilleries are family friendly. Yellow Rose even has some games for the kids to play. Notice the huge Jenga blocks in the photo above? The boys had a good time with those.

Spring in Houston means crawfish! After the Yellow Rose, our friends took us to a place in their neighborhood called The Boot where crawfish is the thing to get. I’m not a huge crawfish fan when I have to peel them at the table so I ended up with a shrimp po’boy that was really good! Now, give me a good crawfish etouffee and I’m totally in!

Y’all know I’m a baker. One afternoon while we were watching movies, I whipped up a batch of S’mores brownies! They were super easy and really tasty!

I couldn’t leave out the flowers. It was so nice seeing some more flowers around. You’ve gotta love February in Houston!! It’s not melt-your-face-off hot yet and everything is green and blooming!

See y’all down the road!!

Austin, TX

Austin, TX

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Hey Guys! So, we spent a week in Austin…but we really didn’t do much at all. We stayed in a great little state park and didn’t even get any hiking in. I guess that’s what happens when three out of the five of us were sick or injured. We had an allergy issue, a cold, and a hurt ankle. It was…quite the week.

We did manage to make it to the Capitol Building! The outside of the Texas Capitol Building was really impressive. We all think it’s one of the better looking ones we’ve seen so far (and not just because we claim Texas as our home state).

When we went inside, though…well, the dome was nice. This State Capitol Building was all work and no play. The grounds were pretty with several monuments, but as a whole we’re not sure it would make our top ten.

We also made it to a couple of foodie places! Because foodies!

Hopdoddy is a burger place on the main foodie strip. It was packed, but it was running like a well oiled machine. We got in quick, didn’t stand in line too long, and they found us a table before we’d even finished ordering. Can I just say how grateful we were that they found us a table in the middle of all the madness? I was a little stressed that we’d have trays of food and no where to sit.

Our fries came out way before the burgers so they were kind of cold by the time we were ready to eat them. They had some great flavor combinations and they didn’t skimp on the jalapenos or the bacon like some places can do. We really liked that the meat was grass-fed and all of the ingredients were locally sourced and organic.

My favorite thing about Austin was the ice cream. We stopped in at Lick and it was fantastic! They’ve got unique flavors like Texas Sheetcake, Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownie, and a few made from coconut milk so even Charles was able to enjoy some ice cream!

While we didn’t get to do much on our list for Austin, we did get to add the Texas sticker to our map and take a much needed week off!

See y’all down the road!!

Fredericksburg, TX

Fredericksburg, TX

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Guten Tag! Willkommen to Fredericksburg! Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

The language the German settlers brought with them to this area back in the 1800s can still be seen in most of the signs and buildings around town and if you listen carefully, you can even hear it when you listen to the locals. The building in the photo above is called Vereins Kirche and has been a church, a fort, a storehouse, a meeting hall, a library, and an office before becoming the museum it is now. It was first built as a church but was demolished in 1896 and was rebuilt in 1935 and is considered a landmark for the city of Fredericksburg.

If you get to visit Fredericksburg, come hungry and be prepared for some amazing food! The pictures above are from a place called The Old German Bakery. We found it close to the end of our stay which was a bummer. I would have loved to have eaten there a few more times! We ate at several locations during our nine day visit and only once did we get a meal that was just so-so. We found some seriously cool places to indulge in our love of German food!

If German food isn’t your thing…never fear! We also found some of the best burgers we’ve had there. The one above is from a place called Alamo Springs Café. It’s out in the middle of nowhere and has some amazingly good onion rings! It’s definitely worth the drive if you’re anywhere in the area.

It doesn’t really look that impressive. Just a regular burger. But then you bite into it and you realize you’ve stumbled on to greatness. Now, I’ll be honest here…we were interested in this place initially because of the name. Jennie’s Smoked Burgers & Tornado Fries. And come on…smoked burgers… Guys, these are amazing burgers. They’re made from smoked brisket. Charles has declared that these burgers are his absolute favorite. I kind of agree with him. I know we say we found the best burger a lot…we love burgers…but if I had to choose one to eat the rest of my life…it would be this burger.

We did other things besides eat our selves silly. I promise. We visited the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park. The photo above is his house on the ranch. The house became known as “The Texas White House” because he spent more time there than at the DC White House.

We took a tour of the inside of the house. If you go, I really suggest you do the tour. The stories they tell of LBJ, the house, and the staff are interesting and really give you an insight as to what life was like for him. See the pie on the stove? It’s not a real pie, they leave it there because of the significance of it. On November 22, 1963 the staff were all preparing for some very special guests that were to arrive the next day. The guest had never had pecan pie. As the pie was coming out of the oven, the House got a call to let them know that they were now all employed in the President’s house. LBJ was the new President because JFK had been assassinated. JFK was scheduled to come to the house the next day. They’d been preparing for him.

We also got to hear about LBJ’s love of phones and televisions. Basically, anything that would give him information about what was going on in the world. There were phones in every single room of this house. And I do mean…every…single…room. Can you imagine what he would have been like with today’s technology?

We also visited the Johnson City part of the LBJ National Historic Park to see his childhood home. I won’t put any pics up since this post is already picture heavy. But it was very interesting to hear stories of the boy LBJ was. It really seems as though he was destined to be President.

 We walked around the Sauer-Beckmann Farm for an hour or so. This is a living history German farm that shows what life was like during 1900-1918. There are volunteers that stay here in seasons to work the farm.

The volunteers dress in period outfits and work the farm with period appropriate tools. We got there right at lunch time for them, but they invited us in and told us all about what they do. We didn’t get to sample the delicious smelling lunch, and let me tell you…it smelled good! We found it really interesting how the house was broken up into separate sections. The kitchen was completely separate from the living quarters.

There was a building for the gardening/food canning and storage. We loved learning about all the gadgets they had for separating cream from milk to husking corn to making their own sausages. The boys are convinced we need them all. Speaking of sausages…we even got to see their smokehouse! It smelled heavenly!

We were so close, we had to make a detour to Luckenbach! It’s not really much of a town now. Nicholas got the chance to stand on one of the stages. The town is really just a business now. They have live music pretty much daily and hold special events often. If you go, make sure to go behind all the business stuff and cross the bridge. Head down to the river for some gorgeous live oaks.

We spent a couple of hours hiking around the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. We, of course, had to do the hardest hike there. The Summit Trail…the trail that marches you right up the side of the rock that the park is named for. I don’t have the details of how far up we went…it was steep and it was maybe a mile. But, holy jumpin’, the view was stellar! We were surprised to find small pools and grass with a few trees at the top.

We were able to visit two distilleries. The one above is called Garrison Brothers. It has a really cool set up. You can go get a flight (where you can taste the different bourbons they have) then take it outside to one of the many tables they have set up and take your time sipping and tasting. There are some outdoor games (washers, boccie…) that you can play and then they have a tour of their distillery you can take.

We also went to the Hill Country Distillery. This is a smaller operation. You can go in for a tour and a tasting of their products. Both distilleries had some good stuff and both offer you a different perspective on the business.

We stopped in at the Wildseed Farms, but there wasn’t anything blooming since it’s the wrong time of the year for wildflowers. We did get to mosey around their store and look at all the seeds. They’ve got any wildflower seed you could want! We might have even bought some. It might have been the wrong time of the year for wildflowers, but there were plenty of flower gardens to enjoy! And the flower gardens/boxes/planters were everywhere in Fredericksburg!

Should we talk sweets now?

If you’ve got a hankerin’ for something sweet…you’ll find it in Fredericksburg.

Burgers, bbq, German food, breweries, wineries, distilleries, museums, National/State Parks, shopping…there is something for everyone in Fredericksburg!

Aufwiedersehen!!

See y’all down the road!!