Travel

Rhine Cruise
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Rhine Cruise

Recently, we enjoyed the Rhine Getaway with Viking River Cruises. It was an 8-day cruise along the Rhine river in Germany, which includes Basel (Switzerland), Breisach (Black Forest), Strasbourg (France), Heidelberg & Rüdesheim, Middle Rhine (Castles) and Koblenz, Cologne, Kinderdijk and Amsterdam (Netherlands). This travel post kicks off a series about the cruise featuring my photos for each destination.

For another two weeks after the cruise, we extended our trip through Germany where we spent several days each visiting Amsterdam, Munich & Bavaria (Royal Castles), Salzburg (Austria), Romantic Road (Nördlingen, Dinkelsbühl, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber), Leipzig (wife’s grandmother birthplace), and Berlin (nephew and family). I will also continue the travel photo posts for our Germany Trip.

I wrote a poem as a limerick with alliteration about our journey for the Poetry 201 workshop in February when we were planning our trip:

Germany is a journey to enjoy that I would choose.
Flying overnight to Europe offers time for a snooze.
Oh, I am so excited …
so much fun …
now that we’re both booked aboard a Viking River Cruise!

It was a wonderful three weeks, with lots of opportunities for photos and travel blog posts. I took almost 4,000 photos, but have filtered that down to about 1,000 so far. Also, I established a photo web site to store, organize, and view my photos. It has taken me longer than expected to get it together, but now I think it’s ready.

Although I will continue working on further refinement, I didn’t want to delay my posts any longer. For example, I probably need to reduce the number of photos in the homepage slideshow, and maybe even the destination highlights too. Any suggestions for improvement are welcome and certainly appreciated.

Also, I thought it might be interesting to provide some additional information from the Viking web site for additional background on our cruise about the itinerary, longship, and experience.

Links

These links provide an overview of our itinerary and ship.

Videos

Here are some brief highlights of the Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basel (reverse direction).

“Rhine Getaway” on Viking River Cruises – 45 sec

 

This provides a tour of a Viking Longship and the experience:

“Viking Longship Tour” on Viking River Cruises – 2 min 44 sec

 

This offers brief general highlights of Viking cruises:

“The World of Viking 2015” on Viking River Cruises – 1 min 32 sec

 

Cabin on Blueberry Hill
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Cabin on Blueberry Hill

In April before our trip to Germany, we went on a short getaway to a log cabin in east Texas at the Etheridge Farm Bed & Breakfast in Kountze, which is located in the Big Thicket National Preserve north of Beaumont. It sounded like a good idea when we made the arrangements to meet friends who were neighbors when we used to live in the Dallas area. We made the reservations and agreed to meet there and stay for three nights.

Brenham

We stopped for lunch in Brenham, which is about halfway between Austin and Houston on US 290. We ate at Yumm! Sweets & Eats right on the square across from the courthouse, which was a nice place to stop, and my soup and sandwich was very good. On the way to the restroom on the sweet shop side of the place, I spotted this bicycle all lit up with white lights and had to take a photo, which really turned out pretty good.

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While we were finishing our lunch, we noticed there was a guy across the street by the courthouse cleaning up stuff on the grounds, but he was dressed in orange stripes with a guard nearby that had a gun in a holster. Then we realized that they must be having the prisoners in the jail doing some work in the community.

Then a little later a county sheriff pulls up right in front of the window where we were sitting. He got out of his car and walked around the back to the rear door where he let out another man who was dressed in grey and black strips with handcuffs holding his wrists together. The sheriff escorted across the street over to the courthouse, so I assume that he must have been transported from a county facility to appear in court for a trial.

Usually there are lots of wild flowers around the Brenham area, but we didn’t get any photos this time since we were trying to meet out friends and didn’t want to linger too long. Also, it was somewhat overcast that day so the photos might not have turned out that good anyway.

Brenham Ice Cream is also located there and that’s a fun place to stop. We’ve taken the tour in the past, which was very interesting. Since they recently have had some issues with listeria contamination that is now being addressed, we decided not to get any ice cream this time.

Cabin

I have included some photos that I took of our litle Cabin on Blueberry Hill. It’s named that because you can pick your own blueberries there on their farm, and in fact there were a bunch of blueberry shrubs growing just to the left side of the cabin.

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Porch

IMG_3637There was a covered front porch with a swing at the end. Also, we noticed there were carpenter bees flying around and into holes they had burrowed into the wood beams above, and we were so sure about them although the owner told us that they will not bother us (and they really didn’t).

IMG_3641There was a cute little sign for the Cabin on Blueberry Hill, along with the obligatory Texas star hanging on the wall of the porch next to the front door. The overhead light was helpful too since it gets very dark out there at night, and they also provided some flashlights as well as if we needed to get around at night. For example, we had dinner in the main farm house the first night and needed to find out way back to the cabin after dark. Although they had a string of lights across the trees leading to our cabin, it was helpful to see where you were stepping too. You can see how they applied the logs over the former barn so it wasn’t really an original log cabin, but an adapted barn with a log veneer siding. They had lots of old stuff (“antiques”) throughout the cabin, including these things on the porch.

IMG_3639However, I don’t think the oil lamps or lanterns actually had wicks so they didn’t work. But they did leave bug spray which was helpful because there are lots of mosquitoes in this part of Texas since it’s more humid, and there are ponds nearby and quite a bit of standing water on the farm in places.

Bedrooms

There were two bedrooms, but they were not enclosed like I had imagined. They were open at the top and there was only a hemp weave cloth covering the entry (no door) that you could criss-cross to cover it at least. But you could hear everything in the cabin (like our friends in the other bedroom). Our room had two twin beds so our friends could have the other one with the king bed (because they’re larger than us).

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Entry

Inside the front door, there were several storage cabinets and entry way with steps down into the main living area. The bedrooms are the left and right. Also there was a little writeup about “The Cabin on Blueberry Hill” on the side wall.IMG_3653

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Living area

The owner told us that this cabin used to be a barn, and it was converted into a log cabin. The chickens were where the bathroom is now on the left side. The horses were in the kitchen area where there was a small refrigerator, microwave, sink, and stocked cabinet with utensils and supplies.

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There was this interesting newspaper advertisement with old-time prices on the wall in the kitchen. IMG_3664

Living room

There were several chairs available for sitting in the main part of the living area, with a dinky 12″ TV available with only local channels. Another negative was the lack of WiFi in the cabin or even a cell-phone signal which was frustrating. If you went outside you could get access to a 4G data network for internet as well as cell phone, but not inside. However, I figured out I could get a cell signal near the window in the bathroom so I setup a personal hotspot on my iPhone which provided me a temporary WiFi network inside the cabin which I used from my Mac laptop to access the internet.

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Cotton

The owner had several dogs that occasionally roamed the property. One of them apparently likes to catch rabbits, and we spotted some guts along the path near the cabin that one of the workers told us was a rabbit that the dog must have caught and ate the rest. We asked him if he could please clean it up so we wouldn’t have to look at it going to/from breakfast in the main house, which he did for us. Also, there was a cute little white dog that kept coming around, especially at happy hour in the evening, looking for attention (and handouts). Apparently, he belonged to a neighbor but comes over here often (we saw him every day). We had to give him some Cheetos.

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Hiking

We went hiking on several trails in the Big Thicket which was nearby and scattered all over the area in various sections.  There were large pine trees with lots of pine cones on the trails, as well as pretty wild flowers like the thistle.

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Pitcher plants

Big Thicket has four carnivorous plants which eat insects – pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts, and butterworts.  Of particular interest, we were interested to see the pitcher plants and we saw many of them on the Pitcher Plant Trail. We also walked the Sundew Trail but did not notice any sundew plants.

Pitcher plants are passive plants that do not use movement in the capture and digestion of insects. They  capture insects by luring them to the mouth of the trap with color, nectar, and/or scent. After an insect lands on the lip of the flower and begins to enter the mouth, it comes to a waxy inner surface that causes it to slide down the funnel. Downward pointing hairs lining the lower portion impede their ability to climb back out of the plant’s trap. The bottom of the pitcher is filled with a fluid that drowns them and then because it contains digestive enzymes, decomposes the proteins and soft body parts so that it can be absorbed into the plant for nutrition. Only the insect’s exoskeleton remains.

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Meals

Each morning we enjoyed a lovely home-cooked country breakfast in the lodge dining room that was prepared by the owner, Ann Ethridge, along with guests who were staying in other cabins. Also, we chose to have dinner the first evening as well, and it was very good also. The second night we drove down to Beaumont where there were lots of choices for dinner. She was very hospitable and friendly, and runs the place herself with some additional help for maintenance, etc.. Although she is in her 80’s, she seems quite active and handles  everything quite well since her husband passed away several years ago.

Shortened Visit

We were planning to play golf at a course nearby, but unfortunately we went back home a day early because our friend was having some medical issues. Almost immediately after we arrived, he started having problems with strong allergy-like symptoms which caused him breathing problems and discomfort. It became even worse overnight and he was not able to sleep much. In fact, the second night he spent most of it in the recliner in the living room since it was worse lying down. He uses a CPAP machine to help him sleep during the night because of his sleep apnea, but because his nose was so stopped up he could barely breathe when it was on. Also he had heart bypass surgery in the past and takes pills for his heart as well as anti-depression medications, but he forgot to bring them along with him on the trip.

Because the rooms were not completely enclosed, his breathing problems (and related complaints) prevented us from having a peaceful night as well since it was interrupted many times because of his situation. He was convinced that there was something in the cabin that was causing it, although we didn’t have any problems. So our friends decided they wanted to go back home earlier than planned, and we also decided to leave as well since we had intended to spend the time with them. The owner was very understanding and didn’t even charge us for the extra day. When he returned home, his symptoms seemed to disappear, so we don’t really know what caused him to have the problems that he did. Anyway our visit was shorter than planned.

Travel Considerations

Although it was nice to see them, we’re starting to realize that traveling with them might not work out. Also they have physical limitations that even makes walking somewhat difficult, and we really like to be active, so we can’t enjoy many things with them anyway. We have tried quite a few getaways with them in the past several years, but each time there have been some issues because of their limitations. After each trip we have realized that it might not have been a good idea, but then we have tried it again with similar results. But this time, we couldn’t even sleep very well ourselves because of their breathing noises, night conversations, and depressed mood.

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Bon Voyage

Over the past few months, I have been absent from my regular WordPress activity. I thought I would offer an explanation so followers didn’t think something was wrong with me. I’m fine, but just got very busy, and something had to give (and this was it).

First we were away for a several days. Then, I was finishing several books as technical development editor, and then I was asked to be technical proofreader for another book that was almost 600 pages. Finally, I was busy planning a trip and making final hotel, train, and other reservations.

Anyway, now I’m starting to catch up on a few posts that I had started but never published. We just returned from a 3-week trip to Germany. 

I took lots of photos on our Viking River Cruise on the Rhine from Basel to Amsterdam with stops at Breisach, Strasbourg (France), Koblenz, Heidelberg, Cologne, Kinderdijk (Netherlands). Then our trip included visits in Amsterdam, Munich, Salzburg, Rothenburg, Leipzig, and Berlin. I will begin posting those daily over the next several weeks now that I have returned. 

Anderson Mill
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Anderson Mill

This is my final fifth post for the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge.

Thanks to Terri at Perspectives On… for nominating me for this challenge. I had been planning to try some photo challenge blogging events recently, but hadn’t quite to started yet so this little nudge helps.

We were reading a article in the October 2014 issue of the Texas Co-op Power magazine from Pedernales Electric Cooperative, which is our electric utility in the Texas Hill Country: The Wheel of History: Volente’s Anderson Mill. It sounded very interesting and is very close to where we live, on Volente Road off Anderson Mill Road near the intersection with Bullick Hollow (2222), although we had not visited it since we moved her almost eight years ago now. So we decided to check it out on a nice Sunday afternoon back in October, but I never got around to post the photos on my blog so this seemed like a good opportunity to get that done.

This Anderson Mill is a replica of a gristmill that was built by Thomas Anderson in the 1850’s on Cypress Creek; it was completed in 1965 and dedicated to his granddaughter. As you can see in the photos, the water wheel sit works and it even drives a grinder which you can see inside the door of the wooden building. They actually use it to grind corn into cornmeal in bags that you can buy; we got one for ourselves that we used to make cornbread muffins from a recipe that was included, and gave another to my sister and a friend.

Apparently, the mill was used for making gunpowder during the Civil War, but it then changed over to grinding corn and other uses after the war ended. There a lots of artifacts on shelfs and the walls inside the building but they posted that no photos should be taken; also there is another associated stone building nearby where they had many displays about life from that period on both floors.  I was able to capture the water splashing off the water wheel from the back of the building as well a plain shot without water from the front side. The grounds are very pleasant, and there another building used by the Garden Club where they quilts on display for sale. It is only open one Sunday every month, but it’s an interesting place to visit.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you.

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. And actually everyone can join in. So feel free to if you like the idea.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I have received responses for my challenge invitations. Julia at Julia’s Odyssey accepted my challenge in my Day One post on Lake Texas Water Levels. My Day Two challenge to Elizabeth at Tea and Paper in my post on SXSW @ The Dogwood was also accepted. Then Kay at Sky Blue Daze responded to my invitation in my Day Three post on Becker Vineyards – Feb; she indicated her participation would be later since she’s going on vacation where there is no internet for blogging access. For the challenge in my Day Four post on World War II Pinup Nose Art, I notice that Sandi at Sappy as a Tree has not be very active lately so maybe she will participate sometime later when she has the time.

I would like to invite Joan at Retirement and Beyond to join the party. I have enjoyed her blog since Photography 101, especially her photos of Ireland, travel, and scenery. She also seems to like participating in photo challenges so it seemed she might be a good candidate to join this challenge. As mentioned before, it is totally up to you to accept this challenge.

World War II Pinup Nose Art
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World War II Pinup Nose Art

This is my fourth post for the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge. Hopefully this offends nobody, but it’s a historical reflection of attitudes regarding wartime nose art about 70 years ago.

Thanks to Terri at Perspectives On… for nominating me for this challenge. I had been planning to try some photo challenge blogging events recently, but hadn’t quite to started yet so this little nudge helps.

It has pleasantly surprised me that I have received responses for all my challenge invitations. Julia at Julia’s Odyssey accepted my challenge in my Day One post on Lake Texas Water Levels. Elizabeth at Tea and Paper accepted my Day Two challenge in my post on SXSW @ The Dogwood. Yesterday, Kay at Sky Blue Daze responded to my invitation in my post on Becker Vineyards – Feb; she said her participation would be later since she’s going on vacation where there is no internet for blogging access.

Hal Olsen

Hal Olsen was the last World War II Nose Artist who lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is my wife’s first cousin once removed – the son of her maternal grandfather’s brother (or her mother’s uncle’s son). He was a U.S. Navy aviation mechanic for autopilots who also worked at Los Alamos National Lab as an artist for official bomb designs.

He painted over 100 nose art pin-up ladies on various planes in the Pacific Theater of Operations during his stint with the US Navy during World War II on Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, now a U.S. territorial commonwealth. He charged $50 per painting and it because so popular that he made enough money for a honeymoon when he got married, as well as paying for art school. He was doing about two a day during the period from June – August 1945 (right around the time that I was born).

He painted his nose art on over 100 PB4Y-1 (Navy version of B-24) and B-29 Superfortress bombers while stationed on Tinian island; they appeared in the first color issue of the National Geographic magazine. Some of his most famous paintings were on the Enola Gay and Bochscar, which were the B-29 bombers involved in the atomic bomb drops on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 that ended the war six days later after the Japanese surrendered. The final painting he made was Enola Gay because the Air Force “wanted her done right”. He had also painted a B-29 bomber named “Up-an-Atom” that became the title of his book.

Up an’ Atom

Up an' Atom by Hal_Olsen - Amazon book cover

My oldest son wanted Hal’s book “Up an’ Atom” (2012) for Christmas. It’s an autobiography which covers the golden age of nose art in World War. We had Hal autograph it for him. There was no color film at that time, so photos were black and white. However, the fifteen best photos were recreated on canvas for the book. Although he painted most of the women in the nude, he requested that they be modified and clothed for inclusion in the book. The originals can be seen in their original state at the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Airpower Museum in Midland, Texas.

You can find his Up an’ Atom book at the Amazon web  site.

Portraits of War

The Portraits of War Wordpress blog shows several autographed photos that Hal sent to Brennan Gauthier for his WWII Nose Art – Hal Olsen, the Last Living WWII Nose Artist post, including Lady Luck II, Green Cherries, Accentuate the Positive, and Gear Down.

Also, there is an interesting picture of him painting one of the planes, as well as a brief description in the index of nose artists at the US Army Air Force (USAAF) Nose Art Research Project web site.

Commemorative Air Force

The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) was founded to acquire, restore and preserve in flying condition a complete collection of combat aircraft which were flown by all military services of the United States, and selected aircraft of other nations, for the education and enjoyment of present and future generations of Americans. More than just a collection of airworthy warplanes from the past, the CAF’s fleet of historic aircraft, known as the CAF Ghost Squadron, recreate, remind and reinforce the lessons learned from the defining moments in American military aviation history. It now contains over 160 aircraft.

CAF Airpower Museum

The CAF Airpower Museum, formerly American Airpower Heritage Museum, at the Commemorative Air Force headquarters is located at 9600 Wright Drive in Midland, Texas. Besides restoring and preserving World War II-era combat airplanes, it’s preserving the complete history of World War II military aviation and the memory of the men and women who built, serviced and flew the historic military aircraft of World War II. It is recognized for its collection of authentic World War II artifacts and memorabilia including uniforms of Allied and Axis countries, armament, photographs, weapons, and equipment. It is affiliated with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

Its exhibits tell the complete story of World War II military aviation, from the prelude of World War II to the Atomic Bomb. The exhibits cover the war in the Pacific, strategic bombing, D-Day, and the atomic age. They also feature the American Combat Airman Hall of Fame, 507th Fighter Group gallery, and Nose Art Gallery..

Here’s a very brief video overview of the CAF Airpower Museum.

“CAF Airpower Museum – Overview” – 1 min 48 sec

Nose Art Gallery

The Aviation Nose Art Gallery is the largest collection in the world, recognized by the White House Millennium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It includes 34 very rare original Nose Art panels that represent the artistic expressions of young men at war. They cut the panels from fuselages of World War II aircraft as they were being scrapped after the war.

Easy Maid is easily one of the most recognizable pieces in the collection and was painted by the world’s last nose art artist, Hal Olsen.

Hear Hal’s story of how and why he painted this and many other Nose Art images during World War II.

CAF Airpower Museum – Hal Olsen (2013) – 2 min

Easy Maid

The Save the Girls project website was established to preserve, restore, and display the world’s largest collection of World War II aircraft nose art.

Hal’s Easy Maid image on a PB4Y-1 Navy bomber is included in the Nose Art Gallery. Click on the thumbnail for background information or the larger image.

Summary

He’s a very nice, talented guy, and I wanted to share his unique story. We have several watercolor paintings hanging on walls in our house that he graciously gave us (not nose art nudes, but landscape and beach scenes). I hope you found this interesting and liked the photos and information about nose art.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a brief paragraph—it’s entirely up to you.

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. And actually everyone can join in, and you can too if you like the idea.

I would like to invite Sandi at Sappy as a Tree to join the party. I have known her since Blogging 101 and Photography 101, and she has been a frequent commenter on my blog. I’ve enjoyed following her blog, and she follows me as well. Although not as active, I thought she might be a good candidate to join this challenge, anyway. As mentioned before, it is totally up to you to accept this challenge.

Becker Vineyards – Feb
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Becker Vineyards – Feb

This is my third post for the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge.

Thanks to Terri at Perspectives On… for nominating me for this challenge. I had been planning to try some photo challenge blogging events recently, but hadn’t quite to started yet so this little nudge helps. Julia at Julia’s Odyssey accepted my challenge in my Day One post on Lake Texas Water Levels. Yesterday, Elizabeth at Tea and Paper also responded to my Day Two challenge from my post on SXSW @ The Dogwood.

In February, we picked up our wine club package from Becker Vineyards in Stonewall, Texas. We get 3 bottles quarterly in February, May, September, and December. This time it contained a Zinfindel, “Inverno” (Merlot/Cabernet), and Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

We also enjoyed a free wine tasting with Chenin Blanc, Prairie Rotie, Malbec Reserve, Tempranillo Reserve, Raven, and Zinfandel, as well as a complimentary Merlot Reserve. These pickup parties include live music as well as snacks such as crackers, cheeses, meatball in marinara, green olives, black olive bread chunks, nuts, etc.

There was also handmade chocolate truffles and barks from Delysia Chocolatier in Austin, as well as nuts from Al’s Gourmet Nuts in San Antonio. I had a free sample of the Raspberry Chocolate Truffle, and there were lots more available to purchase.

Out trip down to the Fredericksburg area is always pleasant. It’s so nice to take drives out in the hill country, and we usually enjoy getting German food at one of the many restaurants in Fredericksburg too.

It’s interesting that in February there are skunks splattered all of the highways which have been hit by cars (and you can smell them too). Apparently, it’s their mating season and coming out at night on 70 mph roads ends their search for a mate rather quickly. Also, you often see the large turkey vultures scavenging for the dead animals like skunks (or deer).

I captured several photos during out visit. There is building with all the windows on the side which houses the barrel room where they sometimes also have had tastings. However this year they have it in the main tasting room of the main building, where I have some inside shots (but didn’t get the outside). They have a lavender farm behind the winery where they have a Lavender Festival every year in May. You can see lots of lavender products displays on the wall near the tasting bar.

Out in front of the veranda and patio there is a cute old small house that once was used for guests to stay (but not any longer). There is interesting tall windmill right near there too. There are also photos of the package, bottles, and wine club newsletter descriptions below., including a windmill, House, Tasting Room, and Goodies.

It was a fun day, and I their wine is very good. I also hope you liked the photos.

The Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge rules require you to post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or simply a short paragraph – it’s entirely up to you.

Then each day, nominate another blogger to carry on this challenge. Accepting the challenge is entirely up to the person nominated, it is not a command. And actually everyone can join in. So feel free to if you like the idea.

I would like to invite Kay at Sky Blue Daze to join the party. She was another participant in Photography 101 during November 2014. I’ve enjoyed following her blog, and I thought she might be a good candidate to join this challenge. As mentioned before, it is totally up to you to accept this challenge.

Writing 201: Poetry – Journey
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Writing 201: Poetry – Journey

Assignment #2 has a word prompt of Journey to be written in the form of a Limerick using the device of Alliteration. So here is mine:

Germany is a journey to enjoy that I would choose.
Flying overnight to Europe offers time for a snooze.
Oh, I am so excited …
so much fun …
now that we’re both booked aboard a Viking River Cruise!

Video

Here are some brief highlights of the 8-day cruise along the Rhine in Germany, which includes Basel (Switzerland),  Breisach (Black Forest), Strasbourg (France), Koblenz, Heidelberg & Rüdesheim, Cologne, Kinderdijk and Amsterdam (The Netherlands).

“Rhine Getaway” on Viking River Cruises – 45 sec

 

We will also be spending several days each visiting Amsterdam, Munich, Salzburg (Austria), Leipzig (wife’s grandmother birthplace), Berlin (nephew and family), as well as several other places. It will be a wonderful 3 weeks, with lots of opportunities for travel and photo blog posts. I welcome any recommendations and suggestions since we’re still finalizing our itinerary and activities.

I’m new at writing poetry. I decided to give it a try with the Writing 201: Poetry course over the last two weeks of February. Let me know what you think, and comments are appreciated.

Rustic Wine Dinner
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Rustic Wine Dinner

Last night we attended a Rustic Wine Dinner at Flat Creek Enoteca in Marble Falls, TX. from 7-9 pm.  They offer a wine tasting room and casual dining experience with deli-style ordering, but table service at the communal table is provided by the wine staff for these special dinners every Thursday evening.

Enoteca is an Italian word which literally means “wine repository”, but it is used to describe a special type of local or regional wine shop that originated in Italy. Sometimes snacks or food is also served like a wine bar, like this one.

We have previously been to their Flat Creek Estate Vineyard and Winery many times, where we are wine club members. However, we had not visited their new location since it opened last year, so this seemed like a good opportunity to check it out for an early Valentine’s Day dinner without all the traffic and crowds in Austin this weekend.

The weekly Rustic Wine Dinner begins with a “Flights & Bites” appetizer featuring chef selected small bites paired with the weekly featured wine flight. Following “Flights & Bites” you enjoy a preview of the Chef’s specials for the upcoming week presented in a seated 3-course meal served with your favorite glass of wine from the flight.

Menu
Here is a photo of the menu for the Rustic Wine Dinner (Sorry about the shadow).

Rustic Wine Dinner Menu

Tasting Room

This shows the tasting room, with some of the people who shared dinner with us. They have a 60-inch custom oak wood-fired oven which is used for cooking everything, which was actually designed and built by one of the dinner guests. Since we arrived about 15 minutes early because there was no traffic, we had a glass of 2013 Viognier until our dinner was ready to be served.

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Communal Table

This is the table where we had an intimate dinner with seven people. We really enjoyed a  wonderful dinner, great wine, and interesting conversation.

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Flights & Bites

Preceding our dinner, we enjoyed these Flights & Bites. We had three glasses of wine (one white, two red) that were paired with corresponding bites that are listed below the photo. Left to right, there is a glass of 2013 Cuvee Blanc (62% Sauvignon Blanc, 30% Viognier, and 8% Pinot Grigio), 2009 Syrah (100%), and 2012 Super Texan (86% Sangiovese, 11% Tempranillo, 4% Syrah).

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Asiago Pimento Cheese
Pancetta Crisp
Paired with Cuvee Blanc 2013

Tomato, Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Flatbread
Paired with Syrah 2009

Olli Norcino Salame
Parmigianno-Reggiano
Paired with Super Texan 2012

We selected a glass of wine from the Flight to enjoy with Dinner. I selected the Cuvee Blanc since I thought that would go nicely with the quail.

Appetizer

This shows the Panzanella Salad which was the appetizer for the 3-course dinner that followed the Flights & Bites.

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Panzanella Salad
Tomato, Fresh Mozzarlla, Red Onion & Tomato Vinaigrette

Main

This shows the main course for the dinner, featuring Texas quail from Bandera, which is described below the photo.

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Braised Texas Quail
Red Wine Pan Jus
Herbed Zucchini & Potato Rosti with Feta

Dessert

This was the dessert for our dinner (with description after the photo).

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Brown Butter Cheesecake
Pecan Crust & Raspberry Glazed Blueberries

All Done!

That was delicious, and nothing was left as you see here.

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We had a great evening, and look forward to future dinners. If you’re ever in the area, stop by and check it out. They are located at 112 US Hwy 281 in Marble Falls, TX 78654, about 40 minutes west of Lago Vista on FM 1431 or slightly over an hour from Austin via US 71. Their hours are 11 am – 9 pm on Tuesday – Sunday.

Photography 101: The Natural World – Rio Grande
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Photography 101: The Natural World – Rio Grande

For our Day 8 assignment in Photography 101 about “The Natural World”, I chose to highlight photos of the Rio Grande, Spanish for “Big River”, that forms the border between Mexico and Texas in the United States. Its one of the longest river systems in North America originating in the San Juan Mountains of south central Colorado just east of the Continental Divide and flowing down to the Gulf of Mexico.

These were taken in February with my iPhone 5 while playing golf at Black Jack’s Crossing in the Lajitas Golf Resort during our visit to Big Bend National Park in far west Texas. The scenery was so stark, yet beautiful. I couldn’t help taking shots from different perspectives, and include those with the Rio Grande in this slideshow.

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River

It’s amazing such a narrow river borders our two countries. On the other side of the river, you can see the  Sierra Madre Oriental mountains in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico which border Texas at the Rio Grande. You can see how the Rio Grande twists and turns between the Mexican mountains and Texas golf course. I took the photos from different elevations and angles.  Many of the tees are higher up where you have to shoot down to the fairway and green. Also as we drove our cart from one to another it kept showing up nearby. Of course, you can see the desert all around too which adds contrast.

Golf

This unique golf course along the Rio Grande was designed by Lanny Wadkins and opened in 2012; it  has been named to many “best places to play” lists by GolfWeek, Texas Outside, and Dallas Morning News. It looks much more spectacular with color contrasts in the spring and fall when the greens and fairways are all deep green (which you see on their web site). However, even in the middle of winter it looked great and the weather was perfect then and not crowded at all. It must be very hot in the summer so that would not be a good time to visit.

Big Bend

This shows where Lajitas is located between Big Bend National Park on the right and Big Bend Ranch State Park on the left. It’s about an 8 hour drive west from Austin through Fredericksburg and Junction, then south from Fort Stockton and either Marathon or Alpine to get to the Big Bend area.

Star Party

We stopped over in the Davis Mountains State Park in the Fort Davis area so we could attend a Star Party at the McDonald Observatory astronomy research unit of the University of Texas at Austin. We could look at constellations, planets, and celestial objects through their telescopes, where there are some of the darkest skies in the continental United States. It’s west of Fort Stockton and north of Marfa and Alpine.

Big Bend

The National Park Service has an interesting Big Bend in One Day video (about 6 minutes), which provides a nice overview of the park highlights. This might offer a preview of what to expect if you might want to visit, or even show those who can’t a glimpse of this area. They also have a photo gallery which highlight desert scenery and wildlife.

Terlingua

Nearby is the famous Terlingua ghost town, where they been having chili cook offs on the first weekend in November every year now for 48 years. In the mid-1880’s it became a big cinnabar mining area for mercury, but now it’s just a tourist destination.

We loved our trip to the Big Bend, and want to go back again. Great golf, unique scenery, its so quiet and remote, and there’s lots of great hiking and other things to do.

Photography 101: Weekend Two (Play with Light) – Balcones Hike
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Photography 101: Weekend Two (Play with Light) – Balcones Hike

Over the weekend, it was suggested that we go out and practice our photography and include them in a post to share with the community.  Since it was a nice day on Sunday for a hike, I thought it might be a good opportunity to practice my photography with my iPhone 5 camera, and see if I learned anything yet.  So we went to the Cactus Rocks Trail at Warbler Vista in the Balcones Canyonlands just west of Lago Vista where we live.

This national wildlife refuge protects several endangered songbirds  which only nest there – the golden-cheeked warbler and black-capped vireo  It’s a nice 1.75 mile hike which took just over an hour, and I took about 69 shots.  However, I selected just a few to highlight here with some comments about the photos or what I was trying to accomplish.

There were several different things I wanted to experiment with. I tried to utilize a grid for composition with the rule of thirds. I was trying to be aware of light and shadows and how that might affect my shots.  Also, I used both vertical and horizontal versions of the same shot.  And I wanted to capture interesting things that I encountered.

Sun & Shadow

Toward the end of the hike, the sun was getting lower in the sky and started to shine through the trees and cast interesting light and shadow so I tried to capture that. First, I noticed the sun peeking through the trees so I thought that might make an interesting shot.  I managed to get the sun, but it didn’t turn out that special.


Then I saw some interesting light being scattered through the trees and that seemed like it could be a good shot.  What I didn’t realize was that it also captured my shadow taking the picture in the shot, but  that actually made it a bit more interesting.

Light on Trail & Cairn

As we walked along the trail, I kept looking for things that might be good photos and I took these photos. This shows the light across the trail through the trees, which did not turn out quite like it looked when I took it but perhaps my settings were not right for that situation.


I noticed cairn markers, or man-made stacks of rocks, along the trail that I think the Boy Scouts might have made when they helped clear the trail.  These offer markers to signal hikers that they are actually following the right path, and these appear periodically along the trail as guides.

Large Cactus & Cactus Rock

There are lots of cacti in this area so they are all over the place.  I thought I should try capturing a few of them as we walked. This shows a fairly large cactus growth on the trail, and there were lots more like it. It seemed like it might photograph well, but the light wasn’t quite right.


This one was interesting because the cactus was actually growing right out of the rock.  There were several like this.  I guess that’s why they called it “Cactus Rocks Trail”.

Lake + Road + Sun

I thought this might be an interesting shot of Lake Travis and the winding hilly road along the north shore with the sun starting to go lower in the sky. First, I tried to take a vertical shot to see how that looked. This seemed to make the lake appear too distant but instead emphasized all the trees in the foreground (which aren’t as interesting).


I think this horizontal shot looks better because you get a better sense of the area that focuses on both the lake and road. Also, I liked how the camera captured the light flare from the sun in the phot.

Lake closeup

I thought it might be worthwhile to try a zoom shot of the lake.  So first I tried this one as a vertical photo, which again seems to put the lake more in the distance.

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For this horizontal one, I think it looks better because it focuses on the lake more. It’s more than 40 feet below normal because of the extreme drought this area has been under for over 5 years.  So it looks more like the winding Colorago River that formed Lake Travis (and six other lake) when their dams were established for the Highland Lakes chain.

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Road from trail & deck

It was interesting to see the road below from the trail.  This first shot was taken from a ridge along the trail that overlooks the road from the hillside.

 

This second photo was take higher up from a Sunset Deck platform which has a nice view of the lake and surrounding area including the road below.  I like this one better because it emphasizes how the road winds among the trees in the area.

Overall, it was a nice hike with wonderful weather, and I had a chance to practice photography some more.  Obviously, there’s still more I need to learn and work on, but it’s a start and I enjoyed it. However, in general, I became more aware of my surroundings, observing what might make a good photo to capture, and had fun doing it.