Seeking a Place under the Sun

Our spring trip to San Antonio.

It is a short story about our weekend trip to Dallas. Why is it short if the weekend is big enough to do a lot of things? Because of stereotypes influence my actions. Texas means for me "Warmth all the time no matter what" and I'm wrong. February is wintertime, winter month,  I should expect winter weather. So, before heading to Dallas I checked the weather forecast couple times. It showed me +14C throughout the week every time I looked at my phone. Lovely so I packed clothes for a sunny +14C. A surprise was waiting for me in Dallas. +4C and strong ice cold wind as it used to be in Stavanger. Lovely Norwegian winter weather.  "They need just snow to complete visually the feelings of winter here." - said, my daughter wearing summer shoes. I spent a couple of hours in the Downtown with my oldest child and camera in my backpack.  I could not encourage myself to take a walk and enjoy the stay in the city having just a woolen jumper around my body. "Next tim...

I desperately wanted to visit the Texas Hill Country during the winter to avoid the summer heat. We spent a long weekend in the Fredericksburg, a small German town with lots of wineries in its surrounding. After analyzing the trip I would make a plan a bit different - just one overnight stay instead of two. It is better to go first to Enchanted Rock early in the morning for hiking. Then we could go to Longhorn Caverns for a tour and after that, we could drive to Fredericksburg to enjoy the evening meal with German sausage with a beer or a Texas wine. After a night in a hotel, it would be nice to take a walk in the morning town, eat a branch and drive back home. Or if you are without children to take a tour to the wineries will be the pleasant ending of a weekend. This plan is about "back and forward", a lot of driving. But at least it is not about a waisting a time.

I was waiting for September since July . Unfortunately, the farm where we went last time to was closed because of the road reparations. Due to the enormous size of  Texas State and Houston area, it is not a big deal to find out an alternative, a backup plan.  There is just one factor you have to take into consideration.  You are going to travel for several hours to a destination.

It was one more road trip for our family: Houston - Charleston - Cashiers and back.  I can't describe the journey as "e asy peasy lemon squeezy" as  my kids say , but definitely, it was the amazing experience for all of us. 970 miles x 2, a couple of days with driving, exploring the areas around our lodging are the best quality time with the family.

Charleston has one more factor why it is so cool and why you should visit the town. It is the Charleston Tea Plantation, the only tea plantation in USA.

Finally the temperature dropped to 80F, the season of hurricane is already in progress with its heavy tropical rains. The summer has came to its logical end.