Galveston to New Braunfels

We left Galveston on Friday.  I had one last chance to take a nice sunrise picture.

Craig snapped a couple of pictures for me as we drove down Seawall Drive headed back inland.

The trip to New Braunfels went well and we found our campground along the River.  

We had such a wonderful visit yesterday with Linda W and I completely forgot to take a photo of her.  It had been a long time since we had seen her, but it was so wonderful to catch up with events in her life.  Thanks for taking time to come by to see us, Linda!!

Joe and Beth have so blessed us on this visit.  We got to spend some time with their daughter, Janey, I forgot to take a picture of her, too.  So, I just borrowed this one from Beth's FB page on Janey's graduation from the Medical School on Galveston.  They are such a sweet family.  They also have two boys that we knew back when we lived in Azle, Texas in 1982.  Jeb and Ben.

Joe, Janey and Beth

Today Joe and Beth came by the Whale for the tour and then they were our social coordinators and gave us the inside tour of New Braunfels.  It was settled by Germans and has that German town feel, for sure.

This is the Courthouse and it's being decorated for Christmas.

There are some beautiful murals painted on the sides of the old buildings.  Not sure why they painted these two people into the mural.  

New Braunfels has several of the "oldest" businesses in Texas. We toured through antique shops, a hotel and a hardware store that have been around for a long time.

 We stopped at the Oldest Bakery in Texas and had coffee and a sweet treat! Yummy

Beth and Joe have servant hearts.  Beth is a retired school nurse and Joe has taught school and been a coach for over 40 years.  They have both touched the hearts of many young people over the years.  We have been so blessed to have known them and even though it's years between visits, we are able to pick up and fellowship like we have always been together and it's great to know our friendship is eternal.

The sweet treats were just an appetizer for the wonderful lunch we had at the Gristmill River Restaurant up the road a bit in Gruene.  What a lovely setting and a huge outside eating area.  The sunlight photo bombed us as it filtered through the leaves as I tried to get us all into this selfie.

I have a correction to my post about the campsite being on the Guadeloupe River, we are parked on the Comal River, but the restaurant is on the Guadeloupe and this is taken off the restaurant balcony.
We walked through a T-Shirt and novelty shoppe that had some T-Shirts that Jeb designed.
I thought of Jim V as we saw this case of old fishing lures.  Thanks for all of your prayers for Jim, he was able to sit up in a chair today and is very tired from the meds, but is doing better.



Gruene Hall is the oldest dance hall in Texas and they have had many famous musicians entertain here over the years.  There are old wooden floors inside.

Later this afternoon we pulled into Joe and Beth's driveway and were greeted by these deer.  They are a problem in the neighborhood because they eat all of the gardens.

 It was cool here today and we visited in their cozy backyard around the chiminea.

To top off the wonderful day, Beth and Joe made us dinner on the grill and it was delightful.  What a great visit!  Thank you, both for being so kind!

We will go to an early church service with them in the morning and then head on down the road to Garner State Park to visit with friends that we made when we lived there in 1980/81.

Blessings,

Kathy