Mini Vacation

Last month was Dave’s birthday and he said he wanted his peseta to be special. I began planning a little trip only to realize his birthday was on Easter Sunday. Hmm, hopefully, by “special” he meant spending the entire weekend in Dallas where it would never get above freezing and that includes INSIDE my dad’s house because he’ll put the AC on when it’s 33°F? And meeting my entire family on both sides? And sleeping in separate rooms?

Right.

So as a belated birthday present, I picked him up Sunday morning and whisked him off to Fredericksburg, a little German tourist town in Central Texas. We stopped along the way to buy Camille her birthday lunch and ate in a cabana at a Cuban joint and nursed some Peruvian beers. Cuba, Peru, whatever.

Then we drove the hilly green drive and checked in to our bed-n-breakfast, which was really a converted barn. It was kitschy, but not enough to make us gag. (No quilts in the shape of Texas or flower curtains with lacy trim.) It was a few miles from town so we got to walk around and see lots of deer and of course . . . peacocks. Must have been just like what the cowboys experienced: rolling green hills, vast blue sky, the silence of white-tailed deer as they walk around at sunset, the piercing aaaaaa-AAAAAAWWWWWWWW, aaaaaa-AAAAAAAWWWWWWWWW of the peacocks . . .

The next day we’d planned to check out early and spend the day at Enchanted Rock (Caroline! Huge Granite Batholith!). I’ll go ahead and admit here that I didn’t check the weather. It had been sunny and mid 80s for weeks, how would it be any different in Fredericksburg? Easy. Monday morning, the sun didn’t so much with the whole coming up thing. It thundered and lightninged and poured down rain. With more thunder and lightning. Makes for great snuggling, but not so great hiking up a slippery granite rock.

And I’d packed shorts and a tank top and tons of sunscreen for Monday. I needed a sweater and raincoat. The rain slowed and the thunder and lightning became less frequent. But according to both the sky and weather.com, the storm wasn’t leaving. But we were only 18 miles from Enchanted Rock! And I’d never been! We decided to just drive up to it and look at it.

Then we decided to get out and walk around a bit.

Then we decided the hike all the way to the top. I mean, you know, since we were here.

So I tell Dave that judging by the rumbling, we have about an hour before it starts to rain again. That was before I saw the light gray moving toward us. There was nothing we could do. No shelter, nowhere to hide. We decided to head back down the mountain to try and beat it. “HA!” said Mother Nature.

It’s one of those times that totally makes a great story because we didn’t die. Bad things: Pelting rain, wind, cold, slippery granite, water rushing down faster than we are, Dave in tennis shoes slipping. Good things: the way the rain was bouncing off the surface of the rock gave it this eerie glow like it was lit up from within, no recent lightning, me shouting, “We’re on top of a huge rock and it’s pouring down rain, you may as well kiss me,” Dave following through, and again- not dying.

Later we kept saying, “Oh my God, that was so much fun!” But it wasn’t our wisest choice. If we’d been struck by lightning, people would have said, “Here are some more for the Darwin Awards,” as they shook their newspapers closed.