Mini Vacation

I ran away from home Tuesday to take a mid-week trip to Fredericksburg.  My husband won a raffle prize for two nights at a bed & breakfast, and said I could use it for some alone time to de-stress from how frustrating work has been the last six months or so.

Have I mentioned lately how great he is to me?  Because he deserves all kinds of credit for doing such nice things for me when I need them the most.  <3  I decided to make the most of it and wear only happy, colorful socks for the trip.

Day 1:

 

The drive was relaxing and a lot of fun.  I had built a Road Trip playlist the night before (basically anything I felt like singing along to) and just enjoyed cruising along.  It took around 2 hours to get there.  Things got a little confusing because there were no numbers on a lot of the buildings, and my navigation system insisted several times that something I was looking for was two blocks away and on the wrong side of the road from where it actually was, but with a little help from a lady in a shop I was able to find the right place - an absolutely adorable little cottage.

The bed had enough pillows to keep even me happy!

The tiny backyard was like a little courtyard with a couple of wooden chairs and a little firepot.

After I ran out for a couple of errands - some groceries, and some treats to take home to share - I settled in for the rest of the night with my crochet and some quiet, relaxing music.

Around the time the sun started setting, I went into the backyard to just sit and enjoy it.  I was probably out there for an hour or so, not doing anything, just sitting and sometimes remembering to drink my wine as the world slowly got darker.  I could see one star, two, and then a half-dozen more until I realized I was looking at all of Orion and not just his right foot.  :)

It also made me realize how much I miss city noises sometimes.  Even the loud group playing Pictionary or Taboo or some such guessing game in a backyard a few doors down didn't bother me, because they were obviously just having so much fun!

Day 2: 

I started out with a coupon for breakfast and stopped at Java Ranch, which had been recommended to me as a great place to sit and people watch.  

In fact, there weren't any tables available inside, but I did find a stone wall outside to perch on.  The kolaches were made with biscuit dough instead of sweet bread, which was very light and an interesting change!

It was still early enough that not many people were out, and not many stores were open, but the folks who did walk by were all very friendly and said "good morning" happily.  The breeze was cool, the sky full of wispy cirrus clouds, and it made me wonder why in the world I don't spend more time just sitting outside and enjoying the fresh air.  (Well, aside from the heat, the allergies and the mosquitos - aside from all those things, why don't I?)  :-P

I went up and down the street, and some of the shops started to open so I popped in to look around.  One was full of beautiful handmade inlay jewelry - so very expensive, but it was like being in a jewelry museum!  I also checked out the Amish market, the five & dime, and a couple of other stores; I ended up buying some hot German mustard (for the husband, not me - too spicy!) and a light scarf (for me, not the husband).

The rest of the afternoon and evening I stayed in at the cottage, listening to music, crocheting, and working logic puzzles.  Something interesting happened - I finally gave myself permission to actually sit and study the puzzles with diagrams instead of skipping them, and it turns out I can do them after all!  These are the ones where you have to determine things like what color each house in a row is and who lives there, that sort of thing.  It turns out that solving them actually takes patterns similar to the ones Sudoku does.

I made a lot of progress on these blue flowers.  The pattern calls for them to be put together in a shawl, but it came to me that they would make really neat sleeves for something like a sweater/jacket if I can figure out how to design the body.  

I know, they don't look like much just yet.  :)

Day 3:

Time to pack up and get ready to go home.  I checked out around 9 and went to find breakfast with my last coupon, winding up at Andy's Diner.  It was a neat place, and turned out to also be quite busy (even at 9:30 ojn a weekday) but I was able to get a seat.  I had an omelette, which was good, and a hotcake with strawberries on top, which was amazingly fluffy and delicious.

My last stop on the way out of town was at Wildseed Farms, one of my favorite places to visit every time we go to Fredericksburg.  

Something very interesting was my discovery of pink and white bluebonnets growing in among the usual kind!  I found that they sold seeds for the different varieties inside.  You can see some mixed in here if you look, with closer shots below:

Now I'm home again, relaxed and comfortable and planning to enjoy the rest of my day before I go back to work tomorrow.  :)