Fredericksburg Visit - Wild Texas Forums: Parks, Travel & Recreation

Shannon · 12-14-2003, 01:19 PM

We just got back from Fredericksburg & the Hangar Hotel about 20 minutes ago. We had a terrific time window shopping in Fredericksburg, watching planes takeoff and land from the balcony at the Hanger Hotel, and touring the Admiral Nimitz Museum (a Texas State Historical Park).

We will share photos soon. The Hanger Hotel has been open 6 months and may look like a customized large airplane hangar on the outside, but it's nearly a 5 star hotel on the inside... but still only $125/night ($150 is the nightly rate when not in the off-season, I believe). Justin "discovered" the hotel in a pilot enthusiast newspaper (General Aviation News), and we checked out the facility a month or two ago on one of Justin's training flights with his instructor. We were all quite impressed with the rooms and airport diner, making it a natural choice for our 5th anniversary.

On Friday and Saturday, we toured Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site in Fredericksburg and were very impressed with the amount of information and the presentations -- the size of the Nimitz Hotel on Main Street belies how much more there is to the museum and museum grounds. The George W. Bush Museum of the Pacific War is within short walking distance from the Nimitiz, and it's so large we actually didn't get to see all of the exhibits despite one long midafternoon/evening visit (they closed at 5 PM). Very informative. There are hundreds of plaques memorializing entire boat, nurse, medic, etc. crews and retelling various events. For those of us who weren't even alive for these events, it brings the enormity of the sacrifices and obstacles faced in war more to life.

On Saturaday morning, we were one of two couples that braved the cold (35 degrees or so) to visit the morning's first "Pacific Combat Zone" tour offered by the Nimitz Museum, featuring impressive static displays -- entrenched military positions, tanks, a simulated aircraft carrier hangar deck with a TBM Avenger aircraft, an American PT boat and a Quonset hut hospital, among other things. Very well done, and again, you don't expect much from the outside of the "tour grounds", but once inside it's clear they've spent a lot of time and money to make it an accurate and informative history-based tour.

Neat links related to our visit:

That's all for now... will post a complete park profile of Nimitz SHP and accompanying photos soon.

Turn Key · 12-16-2003, 09:01 PM

Missed ya by that much!
We were down in Fredericksburg Sunday and left Monday morning. Have been there many times, usually in the spring and we're sure to be there again this coming spring. Went down this time with the main idea of checking out the Christmas decorations. Of course, while I'm there I have to check the quality of the beer at the Fredericksburg Brewery! Top quality as always

!
As said, we went down to check the Christmas decorations. We found them to be very nice but they didn't hold a candle to the San Antonio Riverwalk. We were in San Antonio all day Monday and spent the evening on the Riverwalk. This is the first time we've been there during Christmas and we were both very impressed. As nice as the Riverwalk is at other times, it's outstanding at Christmas!
We came home today (Tuesday) and checked out Bastrop and McKinney Falls SP's on the way home. Will post reviews on these two parks over the next few days. Just had to comment on how close we came to meeting.

Shannon · 12-22-2003, 08:01 PM

That's eerie! Justin and I also almost ran into a co-worker (RichO from our "Your Photos" gallery) who visited Fredericksburg and Boerne one of the nights we were in town... didn't realize it until we returned and Rich posted photos from the central Christmas light display!

We had never spent any real time in Fredericksburg -- it was always a city we passed through en route for home with an annoying end-of-vacation feeling, "Darn, why didn't we factor more time in so we could check out this place!?" -- visit the Nimitz, photograph the beautiful architecture, check out the shops, etc. Fredericksburg's a gorgeous town/city and I look forward to spending more time there in the future. We spent much of our time just kicking back on the Hanger Hotel's balcony, photographing planes and watching the beautiful sunsets. The aviation buffs in us were completely at home, and the hotel's a sumptuous treat, compared to most "dime a dozen/cookie cutter" hotels we stay at on non-camping vacations.

Anything special about Fredericksburg in the spring -- festival/fair/parade? Or just a nice drive to take in the wildflowers and scenery... Marble Falls/Burnet for several years was our staple springtime retreat spot -- usually hit McKinney Falls SP, Longhorn Caverns and Inks Lake on a long weekend out there... been a couple years since we've made the trip, though. I think we headed up to Dallas (family visit) this past spring.

Justin's got me under orders to get some camping trips and day visits to parks "on the books" so we can get back to quenching our thirst for the outdoors again. So hopefully I'll be able to add some more current trip reports to the (now somewhat dusty) archives here.

Look forward to reading any and all trip reports you share -- always had a hope that more folks would like to do the same here. Afterall, the wonderful thing about travel is folks can visit the same place even at the same time and come away with unique stories, experiences, thoughts and perspectives.

And, in case the holiday bustle keeps me away from the computer as much as it has thus far, I'll add this to my exceptionally long post...

MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALL!

ploddinTod · 03-25-2004, 05:07 PM

Hey Turnkey, I didn't realize there was a brewery there. Well, duh, it's a German founded community. :yes: What brought us into the area were the wineries (Stonewall and Fredericksburg). Texas wines are making a bigger impact in the wine consumption market. Anyway, we particularly enjoyed the family owned and operated Fredericksburg Winery on the west side of town. The teenage kids are even involved hauling around boxes of wine to replenish the display cases. The brothers and their wives do the wine tastings which is very educational. But I love the interaction of the brothers with the public as they present the wines....it's like a comedy floor show. Well, it just might have been me. You had to be there. FYI

Turn Key · 03-25-2004, 06:34 PM

Quote:

You had to be there.

Hi 'Tod,
Always want to be anywhere in the Hill Country and will be in just about 2 weeks! Can't wait! :cool: Might hit some of the winerys again on this trip.

Shannon · 03-26-2004, 12:55 PM

Where ya stayin', ploddintodd? If you don't have reservations yet, I highly recommend the Hangar Hotel. You don't have to be an aviation nut to enjoy the place (though it doesn't hurt!).

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