RancherMan & I got the opportunity to spend a week with family renting a lovely beach house at Surfside Beach near Galveston, Texas. The plan was to meet up with my baby sister & her family as well as my big brother & his wife and we’d all gather for the week in this one large rented home large enough for all of us.
BUT my brother & his wife couldn’t make it after all. So there were just the five of us rattling around that big lovely 2-story 4-bedroom 3-bath house.
Even though the trip away was fun, there’s no place like Home Sweet Home!
~TxH~
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by Texas Homesteader *this post contains an affiliate link
RancherMan and I don’t travel much since we so very much enjoy our time spent right here on the ranch. It seems there’s never a lack of something fun to do or beautiful to see. But every now and then it’s still fun to get away and do something different. So when my sweet aunt & uncle got a great deal on a trip to the casinos in Laughlin and offered to let us in on the fun we couldn’t resist!
RancherMan & I don’t really do much gambling, but we really love hanging out with these family members. So we knew one way or the other it would be lots of fun… We were comforted that our wonderful neighbors agreed to take care of things in our absence. Oh yeah, good neighbors are indeed a blessing. If you have good neighbors then you know exactly what I mean. They kept in contact with us during our absence reassuring us that all was well at home. With that tremendous burden off our shoulders we were able to settle in and enjoy our fun vacation with family.
It’s been a difficult year for our family with various severe illnesses and familial issues. We’re a very close family and we’ve all gathered around & supported each other through the hardships. But now that things are finally beginning to settle down we all felt we needed a break.
Its not unusual for us siblings to get together for vacations and this weekend we decided to rent a house in south Texas – a small town called New Braunfels. The claim to fame for New Braunfels is the Guadalupe & Comal Rivers that cut through the city.
As much as we love our home in Northeast Texas, we’ve been pretty tied to the homestead while dealing with an illness and are just now able to get away for short familial visits. We had such occasion recently to venture to the west Texas town of Amarillo to visit a favored aunt and uncle for what was deemed Celebration Weekend.
We were treated to many beautiful sights along our travels west: There were all manner of beautiful country views spotlighting both current and long-forgotten ranch and farm buildings – some still bustling with activity and some merely whispers of the past.
Recently we had the opportunity to visit my brother and SIL Austin. We haven’t lived away from a suburban environment for long but its funny how easily you get out of the habit of driving in city traffic. I remember as a 20-ish adult laughing at my parents for exclaiming how fast-paced things were in my Dallas suburb as I zipped in and out of traffic, them in the backseat holding on for dear life. Now I understand what they meant.
We thoroughly enjoyed our familial visit over the weekend. Of course time spent with beloved family members is always special, it seems we never get enough talking and laughing and sharing our lives. But we also had the opportunity to ride a vintage steam engine into a quaint little town, enjoy lunch, do some shopping and then head back to the depot.
Outside our train window we saw beautiful Hill Country scenery dotted by old farm houses with hand-made animal pens and country churches with shining white steeples stretching high into the sky. Some of the children on the train were wide-eyed as the conductor strolled down the isle in full costume requesting tickets to be punched.