Our family's favorite way to travel is to take our time, poke around, and explore new places. On our drive back to Houston from Austin on Sunday, we did just that, and turned a three-hour drive into a six-and-a-half hour drive. It's not for everyone but it sure works well for us because the boys don't get bored, and everyone gets out to stretch their legs.
After cleaning up at our borrowed home-away-from home, we hit the road around 10:30 and arrived in La Grange just in time for lunch. Since I was driving, I put Gene in charge of finding a local spot to eat (he is very good at that and always steers us someplace yummy). This time, Gene directed us to Cafe Dobre, right on La Grange's town square, where we enjoyed a delicious, better-than-fast-food lunch. My hungry monkeys in downtown La Grange.
After lunch, we walked around the town square. There wasn't much happening on a Sunday afternoon, but it sure is a beautiful little spot.
The historic courthouse
This monument is for the men who lost their lives in the famous "Black Bean Episode" in which 176 Texans from the Mier Expedition were captured by Santa Anna in 1843; one out of every ten was sentenced to death. 176 beans were placed in jar -- 17 were black and the remaining were white. Those who selected the black beans were killed, and their remains were later brought back to La Grange.
Around the corner, we found the old town jail, which is now the chamber of commerce. It was open, so of course we popped inside. The employee there told us all about La Grange!
Jail cell.
And then we were off for a hike and some exploring at the Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites.
It's a former brewery, so this sign made us laugh.
Ready to hike! Once again, the weather was perfect.
There's another monument here for the victims of the Black Bean Episode, and this is where they are buried.
The park sits on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River. What an idyllic spot, complete with cows grazing and drinking from the river.
This land was purchased in 1849 by German immigrant Heinrich Kreische. We learned that Kreische was a master stonemason and that he built a brewery in the ravine below his house in 1860. He produced a beer called "Kreische's Bluff Beer" on a commercial scale from the mid 1860s until 1884. In 1879, the brewery was the third largest in the state.
Here we could look down on the brewery remains.
The brewery was ingenious. Kreische utilized a natural spring and created a water system that used gravity to complete the brewing process.
This is what the brewery originally looked like.
The park includes about a mile and a half of trails.
Will discovered leaf cutter ants.
It's a really beautiful place, and I can see why German immigrants settled in this part of Texas. It must surely have reminded them of home.
Back at the top of the hill, we stopped outside the Kreische family house, which was lived in from 1855 to 1952.
The smokehouse still smelled of smoke!
There was a barn nearby.
If you haven't visited Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery, it is definitely worth a stop!
We knew we were near Schulenburg and the famous painted churches, so when we saw a sign for Saint Mary's Catholic Church, "the queen of the painted churches," in High Hill, we took the 1.5 mile detour for a quick visit. None of us had been to the painted churches before but it's been on our to-see list for awhile, so we were happy to visit just one on our way home.
High Hill was settled by German and Austrian immigrants in the 1860s. This church was built in 1906 and painted in 1912.
It is stunning -- those columns look like marble but they are in fact painted wood.
Love the German!
The church also houses beautiful stained glass windows. Purchased by parishioners, they were made in Germany and shipped to High Hill.
It was a full day, but my crew loved exploring and hiking, and we're already planning our next weekend adventure!
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