from Janie: On Monday, Gracepoint Austin visited Fredericksburg in the historic Texas Hill Country! Who knew a tiny little German town could be filled with so much history… and peaches! We visited the National Museum of the Pacific War. In short, it was a World War II museum. Surprisingly, this seemingly small museum is HUGE on the inside and jam-packed full of amazing artifacts from the actual war such as actual airplane bombers, tanks, submarines, and even the very uniforms from generals! The museum was so extensive that we could only see about one-third of the museum! Nevertheless, the museum was a great memorial to veterans of WWII and to all veterans worldwide. We decided to take a lunch break at Auslander, a very German restaurant, and ate our fill of delicious sandwiches, wursts, and potato pancakes. Our last stop before going home was to a retro ice cream parlor famous for its homemade ice creams. Everyone loved the Peach Amaretto, but what else would you expect from a town where both sides of the highway are nothing but peach farms?

from Eugene:

So this past Monday, some of us went on a trip to Fredericksburg, Texas in light of the Fourth of July. It’s only about an hour north of Austin, so the trip was quick and we saw quite a few interesting things on the way, from herds of grazing longhorns (hook ‘em!), to those popular Fredericksburg peach stands, to even a flock of camels (no… seriously, we did). Once we arrived, we toured through the National Museum of the Pacific War, which was pretty neat. We saw through the history of the United States’ involvement in the Pacific theater of WWII, including video footage of fighting and veterans’ accounts, uniforms and weapons on display, interactive maps of battle routes, and fighter planes. It was also pretty fun seeing how excited Nico was to learn about everything, pressing every interactive button and marveling at every display. We also got to tour and see replicas of (and a few authentic) war vehicles, including tanks and carriers. Afterwards, we enjoyed walking down Main Street and seeing all the tiny shops selling trinkets (and jam!), though the sun was beating down on us pretty hard. We ducked into a nice, air-conditioned restaurant to have some authentic German food for dinner (mm, Reuben sandwiches). Then Margie treated us to homemade ice cream for dessert. You could definitely taste the difference between homemade and store bought. We also found out why those Fredericksburg peaches are so popular; the best flavors were Amaretto Peaches & Pecans and Strawberries Peaches & Pecans. Yum! All in all, it was a fun trip, short and sweet!

Trip to Fredericksburg from davidlee on Vimeo.