I promised to write more about my pre-Christmas activities with my folks in town, and here it is … in more detail than you probably wanted.
My folks have been considering moving to Austin for about a year – there’s a long story involved as to why they are where they are now that involves Hurricane Katrina and its oft-neglected impact on the Biloxi-Gulfport area, but I won’t go into that. The reason that I bring it up is that we spent quite a bit of time looking at developments in north Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown, and I tried my best to be really patient but probably failed. When they went back on Tuesday morning to look at their last two choices one more time, I decided not to go with them so that they could take their time and not deal with the sighing child in the corner looking at his watch every thirty seconds. That’s an early Mother’s Day gift from me.
On Saturday last, I decided to take my parents to some of the wineries in the Texas Hill Country. Since they’re wine drinkers (and the apple hasn’t fallen far from that tree), I thought it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon. We went through a good four bottles (unless it was five?) while they were here, and I thought it would be a nice addition to the weekend if maybe some of those five (wait, was it six?) were bottles we’d found together.
If you’ve never heard of the rapidly growing Texas wine industry – and chances are you haven’t – we have some rather promising up-and-coming labels. The problem is that none of them can export from the state of Texas yet, so no one has heard of the vast majority of the Texas vinyards.
If you should happen to find yourself in the Austin/San Antonio area with a car and a free day, they’re definitely worth a trip. The majority of them in this area are in the Texas Hill Country, which is a pleasant drive when it doesn’t start to pour down torrential rain like it did on Saturday. Check out Texas Wine Trail dot com for info and a map. (No, I don’t work for them — I’m just a big fan).
