Just returned from beautiful respite week in the Hill Countr

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Lucy
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Just returned from beautiful respite week in the Hill Countr

Post by Lucy »

Hi all,

Just returned from the Texas Hill Country. It was a beautiful trip! Lodged in Austin for first three nights, and San Antonio the next three nights. Weather was great, and we found a Whole Foods about 5 miles from our lodging in San Antonio, so cooked our meat there, and had salads and baked potatoes there, and with the leftovers over in San Antonio when we didn't eat out.

My very favorite place, not only for the food, but also, the view, was at a restaurant called "The County Line." (There are others owned by the same people in the Hill Country, by the way.) This one was on 2244 northwest of town, and the dining area overlooks a beautiful valley which was adorned with fall colors in the folage native to that area -- gorgeous, particularly at this time of year!

Later in the week, we ate at a "County Line" that's right on the riverwalk in downtown San Antonio, and I believe that it was very near the Navarro Bridge. There's even an elevator there now that goes right down to the riverwalk, but there are stairs near most of the crossroads on street level if you don't happen to be near the elevator near where you're trying to go.

First thing I asked at both of these restaurants was if they used either beer or soy sauce in their BBQ sauce, and what I learned was that they only use Worchestershire sauce. North of Austin location, I got a lunch plate of beef ribs with a baked potato and side salad (olive oil on both), and the San Antonio riverwalk location, got the dinner version, but this time substituted the baked potato for two sides that normally come with it to avoid having to much food, and besides, they charge big bucks, especially at dinner, for the switch to a baked potato. Still couldn't eat all of the dinner version! It is sooo good, and we got to sit right on the water in San Antonio and just watch the lights gleaming on the water as the gondolas loaded with visitors passed slowly by.
I was sooo impressed this trip at how clean the water now looks compared to even the last time I was there. They've really done a great job in improving things down there, so now it's an even better tourist place to go.

A word of caution though -- most all of the restaurants' corn tortillas will have wheat flour in them as a stabilizer even though they make them themselves. Due to the failure to get a response from one of the waiters in a Mexican Restaurant near the Hilton on the river, we had to leave. He kept saying, "no allergy," "no allergy." Just don't think he had a clue as to what I was saying, but perhaps if I'd said "FOOD allergies"....???
I could've explained the concept if I'd had the vocabulary in Spanish, but I didn't.
Other times when we'd talk to people in restaurants where they serve chips as an appetizer, they were VERY honest and helpful in telling us whether or not they used wheat as a stabilizer. I did find an expensive restaurant there on the river where I could eat the chips, but had a salad with olive oil at that time as didn't feel like asking questions by that time. Sure was nice to be able to eat those good chips.

Only time I had a problem was the next day after eating at a McD's just as we entered the city of Kerrville. I instructed the person taking the order and told her that I couldn't even tolerate a crumb of bread so they'd have to use fresh gloves and not let anything contaminated touch my food, but this was one of those locations where the preparing person was out of sight, so couldn't watch to see if she'd changed her gloves or not.
Also, there didn't seem to be a sort of responsible manager type of person like there are in most of their locations to watch over the preparation, etc. English in this case wasn't a problem, it's more like a sort of non-chalant attitude that I keep running across.
My bil told me that he and my sis are planning to take along enough food to last the whole trip as they also are going to be staying in places witih a complete kitchen since they're not sure they'll be able to find a restaurant where my sis can eat, especially in the more remote areas where they'll be visiting. They are planning to stay in San Antonio three days and the Fredricksburg area for three days as well, I believe.

On our trip, from San Antonio, we travelled up to Johnson City to see the former Pres's house there, and a few miles west of there to the LBJ ranch which is now a national park.
The colors and the scenary were ideal last week, and the tour guide had actually grown up there, and was excellent. Lady Bird still goes there on weekends as she has a life estate just for that purpose. A docent at the Johnson City house told us that at 93, Lady Bird is still quite bright, and has recovered well enough from her stroke to get around quite well.

By the way, LBJ had taught my uncle in high school when he was here a while. Today, Mom told me that she can still remember seeing him directing traffic out in front of their high school in downtown Houston when it was his turn to take that duty. He was quite tall, so would imagine he was easy to spot.

We visited other places in the Hill Country as well, but I'm too sleepy now to report or check for spelling and punctuation either for that matter. You'll understand...

Hope all are well these days.
Yours, Luce
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Post by Polly »

Hi Luce!

Sounds like a great trip! I have been to both Austin and San Antonio - and agree that they are wonderful cities to visit. I recall visiting the Whole Foods store in Austin about 15 years ago. I think it was the ORIGINAL WF store in the U.S. Did you mean that you had the WF store actually cook your meat?

WOW! You certainly did well with all of that eating out. Congrats! We have come such a long way with our diet management, haven't we? But I know exactly what you mean about not having the energy to ask all of those questions at one point. That happens to me too. It simply becomes so TIRESOME at times. I just hate to have to do it. I feel like a broken record, and I know that wait staff do not enjoy my inquisition. LOL!

I hope the R and R will energize you for months! How did mom do in your absense?

Love,

Polly
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Liz
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Post by Liz »

Sounds like a great trip Lucy. Love to do something like that one day. My younger sister has travelled extensively in USA & intends to go back. She has already had 2 holidays over there, last year for 3 months. I just may go with her next time. It would be great to travel around & meet up with some of our friends on the board.

I don't know if you would get anyone in a McDonalds ??? here in Australia to change their gloves or anything. Don't really know because we don't go there at all. If we want fast food while travelling we usually go to a chicken place like Red Rooster or Brodies. I think we only ever went to a McD's once years ago & were so unimpressed that we have never been back.
Mostly we have picnics, which I love to do. At least you know what is in the food and you can eat exactly as you please.

Love

Liz
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Post by grannyh »

Sounds like you had a wonderful vacation!
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Post by m »

Lucy,
It's so nice to get away, isn't it? Even for just a little while. You sound jazzed, which is good!
m
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Post by Lucy »

Hi all,

M, not exactly sure what "jazzed" means, but will take it as a compliment! Ha!

Polly, I made a mistake in the above note -- meant to say that we cooked in Austin what we'd bought in an Austin Whole Foods, but actually had made it sound as if we visited one in San Antonio. Think the location was something like Lamar at 5th or 6th street or something. We cooked in our suite two evenings in Austin, and had enough left over to just heat up one night in San Antonio to eat with the remaining salad and baked potato. That was all we needed since we dined on the RiverWalk two of the three nights.

Polly, if you've not been to San Antonio in that long, I think you'd find it much prettier now down on the Riverwalk -- water was actually clean, and didn't see birds on the tables outside like before. Also, the area in front of the Alamo has been transformed into something called "Alamo Plaza." and it is really neat. Also, I don't believe that the RiverWalk Mall with the two Marriott hotels were there at that time. That was a neat addition, and we parked once in the Mall parking garage, and once in the hotel garage as I'd originally thought that we'd be walking over to the convention center and the museum on the old Hemisfair Grounds, but we ended up not doing that, so had that additional walk.

The old Menger Hotel is there with the Alamo, and was beautiful! My sister said that somewhere in that place there's posted something about Pres. Clinton's favorite ice cream being their peach mango ice cream. How's THAT for a bit of trivia?

By the way, in Austin at the new Bob Bullock Museum of Texas they have an Imax, so there we saw a film about Texas in general, and it was very interesting. They also have a sort of multi-media historical presentation that's combined with a live one man show which I saw a few years ago when the museum had just opened. We'd taken Mom in the wheelchair that time. Wish I'd had time to take my east coast bud to see that as well,

In San Antonio, we visited the Imax in the RiverWalk Mall one night and saw the presentation about the Alamo. Good production, but would've appreciated a little more narration with more detail, but that's just me.

Oh, and also, visited the Lady Bird Wildflower Park thing -- neat, even this late in the year, so can just imagine how wonderful it must be in the spring! Whoever designed the grounds and buildings did a beautiful job, that's for sure. There in Austin, they're doing lots of improvements along River Rd near Landa Park, so I look forward to returning to see the finished product.

Getting suddenly sleepy again, so better close. Happens every time.

Yours, Luce
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Post by Lucy »

By the way, that plane crash at Houston's Hobby Airport happened right before we arrived, and it blocked the two of the runways. They originally were going to delay my traveling companion's flight from 1:02 PM all the way to about 5:20 PM, but we decided to go back and talk to the lady who printed out her boarding pass, and sure enough, there were TWO seats left in that plane which was a plane that had been waiting which had been supposed to take off about 10 AM. I think that many of those had been on the runway when the accident happened and that many of them had seen the whole crash. Owner of that Cessna Signature 500 was a local cardiologist with an electrophysiology group, and he received a bit of notoriety when he treated Hakeem O., the basketball player originally from Nigeria, who played for the Rockets for many years. He was treated for an arrhythmia.
Anyway, this cardiologist and his mechanic were both killed in the crash. Long story about how that happened, but won't go into that now.

One thing I noticed was how calmly the whole incident was handled -- very professional! Later, heard an employee of an airport museum who saw the whole thing report that he was amazed at how no one on the flight line was running around aimlessly -- they just did their job very efficiently. It's certainly good to know that they are apparently being well trained these days!

Nite all. Luce
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Post by Lucy »

Polly,

Sis and Mom did quite well although the sis's back was bothering her when I returned (no wonder!). The doc was a very good nurse -- she continued dressing changes on Mom's legs where she'd bumped into the legs of the transporter chair where they extend to the foot rests. These don't fold back as do her regular wheelchair, and since the chair is more narrow, there is less space between them within which she can turn around to sit -- thus the big bruises. Now, I only use the transporter chair when taking her someplace in the car as it's much lighter as it just has those four small wheels instead of two large (read HEAVY) ones. It still works well, but I have to be very careful to make sure she doesn't bump into those extensions in front.

Also, Sis took her for her regular eye appointment, so one less thing to do for me this year. They were at the beauty shop when my friend boarded her plane, so I went straight there to relieve any further strain on Sis's back.

By the way, did I mention that we went up to Round Rock (north of Austin) to visit the minor league baseball stadium that belongs to Nolan Ryan? There, I got two Championship tee-shirts for my sis and bil for relieving me for a week...AND, they fit!!!

Need to assist the patient. Had more for Liz, so....
ttyl Luce
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Post by Lucy »

Liz,

I only do fast food in a dire emergency (when it's too late to have anything else), but have found that McD's is one of the few fast food joints where there seems to have been at least a little training of the managers in how to handle the food of allergic people. Also, since I must have the bunless burger, I can get the combo there as they almost always use what's called a "dedicated fryer." That simply means that the fryer/oil used for their fries hasn't been used for anything at all other than fries. This is one of the few restaurants of ANY kind that doesn't have multiple uses for their fryers (read BREADED chicken nuggest, etc.). Other restaurants just don't have the space for enough friers to keep things separate.

Remember, I ONLY eat there when I'm away from home, and starving, and there's nothing else avaialble, and it's nice to be able to have a starch with the meat and veggies. In a regular restaurant, I get a baked potato with olive oil when I can, otherwise, I just have a salad with say, shrimp cooked safely, etc.

Also, I like to be really careful not to get food that might've been kept off temperature or not be fresh, particularly when traveling, and especially in small towns, so I think that at least this big chain is strict about things like that, and the big volume they have kind of works against food sitting around too long. That's about the only time I "slum it," food wise.

When we were up in Fredericksburg, we got there right about 2 PM, and they roll up the carpet at the regular restaurants there at that time, and don't open them back up til time for the evening meal, so we headed on to the next town, and McD's was the first SAFE place we came to. Apparently the preparation was sloppy, so I got "gluted." Perhaps I should've made them tell me who the manager was, and when they brought the food out, asked them if they'd changed their gloves. I didn't question the order as when it came out, it looked exactly as I'd ordered it, soo..

By the way, at my bil's company, a co-worker got very sick at the cafeteria there when food that WASN'T supposed to contain MSG had it, so his boss went down and told em off about it. Wouldn'tcha just love to have a boss like that who'd take up for ya like that?!!

I hate it when people don't take these things seriously, don't you? My Chinese chef friend who's been so helpful and interested in finding things I could eat told me that in most Chinese restaurants that the chefs will throw in a tiny bit of MSG thinking that a smaller amount won't hurt, even though you aask for NO MSG, as they think that otherwise, it won't taste good. What is it about the word 'No' that these people don't understand?

Oh well, duty calls. Later.
Luce
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Post by starfire »

:grin: Luce, it sounds like you had a wonderful vacation and I KNOW you sure deserved it. :grin:

Love, Shirley
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Liz
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Post by Liz »

Hi Lucy

I may just have to check McD's again. Unless of the chain over there is a bit more advanced than here.

I know that they have started to provide salads & other more healthy food that they once did but I have seen what My sister & niece get from there and have not been impressed. Maybe I will give them another go next time we go on a driving holiday.

Your Bill is pretty lucky to have a boss like that who cares about his staff & their health.

Love

Liz
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Post by Peggy »

"Texas-style" well...mayhap you got it right m'dear!

Envious Me,
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Post by Lucy »

Me again, Liz.
Just thought I'd let you know that bil stands for brother-in-law. Bet you thought I didn't know how to spell Bill, didn't you? Haha!
Sure would be fun if you could visit all of our states and provinces, etc. Be sure to visit this area in late October or after when it'll be cool, but not too cold. The really HOT weather generally doesn't start til after Memorial Day, and especially after mid-June.
Maybe you'll be ready to present your prize quilt at that international show soon. Ya think?

Welp, this has had to be my chat since I can't do the "chat" function on this webtv thing...waaah!

Yours, Luce
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Post by Lucy »

Liz,
The pics of the fruit salads looked good, but I would have to use my own nuts on that one, I'm pretty sure. One day I happened to read the contents of a package of the seeds that Wendy's issues with one of their salads back when I could eat their Asian salad -- you should see all the stuff that's added to what should be just a plain bag of seeds -- waaah! Why do they have to keep doing this? I've gotten to the point that if a list of ingredients is very long, I put the product back, and don't even attempt to read it -- just too ridiculous having all that whatever it is stuff in something that should be simple.

Anyway, wouldn't be surprised if the nuts with McD's fruit salads weren't also doctored up like that, so best read the packages. If not packing my safe pecans, will just eat the fruit by itself. Wish I'd done that dish on the trip instead of the gluten contaminated stuff they gave me!! It didn't keep me from doing anything on the trip, but it does do damage to my small intestine, and I don't want a lymphoma. I've actually got about three more years before I'll feel completely ok with that prospect anyway.
I had quite a bit of damage before getting on this diet, and apparently most of it has healed that's going to heal at this point.
Anyway, I try not to let it concern me, and know that my chances have dropped dramatically at this 2 year marker off of gluten.

Your picnic idea sounds neat. Have you ever stopped at a road side park to use the grills that so many of them seem to have available?
The thought had occurred to me that if we couldn't get a room with a kitchen, we might be able to do some cooking at a nearby park in the places we visited. I'd have to think the whole process through before I'd depend on that, however.

Yours, Luce
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Liz
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Post by Liz »

Hi Luce

Silly me. Should have know about the bil :lol:

We have have little BBQs in parks both while travelling and while just going for a drive for a picnic lunch. I love that sort of thing.

We mostly get self catering accomodation when we go on trips or holiday. I don't like to eat out all the time, just occasionally. You can often get a unit at a reasonable price or we have often stayed in cabins in holiday caravan parks that are very comfortable and suit our needs. Some motels have self catering units as well. I like to just relax and let it all hang out at the end of a long day of travel.

I don't think that the foods in any establishments match up with the advertisments. They always look shiney & bright in the photos but don't look like that in reality. Good reason for cooking your own, you know what goes in and how it has been handled as well. I have a bit of a fetish when it comes to food hygiene. Maybe it is a throwback to my catering days. :chef:

Love

Liz
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