Antique Week in the Texas Hill Country

Pictures from Top to Bottom: Mom with Johnny Waddle and her new cow hide; plenty of rusty chairs for everyone; The Knittel B&B in Burton, Texas where we stayed; Mom with some serious boot envy; Jana with her new dream car (JK)...

Mom Eichman came in to town last week so we could road trip over to Round Top, Texas for "The Biggest Antique Show in the USA". We read about this last year in Country Living magazine and decided that we had to go! Round Top is a small town halfway between Austin and Houston, and the drive there was beautiful. All of the Texas wildflowers are in bloom right now and the highways are lined with all kinds of vivid color. We stayed at a small B&B in nearby Burton (population 350) which we loved- our room was done in a "Teddy Roosevelt Lodge" style, complete with clawfoot tub and old farmhouse sink.

The antique fair was amazing- thousands of vendors ranging from fancy and expensive European furniture, to some-what cheap and tacky junk (my favorite). Mom bought a cow hide, which we named "Heidi", some pink cowboy boots and some other small items, and I bought some goblets, old window screens and cabinet doors (for something crafty), an apron, and other random items. We heard Brad Pitt was in the neighborhood filming a movie, but we didn't see him :-(

We had a lot of laughs, and enjoyed our waitress at a cafe in Burton apologizing for running out of frog legs that evening. The cow hide salesman introduced himself as "Johnny... Johnny Waddle like a duck." Johnny what? "Johnny Waddle- You know, like a duck." Ohhh.

After Round Top we drove another couple of hours to Fredericksburg, a quaint town in hill country known for antique shops and German culture. We ate some sort of German cuisine that I can't pronounce (der Schnitzelschimmglochen.. or something like it) and spent a day at the Chester Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War, which was awesome. A great time!