I went on the best weekend trip to Gruene, Texas with my sisters and mom! The last time we did one of these mother/daughter trips was nearly 4 years ago, so we were long overdue for a weekend trip in a fun Texas town.
We rented out this amazing airbnb. It was perfect for a mother/daughter group of 5! (It would also be great for a bachelorette getaway!)
My favorite part of the house? The patio!!
This picture is from one of the two double-decker back patios overlooking the Guadalupe River:
There are some river rapids right behind the house, so every time we stepped outside we heard the relaxing sound of running sound. Seriously, this patio was absolutely perfect!
We all met up at the house and relaxed for a while before heading out to dinner at The Gristmill River Restaurant.
Love this beautiful restaurant! It’s in a renovated cotton gin from 1878, and every part of the restaurant is either outside or open to the fresh air. It’s great on a cool evening!
I ordered some chips and quest for a starter (duh)..
The onion rings at Gristmill are famous! They’re dunked in a thick, rich coating of buttermilk batter and fried to a golden perfection. SO GOOD.
We enjoyed a long, lazy dinner on our first night of vacation.
Friday morning rolled off with a slow, easy start. Coffee, breakfast, and reading on the back deck. I specifically set my alarm a little early so I could enjoy some extra time outside listening to the river!
And then….more river time! We floated down the Guadalupe with Rockin R River Rides. They were great! For $23 a tube, we enjoyed a leisurely 5-hour float down the river.
A bus took us to the start, where we were given tubes and instructions, and we ended up at our parked car.
Only thing I would have changed? We didn’t pack enough snacks/drinks! Haha! We planned on a 2-3 hour float, but once we got to the checkout we realized the route we actually wanted to take was more like 5 hours…but it was too late to go back and get more drinks.
So, learn from our mistake: pack a giant cooler with more beer/water/soda/snacks than you think you might need.
Other than that one small hiccup, the long day on the river was absolute perfection. (Aaaand if you’re stealthy like we are, you can probably sweet talk your fellow tubers into sharing some of their beer with you…)
Five hours in the sunshine really wore us out, so we did an easy dinner at the house. (No one had the energy to go out to dinner.) Two large pizzas from NY Pizza Pub, please!)
It was good! Definitely not “New York Style” pizza…it was more of a thick, chewy crust (kind of like Pinthosue Pizza here in Austin.
And then….my very favorite part of the trip was Friday night when we got all dolled up to go to Gruene Hall to see Jerry Jeff Walker perform!
Here’s my sweet fam! Love this crew so, so much.
Let me just point something out about the picture above: the coordinating outfits are a complete accident. Ha! The blue/gold/tan going on looks like it was intentional, but this is just what happens when you’ve spent as many years together as we have.
The concert finished late on Friday night, so we all slept in a bit on Saturday morning.
My mom and I were the first two up, so we enjoyed some time on the back patio! I made my coffee and got started on my gratitude journal (my monthly goal for June) while she read a book.
And then we hit the town! (All two blocks of it…)
Gruene is teeny-tiny and so cute! It’s a great place to spend a few hours walking around. It has that iconic old-fashioned feel to it with ice cream shops, a General Store, and antique shops with old Texas memorabilia.
And all the ridiculous Texas blinged-out baseball caps you could want…
(I kind of wish we had gotten matching hats at the beginning of our trip because HOW GREAT ARE THESE?)
My cute sisters!
Who remembers these little Dover activity books? The four of us LOVED these when we were little girls! My grandma lived in Washington state, so she would mail big packages to Texas for our birthdays, and these little activity books were one of the things she would send us.
Double scoops at Rhea’s Ice Cream! They make their own homemade ice cream and their own waffle cones.
Ice cream is a 100% must in the Texas summer. No negotiations.
We spent the afternoon walking around town, and then it was time to wrap up the trip and head out!
There are few things I enjoy more than traveling and enjoying new experiences, and there’s NOTHING I love more than spending time with my incredible family. Seriously…so, so very fortunate to have this crew in my life. I know that they’re with me through the best moments in life and through the lowest days, and everything in between.
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