Fredericksburg Revisited

We got started today a little later than usual. I was enjoying taking my time this morning after my 30 minute walk with the dogs. I keep forgetting to grab my camera when I start out. Gee, I'm doing well to remember my heart rate monitor and pedometer! The mornings are beautiful here, and I know I'm missing some good photo opportunities.

Anyway, by the time we had breakfast, showered and cleaned up the kitchen, it was after 11:00. Oh, well, that's not a problem, since we don't have to get all our sightseeing done to be back at work after vacation.

When we were in Fredericksburg a few days ago, we agreed we would go back to see the National Museum of the Pacific, Home of the Admiral Nimitz Museum. This is actually a complex of museums that cover pretty much everything to do with Admiral Chester Nimitz and the Pacific War (World War II). I did not know until we got here that Nimitz was born and raised in Fredericksburg, which is the underlying reason for the museum's location here. This first picture is the Nimitz museum. The building is a reconstruction of the Nimitz family's hotel, which was operational from the 1850's to the mid 1960's. The exhibits in this part of the museum cover the history of the Nimitz family and the career of Admiral Nimitz.



Jim is standing in the Veterans Walk of Honor in front of one of the Memorial Walls.



PT 309, shown in this picture, has been refurbished and is part of the guided tour of the Pacific Combat Zone. They sometimes have live re-enactments in this area, but not today. We did see several interesting exhibits here, including a quonset hut that had been set up as a field hospital.

A break in the war action is this Japanese Garden of Peace, which was donated by the Japanese people.

The other part of the museum is the George Bush Gallery, which includes over 20,000 square feet of Pacific War exhibits spanning the pre-war period through Japan's surrender. It was a sobering experience, to say the least.

We took a break from the museum to have lunch at the Rathskeller on Main St. in Fredericksburg. I had a delicious King Ranch Casserole and salad. I'm sure it wasn't the light version, for which I have a recipe, but it was excellent. Jim had a hamburger with a home made bun, of course he enjoyed that a lot! Ok, I confess, we split a slice of chocolate pecan pie for dessert.

On the way home, the plan was to go through Luckenbach, Texas, but we missed the turn. We saw the town in the distance, but didn't turn around to go back. The drive on the road back to Boerne was lovely, this is beautiful country.

Jim went to the store to pick up the milk we didn't get yesterday, and we're settled in for the evening.

Ahh, what a tough life.