We left Leilani for a night with her grandparents and went to Fredricksburg, a German-founded little town a 2-hour drive away, had really fake german food (actually, it was not that bad, had I not expected German flavors and rainbow trout but American flavors and fried pollock), watched a movie, spent the night at a very nice bed and breakfast, visited local parks and churches and went on a hike at the enchanted rock.
It’s a charming downtown with old storefronts full of antique and tourist shops. But it’s still nice to walk around and it was nicely decorated for Christmas.
The bakery had the winner of the ginger-bread house contest, and as much as we were trying to do adult things, we couldn’t help but think that Leilani would’ve liked it.
Unlike other American towns it has a nice Marktplatz, and many other little details reminiscent of the German heritage. Apparently, you could hear native German speakers in town up until the 1950’s. On the Marktplatz was a Maibaum sculpture that showed the history of the town.
We went back to the Markplatz by day and looked around some more. This statue commemorates the agreement that the German settlers had with the original Indian tribes to use the land, the only one in the US that the white man did not break.
Then we went to look at the painted church in town. Some of the Czech settlements in the area are famous for the churches painted all over inside, but the Germans still had a nice church. I think it was mostly the German Catholics who left Germany and came to the US.
The stained glass windows were very colorful, and we took pictures for Leilani who likes them.
Then we headed out to Enchanted Rock State Park, the whole excuse for this trip. It’s only 400 feet (120 m) high, but it’s a beautiful pink granite monolith that is exposed in this near-desert.
You can hike anywhere you want, and it’s fun climbing around on the various rocks.
We avoided the crowds on the main trail and walked up the bare rock on the back side, where it got rather steep at times.
We did find the cave, which is a huge crack in the rock filled with large boulder that you can climb between, but somebody had said we wouldn’t need flashlights on this trip.
The top of the rock is flat, and thanks to the recent rains, there were pretty pools of water everywhere, each with their own little microcosm.
