We moved to Texas from California back in May 2023. It wasn’t long before we embarked on our first, of many, road trip in the great state of Texas.
Waiting for the Porsche Macan T
We waited to take possession of Abby’s 2024 Porsche Macan T before taking our first Texas road trip. The Macan T finally arrived on October 17, 2023. The only thing left was to wait for Abby to return from her fieldwork assignment. We certainly could not go on the road trip with C8 Corvette, 2012 Prius c or 2012 Prius Four (technically we can with the Prius, but it has seen better days).
Click here to read more about Abby’s 2024 Porsche Macan T.
Waiting for Abby to Return
So wife’s Macan T was sitting in the garage waiting to surprise Abby. All that is left was to wait for her return from her occupational therapy fieldwork assignment in Houston. Abby started her final fieldwork on August and her official return day was November 17 2023 and our road trip starts on November 19, 2023. While Abby was stationed in Houston, I had to man our home, take care of our son and three dogs and make preparation for our upcoming road trip.
Since we were traveling during Thanksgiving week, and one of our lodging has an outdoor Weber charcoal grill, I decided to pack a few items to cook. Specifically, I picked up a pair of Denver cut steaks from Hamm’s Meat + Market, lobster roll kit from Lobster Anywhere and some wines from Galante Vineyard, Austin Hope, Fort Ross Winery and CARBONISTE. All perishable were packed in a newly acquired YETI Tundra 45 cooler that I wanted to acquire for a while. Also, a new portable Bose SoundLink Bluetooth speaker finally replaced our decade old Beats Pill speaker.
First Texas Road Trip, First Stop: San Marcos, TX
We planned on driving all the way down to South Padre Island (SPI) and then heading north to Fredericksburg to complete our road trip. But prior to hitting SPI, we made San Marcos our overnight pitstop. San Marcos made sense as it is the half-way point between SPI and DFW. Since San Marcos is a stay-over town, we did just that. Maybe we’ll revisit one day and explore the town and shop at the outlets.
Short Stop at Corpus Christi
On the way to SPI, we made a day stop at Corpus Christi and paid a visit to the Texas State Aquarium. The aquarium was a lot of fun and is probably our second favorite aquarium, after the Monterey Bay Aquarium in central coast California.
We spent a good 3 hours at the aquarium before heading out for coffee at Calypso Coffee House, which was recommended by a friend. After a short day stop at Corpus Christi, we continued driving an additional 3 hours to reach the southernmost tip of Texas, South Padre Island.
Arrival at South Padre Island
After driving 3 hours along the country side of southern Texas, we arrived at the Isla Grand Resort where we stayed for 3 nights. Checking into the resort was easy and smooth. The Porsche Macan T ands its luxurious features made the drive so much more relaxing and stress free, for the entire family.
First order of business was to head down to the Windjammer Beach Cafe inside the resort and order up dinner and drinks. The food and drinks did not disappoint and neither did the hotel.
The resort has pretty much everything one would need without ever leaving the resort itself (restaurant, bar, gift shop). But of course, South Padre Island has a lot to see in its surrounding area despite the tiny size of the island. We mostly stayed at the resort, I mean, what can beat the views?
I would have to say that the highlight of the trip was our son sitting on his own at a restaurant again. Our son has autism and had an emergency life-saving craniotomy shortly after we arrived in Texas and developed a phobia of sitting down in front of any dining table. At home, he will stand and eat his food by the dining table, but he will not sit on any chair in front of it. So seeing him sit for the first time and enjoying his surrounding in literally almost a year really brought us hope and joy in his road to recovery (more on this in a separate posting).
Heading North to Hill Country and Fredericksburg
After an amazing and rejuvenating 3 nights at the beach, it was time to head northwest to Hill Country and enjoy another 3 nights in the serenity of the hills. We drove 6 hours to Fredericksburg and made it to the Walnut Canyon Cabins. This lodging is a gem and I stumbled upon it purely by luck. Back in California, we used to spend Thanksgiving in Joshua Tree, specifically in the small desert town of 29 Palms. It was a little tradition of ours that we’ve practiced for over a decade, but originally started as a personal sojourn dating back to December 2006. I would pick a weekend, usually Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve, to drive down to the desert and reflect personally. When I met my wife, I shared this tradition with her and then it evolved from “my” tradition to “our” tradition.
We’d travel to the quaint desert town to spend the weekend grilling and literally just chilling, enjoying the serenity of the desert scape, stargaze and do some hiking weather permitting. With that said, I think I am confident to say that Walnut Canyon Cabins will be our new Thanksgiving tradition. Walnut Canyon Cabins offer an almost exact replica of our Twentynine Palms experience: charming personal cabin with a full kitchen, outdoor grill, quaint and serene with a sweeping view of the landscape.
We stayed at the Siesta cabin and we chose it because we were traveling with Loki, our French bulldog. The cabin is small with a queen bed and a sofa sleeper bed, perfect for a family of 4, or 3 in our case. There is no internet connection in this part of Fredericksburg and you’ll need to solely rely on your cellphone reception, if you even get any reception at all.
The idea is to escape civilization, enjoy the respite and rejuvenate. The fridge was filled with oven ready biscuits, farm fresh eggs from the chicken coop, a jar of fresh fruits and berries and a sample zip top bag of Canadian bacon. Carl and Rhonda (the owners) were kind enough to leave a bag of doggy treat knowing that we are traveling with our dog. And, there was a bag of corn kernel on the dining table to feed the wild deers. They come out around 4 PM expecting kernels. The most deers we saw at any given moment was 11 does and one buck.
We arrived to the Walnut Canyon Cabins on Thanksgiving Day 2023 and we brought a bunch of food in our YETI cooler to cook. For Thanksgiving, I made some Texas smoked turkey breasts. I did not have access to any fancy smoker, just a basic Weber Smokey Joe and some H-E-B charcoal briquets. The turkey breast took me 3 hours to smoke before we can slice into it and give our thanks.
And giving thanks we sure did. Ethan sat with us at the dining table again, for the second time and enjoyed his dinner plate. We were thankful for our careers and for both Ethan and I being able to eat a Thanksgiving dinner together as a family. We nearly lost Ethan shortly after arriving in Texas and I nearly succumbed to ADHF (acute decompensated heart failure) back in mid-November of 2020. We were thankful to have our each other and for a seemingly seamless relocation from CA to TX.
The next day, we drove down to downtown Fredericksburg one afternoon during our stay and got to enjoy the little town. It kind of reminds me of Solvang without the windmills. Lots of wine tasting and beer rooms, restaurants, and quirky shops. Very busy and touristy, just like Solvang.
For dinner that night, I grilled a hearty Denver cut steak dinner topped off with creamy chanterelle mushroom sauce, a recipe by Kimberly Killebrew over at The Daring Gourmet. I swear, this steak sauce has is always a hit to anyone I serve it to, no matter how many times I made it over the course of a decade! Unfortunately for me though, I have to use dehydrated chanterelle mushrooms instead of fresh ones which the recipes call for since I cannot source fresh chanterelles locally. Nevertheless, it is still that good!
The following day was just a day of relaxing and enjoying the outdoor patio that our Siesta cabin has to offer. We went up to the observation deck to enjoy the 360° view it has to offer and simply enjoyed a bottle of Sonoma coast chardonnay. The periodic chirping from birds permeating through the deathly silence of Hill Country was cathartic and just the escape we need. While the wife and I enjoyed our company outside at the patio, our son enjoyed his animated movie.
Later in the evening, our host Carl asked if we want our son to help gather some farm fresh chicken eggs at the coop. It’s an opportunity we couldn’t refuse!
For dinner, I dished up lobster rolls using the lobster roll kit from Lobster Anywhere. The lobster roll kit made more lobster rolls than we can stomach, and I dished up two versions: Connecticut style and Maine style. I personally prefer the Maine style. 4 rolls per person was over the top, but they sure were delicious!
Overall, our first Texas road trip was a success. We got to see central Texas, south Texas and Hill Country.
Our next road trip will be down to San Antonio. We’ll check out out the River Walk and The Alamo before visiting our favorite amusement park, SeaWorld. This time not SeaWorld San Diego, but SeaWorld San Antonio. And just in time for the annual Seven Seas Food Festival which we love so much. The trip easily put close to 1,600 miles on the new Macan, but it was all well worth it.