River Walk San Antonio

It has been many years since we have visited the River Walk which is a huge tourist attraction located downtown and across the road from the Alamo.  The River Walk hosts a variety of restaurants and shops and parst of the outside entertaiment area has been used in the making of several films such as Miss Congenialty with Sandra Bullock.  If you do not wish to walk there is the opportunity to travel by boat.  To learn more of this interesting area have a look at http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/

Many shops are located around the river.

Walking tracks travel along the river bank. 

 There are statues and monuments scattered around the river.

There are heaps of restaurants to chose from.

And quite areas to sit and ponder. 

When you visit San Antonio the River Walk is a must.

More to follow,

Bev and Ross 

Rudy's and Wurtfest

Hello again and this week has been taken up with some fun things such as returning to Rudy's, who portrays itself as the worst BBQ in Texas.  Clearly this is not the case and for those of you who have sampled the BBQ at Rudy's you will know the truth.

Everything goes better with cold Shiner Bock beer.

We also had the  opportunity to visit Wurstfest which is an annual event held over a 10 day period.  It is a festival which hosts a variety of entertainment, food and fun.  It is a unique celebration rich in German culture and full of Texas fun located in beautiful New Braunfels, Texas to see more have a look at http://www.wurstfest.com/

The musical side of this event hosts traditional German bands whose members at times mingled with the crowd on the dance floor while still playing.  All having the time of their lives.

The area also has a functioning hydro plant dating back to the '20s.

This was another very pleasant day spent with our Texas family.

Ross in his beer hat, which was on loan from Bredon says it all. 

More to follow,

Bev and Ross

Settling in - Maple Glade, San Antonio

As many will know we have been visiting San Antonio since 1993 and it has been 7 years since purchasing our home here.  Finally we are now able to live in it on a temporary basis and it is a great feeling to finally be back in our second home.  We are happy to say that our grass is green and our trees are healthy.

Below is a view of our street and at the end of the road the community swimming pool and tennis courts are located.

A view from our front yard and we are surrounded by very pleasant neighbours.

During our first week we injected a considerable amount of cash into the Texas economy with many purchases to funish our home.  We needed to replace our water softener and in the process of reconnecting the water to the house we required the emergency services to fix our problem. 

Our home has 4 bedrooms so now we will take you on a quick tour of it.  Bedroom one is ours and we chose a Texan theme.

We purchased two smaller bedroom suites because we expect and hope that many of you will come and visit. These Bev has termed the blue room and the aian room. Take your pick when you come.







 The lounge room.

Beverley's pride and joy.

Ross' pride and joy which we used for the first time last night.

We are having lots of fun with the house and we are now at a stage where we can now enjoy it.

Please come for a visit as we have lots of space.

More to follow.

Ross and Bev

On the Road Again

We departed Canada on Wednesday 2 November, a day later than we had intended to as we had more work done on our car seeing as we were going to have a very long drive.  As is ususal for the Wright/White family anything that can go wrong generally does.  Ross who has undertaken all of the courses for the handling of small arms decided to take his rifle into the USA.  After a 2 hour trip from Fredericton to the boarder we were informed that as Ross was not a Canadian citizen we had to return the rifle home.  So after an early start and a four hour round trip back to Fredericton and then returning to the boarder we were finally on our way.   The first day we travelled as far as Portland, Maine as we had a very delayed start to our day.  There were stilll some fall leaves on the trees so the drive was most pleasant.

The roads are very good to drive on and now the speed limit in most states is between 65 and 75 mph.

Our next stop was Harrisburg, PA, then onto Knoxville,TN.

From Knoxville we traveled to Little Rock,Ak.

and finally arrived in Texas 5 days later having travelled 4,000 km.  Texas is really booming and there are "high 5" cloverleaf roadways being built throughout the State.

When we arrived in Dallas we were amazed at the amount of traffic on the road for a Sunday so our trip into San Antonio was much slower then we had expected.

We arrived at our house at 3.30 pm on Sunday 6 November and we were delighted to be finally home.  After a quick unpack of the car we were around at Dennis' place and then off to Theresa and Steve's place for a family supper.  It was great to be back once again with our Texas family.

More to follow.

Best wishes to all,

Ross and Bev

Halloween at Beaver Dam

On what will be our last weekend in Canada for some time, we revisited our great friends out at Beaver Dam to celebrate not only Halloween but the close friendships that have developed between us. The wonderful people in this shot (along with Jacqueline and John in Fredericton - see previous post) are the reason we have stayed much longer in Canada than originally planned and the reason that we will be coming back next spring after our visit home to Australia.

L to R, Ross, Di, Bev, Debbie, George, Barb, Cathy, Doug and Blair.

George decided to recreate the old days when we all had much more hair.

Blair and Doug enjoying great wine, Australian (of course), and a good laugh.
It was a very funny night.

And finally just as a reminder that winter is on the way, we were greeted by flurries overnight and a forecast of 5 to 10 mm through today.

Thanks again to the gang in Beaver Dam, we will miss you. See you next year.

Stay safe and well

Ross and Bev

Jacqueline's Birthday

Last Sunday we helped Jacqueline celebrate her birthday. As regular readers of the blog will know Jacqueline has been our dear friend and supporter since before we left Australia. She found our house for us, helped us out with furniture, took delivery of all the boxes we posted to Canada before we arrived, met us at the airport when we did arrive, took us on our initial shopping trip and helped us move into the house, and now that we have moved out of the house at Beaver Dam has been generous in the extreme by letting us occupy the basement apartment in her house.

We shared a great meal, good wine and a superb chocolate cake. Jacqueline and John about to attack the cake.

A wonderful birthday night was had by all of us and we wish Jacqueline many, many more.

Thanks for everything

Love Ross and Bev

All Hallow's Eve

All Hallows Eve or Halloween is celebrated on 31 Oct however, the festivities start much earlier here in New Brunswick.  Last night we went out with our friends to King's Landing for a night of fun and laughter.  On arrival we were met by the headless horseman.

As we progressed further we were entertained by ghostly aparitions who all had a story to tell.

Sadly the jilted bride still visits on this night still carrying her wedding cake complete with rat. 

Bodies were bountiful and were surprising agile as one walked past.

After navigating the realistic horror we all headed for the bar for a soothing drink before supper was served.  Cathy and her parents enjoyed a calming ale.

There were gremlins everywhere and the frightening creature below had the most piercing scream.  She really did a good job of jumping out of hiding places.  Her scariness turned out to be rather good for business as there was more  than one drink went flying and it was usually spilt over someone. 

Once seated we were entertained by a variety of ghostly stories and musicians dressed in all manner of clothing. 

It is always such fun to spend time with our great friends. 

On 1 November we will departing Fredericton and travelling to San Antonio, Texas for the winter.  

Best wishes to all,

R & B