Blanco Part 6 - LBJ State and National Park
Ok for our last full day of vacation we were trying to figure out what to do! We wanted to end with a high note. We thought about SeaWorld - WAY too expensive and we couldn't find any good discounts. We were able to find some good discounts for Schlitterbahn and thought of that. We were also discussing the different state parks in the area and Daniel asked me to do some research on LBJ Ranch State Park. I went on Trip Advisor and it got RAVE reviews!! So we posed a question to the kids - we asked them if they wanted to go to Schlitterbahn and ride water slides and swim all day or go to a state park and hike and swim and picnic. They all three said they wanted to do a state park. We asked them several times just to make sure and they said they wanted to do the state park so that is what we did! And I am so glad we did. This is another must see!!
The park was FREE to tour. You started at a German settlement farm from around 1890 - and it was a living history farm. They still operate that farm as if it was still that time period. It was so neat!!
The kitchen on the first edition of the house
The boys got to see how the kids would help carry water to the house.
They also got to experience how they would shuck the kernals off a corn cob and then grind them into cormeal!
The kitchen in the new edition - they were cooking something that smelled DIVINE!!!
The bedroom
The sitting room - the kids were trying to figure out what they would do without a tv. LOL
They told the kids that they could look to see if there were any eggs in the hen house and if so they could carry them to the kitchen. Unfortunately there were no eggs at that time :-( But they got to watch a hen with a frog and how she was doing her best to keep it from the other hens. It was quite a show!
So our next stop on the tour was the schoolhouse where LBJ went to school! It was pretty cool. We were at that point in the National Park side and it wasn't near as hands on as the living history farm. But it was still neat to see.
After that was a stop of the showfarm. They have cattle in the same family line as the cattle that LBJ had and they are working to breed them back to how the cows were back then - shorter and fatter.
The kids also got pet goats that they had there.
The next stop was the airplane hanger where they had Air Force One Half. It was a smaller version of Air Force One that LBJ used to travel to the ranch. We also got to tour the 'Texas White House' where they said he spent more than 25% of his presidency. We could not take any pictured there though.
That was the last of the tour. After that we went back into the state park side and there was a nice swimming poo. We ate our picnic lunch there and then spent a couple of hours swimming there.
Alyssa even went off the diving board!!!!!
Our last morning we had one more batch of our gluten free waffles (I think I have perfected my recipe YAY) and enjoyed it with super yummy cinnamon honey butter that we found in Fredricksburg!!
And I can't end our vacation journal without this story - it was one of the cutest. On the way home when we were on I-35 is horrible traffic in Temple we turned a corner and saw the Buc ee's sign! When the kids saw it they all 3 said in unison, in high-pitched squealy voices "BUC EE'S!!!!!!" Well, we knew we had to stop! We got snacks and then got back on the road and headed for home.
It was a wonderful vacation!! It is another one that we will never forget!!
Until next time,
Kellie
