Weekend re-cap - San Marcos and memories, Highlands

On Saturday, Hubby and I were craving Mexican food for lunch so we headed to an old favorite in San Marcos - Herbert's Taco Hut.  The last time I was there was when The Girl was starting her first (and only) year at Texas State...we thought we would trip down memory lane.

We are both graduates of Southwest Texas State {known as Texas State now} and Herbert's was a favorite place to eat both back then, and now.  And the place was jam packed on a hot Saturday afternoon.

This place is nothing fancy, but the food is great, prices are reasonable, and the portions are huge.  I miss the little old men waiters in their white shirts and black bow ties, but the service is still good.  We were both very full and still took a to-go container - lunch sure hit the spot!

We walked around the square downtown and admired the courthouse - small Texas towns seems to have the same layout - a large and ornate courthouse, surrounded by a beautiful lawn and big trees in the middle of a square with old buildings and all around.

San Marcos has gotten bigger and the university area certainly has exploded in growth, but downtown is still pretty charming. 

I was only a student here for two of my college years, but I drove all over this town as an Ad Rep for a weekly newspaper.  We also visited our old apartment complex (still there at the top of a hill close to campus) and looked for some other old haunts - the Phi Delt house and Reed Hall (both razed), The Green Parrot (still there on the square), and Gil's.  Palmer's, is still there, Grin's, too, but Aquarena Springs is not the same...things change.

It also looked like they tore down the old shopping mall in San Marcos when the outlet mall came to town, and a favorite restaurant at the falls has closed.  Though a lot of very quaint businesses and bars have sprung up all over the square.  (Hubby and I had to walk off those two baskets of chips and salsa we polished off!)

 A short drive drive down a very scenic RR12 brought us to Middleton Brewing.

This was a fun place to get a beer on Cinco de Mayo afternoon - they had big dogs roaming all around, free popcorn, and Mexican tunes playing. 

The guy pulling taps was very friendly, too.  Too bad we live so far away, but we will definitely visit here again when we are in the neighborhood.  We drove through Wimberley on the way home, and I really wish we could have stopped and shopped.  But we told the boys we would grill and we still had to go buy the food for that.  Another trip,  another day.

 Though really neither of us felt hungry...we grilled chicken thighs, made dutch oven potatoes, and fried okra.  (this will be the last time I show our backyard looking so tacky!)

The next day we headed out to Highlands, visiting our favorite donut place in Bertram for a breakfast of  kolaches and fritters.  Hubby mowed for a couple of hours and I did some odd jobs.  I have a shoebox full of Command hooks I bought at a garage sale, so I hung a small mirror,  my blowdryer and a shower caddy in the pump house.  Then I swept it out and sprayed some stuff to repel scorpions.  One can hope.  The rest of the time, I just putseyed...

 ..and did a walkabout to take pics of pretty cacti.

Mid-afternoon we enjoyed some time in our lawn chairs, eating cheese and crackers and enjoying some wine.  We are sitting in a different spot each Sunday and it's been nice to just sit there and notice everything around us - the birds, the sounds from the lake.  All very peaceful.  Then we packed up and went home to finish up our Sunday, a little sunburned, a little tired, and ready for the week.