We just got back from a hectic 6 day tour and I promised to update everyone on our observations.....mind you we had a very specific agenda and a very narrow scope of what our ideal would encompass.
We flew into San Antonio and drove up to Comfort for the night. Comfort is a speck on the map, but we found a lovely b&b called the Meyer House B&B and had very comfortable accommodations. The town is small, quaint and closes up at 5 PM - although we had a great dinner at the Gausthous.
Unfortunately my hubby was very ill and we ended up at the Kerrville Hospital the next morning....diagnosis pneumonia...so he was rendered useless the rest of the trip
Kerrville has possibilities, but it was too built up for what we were looking for...small "historic" downtown surrounded by lots of sprawl. The medical facilities were first rate and brand new. It is right on the Guadeloupe River which is a bonus and has a brand new Performing Arts Center which would be a bonus for us. It suppose to have really good schools and is in the southern part of the hill country - and it appeared to have many developments in the hills with views if that is your sort of thing.
After hubby got out of the hospital we headed north to Fredericksburg for a night. Beautiful area... lots of upper end amenities one would expect in a tourist spot. We were there over spring break and it was a bit of a zoo, the downtown is chocked full of shops, restaurants, et...lots of junk, but some nice stuff as well. Nice town park. Loved the B&B we stayed in - The Hoffman House - would highly recommend this place if you are passing through. Of all the areas we visited this one held the most interest for us, but what it lacked was the neighborhood feel surrounding the downtown. There were neighborhoods surrounding it, but it was a real mishmash of styles, no sidewalks, and a majority of the houses did not keep up their yards/houses…..for some reason this really bugs us – whether you have a lot or a little we still want a place that takes pride in what they have. For us, this would be a destination that you get a ranch a few miles out of town and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
Next we headed to Wimberley where we rented a house for the night. Again – a beautiful area – the town was very cute – but like so many of the towns we visited it sits right smack dab on the main route with too much traffic for my taste. For some reason this town just did not do it for us – can’t really say why – just wasn’t the right fit. Although I met many people while strolling around that just loved living there.
Next we headed to Austin as our base for two nights. We are not city people, but we really liked Austin. Vibrant, clean, lots of green space. This seems like a downtown that is really used and useful…….on the way to Austin we drove through and had lunch in Dripping Springs which did nothing for us either and then up through Lakeway – which was really crowded and busy – beautiful but if you need a flat spot to put a play space in your yard good luck
One of our main areas we were hoping to like was Georgetown. On paper it looked very close to our ideal. Unfortunately we were not impressed. Just seemed like a lot of suburban sprawl. The “historic” downtown was buffeted by very busy streets with lots of stop lights and did not give us any impression of being quaint. Too many big box retailers and busy streets to have any assemblence of quaint for us. Had a nice park down by the river though.
We then drove through Taylor – yawn- and Bastrop. Bastrop had a lot of potential. Loved the downtown and the river walk and park. Loved the older historic homes – very charming. Loved the proximity to Lake Bastrop and Bastrop Park. Didn’t like that 71 was a few blocks away and very noisy, plus again too many strip malls being built – takes away from the charm of the area. And we are not too sure about the school district. Definite possibilities though.
On our way back to San Antonio we drove through New Braunfels and again just not the kind of place for us. As you have surmised by now we are anti sprawl type of folks
All in all we did have a very positive feel for the area – especially the Hill Country, but nothing to make us pursue a move at this point. We have other areas of the country to explore to see if anything is a better fit.
Thanks to all of you that helped along the way.
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Notes from our circle tour of the area.......
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