Our recent Wimberley trip

After reading the various messages on Wimberley Texas I decided to post a review of our recent two-night visit to the town in early December, 2006. We were in Houston for a conference and decided to visit old college friends in San Marcos, Texas over the weekend. Rather than stay in a San Marcos hotel or near outlet mall traffic I decided to stay in a Wimberley bed and breakfast. I had not visited the area in almost 20 years (We now live in Miami, Florida) and while there have been many changes (how many houses can you build on a hill?) it still seemed like a quiet place to spend a calm weekend.

After driving over from Houston (about three hours) we stopped off in San Marcos and loaded up on wine. We also had to purchase some cold weather clothes (scarves, hats, gloves are non-existent in Miami) since a cold front have moved into the Hill Country. But that was fine since it made our visit seem more like a Christmas trip.

We had heard Wimberley was dry (sort of true) and we were eager to see the area before sundown. We made it to our room at the Creek Haven Inn. It was a second floor room with a hot tub in it and an outside porch overlooking the creek or river, I guess, when it rains. Pat welcomed us, showed us to our room and invited us to the Friday night wine and cheese hour downstairs. We met the other guests who were from Waco and having a family reunion that weekend at the bed and breakfast and since we all enjoyed drinking wine it was a nice way to interact with strangers.

Our next stop was at the Trail of Lights a holiday display constructed by various residents and local groups. It was a large area with Christmas theme displays throughout the church lot. The local residents were very friendly and invited us to drink hot chocolate, pet the llamas, put hot dogs on the grill, chatted with us and asked where we were from and so on. It was very cold that weekend but we were impressed with how many people were out that night proudly showing off their various light displays and welcoming us in a friendly small town manner.

We had a late dinner at the Cypress Creek Café. The chicken fried steak was perfect-crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, the vegetable side-dished were fresh, and the service was prompt and friendly. We had heard that the town was dry but that means you have to join the “club” to get served alcohol. Joining the club meant giving them my driver’s license and at other places it might be a dollar. I am not sure if this is limited to beer and wine consumption or alcohol is sold at local stores.

The next morning we had a very tasty breakfast at the bed and breakfast. Everything was fresh and the smell of fresh rolls and buns was a great way to wake-up. After breakfast, we drove over to San Marcos Texas. Walked around my alma mater (Southwest Texas State University—Go Bobcats!), looked at old and new houses, had lunch at Grin’s restaurant and walked around the San Marcos, River. We spend the rest of the afternoon looking at deer and driving around hills in the Wimberley area.

We were lucky enough to get a reservation at the Saturday night dinner at the Blair House Inn. We drove up at night (look out for deer in the dark everywhere!) and noticed the parking lot was full. Apparently a local priest was giving the Inn a holiday blessing and we were met by Mike and later Vickie who were also friends of the Creek Haven Inn owners. We had some wine (I guess that was the weekend theme!) and sat down to the special Prime Rib holiday dinner. I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. The pate appetizer was tasty, the soup was excellent and the salad was crisp. The prime rib entrée was excellent and I thought the dessert was also fine. The wine was served throughout the meal, the staff was efficient without being intrusive and we thought overall the meal was excellent. For the price, I think $62 including tax and tip it was a bargain especially considering it was several course dinner with no hint of frozen or canned products and we were in the rural Hill Country not Miami!

We made it back to the Blair House Inn, chatted with a couple of the guests who were having night cap and crawled back to our room. We had another excellent breakfast, chatted with everybody, left and drove over to Hobby Airport

All in all we wanted to have a nice quiet weekend in the Hill Country. We did. We also got into the Christmas spirit, which is hard to do in our sub-tropical hometown of Miami, but that was because everybody was very friendly, welcoming and tolerant. There are probably little things we could criticize—the bed and breakfast room needed more drawer space and towels, the wine selection at the restaurants is not very extensive, people need to drive fast (or slower) and so on. But, we were in the Hill Country not in South Beach, and in the end people were laid-back and very friendly. To us the latter mattered more than the wine list. We will be back and we suggest others go as well.

Our recent Wimberley trip

I am so thankful to read such a great post about Wimberley. I guess a lot of people that visit Wimberley live in a very angry and depressing world and then come to Wimberley and take it out on everyone there. We visit Wimberley often and absolutely love it. I am amazed at how juvenile some people act. Once again, thank you for writing such an eloquent and tasteful post. I thoroughly enjoyed it.