San Antionio, Comfort and Boerne...What A Great Trip

It is a foggy Sunday morning.  The webcast from church is playing in the background.  Home from a trip to the Hill Country with Dena.  Welcomed back by Roy and Buddy.  Most everything has been put up and I have just a few things that need to find a home.  We left for San Antonio on Wednesday and everyone who is worth their salt knows that when heading west on I 10 a stop at Buc-cees is a must.  We took a little more time on Wednesday because we knew on our return trip Buc-cees would be crowded with travelers such as us.  Dena and I stopped in Gruene  for lunch at the Gristmill.  We also did a little walk around through some of the shops but we were more interested in getting down the road to our destination La Cantera.  We pulled into La Cantera, checked in, got settled and we were back out the door to the La Cantera Mall.  This trip was to scout out the lay of the land or rather the mall and we had a delicious dinner at the Bistro in Nordstrom. 

It is difficult sometimes when one has visited a certain hotel in Asheville numerous times to compare it to the present hotel you find yourself in.  On Thursday, I was so guilty of saying too many times, "well, this isn't like the Biltmore."  Thankfully, I stopped saying that annoying phrase and eased into the wonder and beauty of La Cantera.  We shopped The Rim stores and then made our way back to La Cantera Mall.  I have to admit there was a Target store in The Rim area and yes, I went in to see if they had any of the notebooks I hoard, I mean love.  Target did not disappoint because three of those treasures came home with me.  After our vigorous shopping extravaganza, we ate a late lunch at The Longhorn Steak House.  The comfortable and inviting lobby of the La Cantera resort called out to us and we answered the call with books in hand and a fireplace blazing away on a 90 degree day.  On our trips we pray for God surprises and we were not disappointed by the lovely gift of meeting Rhonda, the concierge.  She brought over a blanket and put in on the huge coffee table so we could put our feet up and read.  We got to visit with her a bit and she was such a joy.  It was a great lobby for people watching.  Rhonda was the first of God's surprises.

Friday morning breakfast contained another God surprise by meeting Golnez.  She was our server and she spoke with a beautiful accent.  I could not place it and asked where she was from.  She responded Persia which is the now day country of Iran.  Golnez, such a joyful and delightful person.  Since the hotel was not full on Friday, we were able to visit with her longer than normal.  Our hope was to be as big of a blessing to her as she had been to us.  She sent us out on our day with our favorite to go drinks, coffee for Dena and Diet Coke for me.  When Dena and I were planning the trip we had discussed several places to see in the Hill Country.  Our goal was not to spend hours in the car, so our picked destination was Boerne.  We drove the length of Main Street and as we drove along we saw a sign, Comfort 17 miles.  Neither one of us had ever been to Comfort, so we decided to head that way and work our way back toward Boerne. 

Comfort was a delightful respite from the rush of San Antonio and the traffic of Boerne.  Guess that is why it is called Comfort.  A beautiful cool day with quaint shops and restaurants and we pulled into a spot on the side of a house, Miss Giddy's.  Eight, count them eight rooms filled with all kinds of beautiful and fun things.  It was a great place to start our day.  Dena and I both found all kinds of neat things that needed to come home with us.  Across the street was a pizza place but you had to buy a whole pizza and we weren't quite hungry enough for that.  So we sat down with our drinks as we rested for the next group of stores.  An older man, a cowboy for sure had been eating pizza at one of the other tables.  He had gone back to the window to ask how to reheat his leftovers.  I told him he should also sprinkle a little water on the pizza as it baked.  Here was another one of God's surprises for us.  He offered us both a slice of pizza and we went back and forth but we ended up each with a slice of pizza from this kind man.  He told us he had had cancer and food didn't taste as good to him now.  He was happy to share and we were happy to receive.  Later Dena remarked, in Houston we would have never thought ever to take a slice of pizza from someone we didn't know.  We prayed for him several times on our trip.  We visited a few more shops and then made our way to Bourne.  We had a lovely time shopping and exploring a beautiful Episcopal church.  The drive into San Antonio was short and we ate dinner at P F Chang's and made one last visit to The Nord. 

Saturday morning we ate breakfast and saw our friend again.  On Saturdays they have a buffet and it was a great treat to sample so many goodies.  Our target time to leave was 11:00 but we hit the road at 10:45.  Only made a stop at Buc-cees for sustenance. 

I loved that God's surprises came as people.  Of course we enjoyed all the beautiful bluebonnets and flowers, but it was kind people that God sent our way.  A great reminder to be kind people to others.  Dena and I made a list of all our trips together over the past ten years or so on our trip.  We have been a lot of places and seen a lot of things.  We travel so well together.  We pretty much get hungry at the same time, don't like the TV to blare, and we have a good balance of being on the go and then taking time to read or relax.  We rarely ask others to go with us because we have such a great balance and even now with us living in Rancho De Five, we don't see or talk to each other often.  So it was a good time to talk and catch up....oh and laugh really hard about really dumb stuff.