Meet Me at the Buttermilk: A Day in New Braunfels with Erica

When Erica came to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with her family, she asked if November 26th was available for a Debbie visit. It turns out that in the entire month of November, that was LITERALLY the ONLY day I had available. With thanks to Jon and his day off, Erica and I met each other in New Braunfels and spent the ENTIRE day (and night) spelunking, talking, laughing, eating, and enjoying each other's company (without kids)!

Our first adventure took us to Natural Bridge Caverns where we took the Hidden Passages Tour, climbing 185 steps down (18 stories) and back up again. We were able to get up really close to lots of neat calcite formations.

stalactites

"soda straws"

"pin cushion"

stalagmites

"Crystal River"

formation shining through the Christmas light show

video of the Christmas light show as narrated by Erica and myself... which can be heard at a loud volume... which most of this population of readers won't care about...

After the cavern tour, we headed outside to take some obviously necessary pictures on the beautiful grounds before leaving the park.



We found lunch at Buttermilk Cafe. After gobbling up our yummies, which included grilled banana bread and a dessert of pumpkin pie trifle, we stayed talking and talking until they kicked us out at closing (3:00). Then we sat on benches outside the restaurant talking and talking for more hours until the sun was setting and it started to get cold. The owner could tell we had a lot to talk about, and after hearing our story of meeting between our 2 locations, he coined his new catchphrase - "Meet me at the Buttermilk."

We talked and talked some more (and ate another delicious pumpkin dessert) and ended the night in Downtown New Braunfels with some festive lighting for the season (and some more obviously necessary pictures).