A Texan Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday 2024 Ilene and I spent time with my cousins Nick & Peggy Peterson. While we don’t actually celebrate Easter until 5 May this year Nick and Peggy did by attending one of our local Protestant churches. Ilene and I attended our Antiochian Orthodox Church, St. Thomas, in Fredericksburg.

We agreed to meet up afterward and take a hike in nearby Enchanted Rock State Park. It’s crazy. We’ve lived here over five years now and this was our first trip to Enchanted Rock. Of course, part of the reason is that it is a very popular spot year around and you have to get reservations in order to visit so they can control the number of folks and minimize disruption to the flora and fauna.

I’m the oldest of all the cousins on my mother’s side of the family and Nick’s actually one of the younger ones. Like most of my cousins, he grew up in Illinois and over the years he and his wife Peggy, also from Illinois enjoy hiking hills and mountains. I tell you that because they decided to take the summit trail while Ilene and I chose a flatter and less challenging route. Some of that was based on our age and my new bionic hips, but also on Ilene’s aversion to falling on trails.

It was a beautiful hike with Texas Bluebonnets peeking through the tall grass, the occasional chirp or tweet from a bird, and the scent of the bluebonnets as the breeze carried the fragrance along the path. Oh and we were close enough to the road to hear cattle mooing reminding us we were in Texas.

Rock is a special place, it was actually one of the reasons German settlers came to this part of Texas in the 1840’s. Then Baron John O. Von Meusebach, he later renounced his foreign titles as an American citizen, was intrigued by what author William Kennedy had written about this rock formation in his book Texas: The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas. It was Von Meusebach who led settlers to what is now Fredericksburg, Texas and successfully negotiated a non-government peace treaty with the Penateka Comanche in 1847. The Meusebach–Comanche Treaty is said to be one of the few treaties with Native Americans not to have never been broken.

Willow City Loop

We met at the trailhead after about an hour and a half of hiking and after a brief rest and some water we jumped into Nick’s truck and headed for the Willow City Loop. This loop that runs along a public road surrounded by private property is world-famous this time of year for its wildflowers.

This year was exceptional for the Texas Bluebonnets! The fragrances of the bluebonnets was everywhere, something between honeysuckle and lilacs. We stopped at a couple of spots and got some nice photos. As one would expect on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Spring, we weren’t the only ones enjoying the drive…let’s just say, it was quite crowded.

Since Nick and Peggy were leaving the next morning for the Dallas/Fort Worth area, we stopped off at one of our local restaurants, yes, we actually found a couple open, and had dinner. Nick invited us over to their RV for “happy hour” so after checking on Bella we spent a few more hours catching up and enjoying each others’ company.

All-in-all, a nice way to spend Easter Sunday 2024.

Stay tuned for updates on our  Pascha celebration in a couple weeks! We’re not even half way through our Lenten journey and we have a lot more to cover.

God Bless!