Gruene Hall

Thank you to Suzanne for gently reminding me that I need to hurry up and finish blogging about my Texas trip. I appologize for the delay. Can you believe that I've been HOME from Texas for over a month already???
So where was I? Oh yes, on my Great Texas Road Trip just arriving in San Antonio. So, Thursday I got into SA and found Ginger's house without a problem. In the picture of me at left I am holding Ginger's adorable daughter Avery (the most loving happy child you'll ever meet) and talking to Stacy who was telling me that I couldn't stay at her house in Fort Worth because my Vancouver Canucks had beat her Dalls Stars in fourth overtime. :P

We also spoke with Joanie who called to confirm our plans for the evening. She had a few suggestions and one of them was to go to Gruene Hall to see an old friend of her's perform. It turned out to be a great evening. Ginger, her friend Maria and their two kids joined Joanie, Diane and I for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in North San Antonio before heading off to the Newsboys concert. Then Joanie, Diane and I drove up to New Braunfels.

Greune Hall (pronounced Green) is the "oldest dance hall in Texas" When I was first planning my trip, Gruene was one of the places I mapquested to see how far out of the way it was. It's just off I-35 but it wouldn't have been practical to stop in on my way through on Friday so I wrote it off for this trip. The fact that Joanie called and suggested we go there was just awesome.

It was a beautiful evening in. Diane and I took a walk around the town before it got dark. Next time I'm in Gruene I'll eat at the Gristmill It is an incredibly cool restaurant situated just behind the dance hall and right above the river. This is a picture of the river from the back section of the gristmill.

There are lots of neat buildings and sights and Diane and I had a nice time wandering around and taking pictures of them.

The building to the right is a very popular bed and breakfast.




The Gruene water tower is as famous as the town it self. Diane and I took pictures of it illuminated after the sun set.

The list of people who have performed at Gruene is staggering. George Strait (seen just to my left) played some of his first gigs there and Merle Haggard (above me) has also graced the stage. The walls are FULL of pictures of stars and local people. It was fun to look at them all and see how many I recognized.

Joanie's friend Sylvia Kirk was accompanied by her incredibly talented children Matt, Bobby and a daughter who I didn't catch the name of. It freaked Joanie out that they were on stage because she remembers when they were just little but they grew up well. :) We also met Joanie's friend Maria and her boyfriend there and she and Joanie had fun reminiscing about the "old days". Gruene is a great place. I definitely want to go back there and spend some more time checking it out.

~Heidi