Courthouse squares, antique fields, painted churches, and two big cities bookending the map.
Our county seat sits on a bend of the Colorado River under some of the oldest live oaks in Texas. Walk the courthouse square, tour the 1886 opera house, and finish with pie from a main-street cafe. It is the errand town for everything you forgot to pack.
Twice a year this tiny town becomes the antiques capital of America, and the fields along Highway 237 fill with treasure. Off-season it is still worth the drive for galleries, pie at Royers, and rocking chairs you did not plan to buy.
Czech and German settlers built plain wooden churches around Schulenburg, then painted their interiors into jewel boxes of stencilwork and faux marble. Half a day, four churches, and more color than seems legal in a small town.
A national wildlife refuge protecting one of the rarest birds in North America, the Attwater prairie chicken, on ten thousand acres of coastal prairie. Drive the auto loop at golden hour for hawks, wildflowers, and huge sky.
Straight down I-10: the Museum District, the zoo, Space Center Houston, and some of the best food in America. Close enough for a day trip, far enough that you get to come home to the quiet.
Barton Springs, the Capitol, live music on any given Tuesday. Take the back roads through La Grange and Bastrop and the drive becomes part of the trip.
Area photography by Nv8200p, Jim, William L, Jason Villanueva, and LoneStarMike via Wikimedia Commons, used under CC BY and CC BY-SA licenses.
Make Twin Oaks your base camp for antiques week, a church trail, or a slow week on the ranch.
