I was a fourth wheel in a parents and son trip. My boyfriend's parents were kind to let me tag along on the Gruene, Texas trip. Thank you. I enjoyed it!
Gently resisting change since 1872.
When I heard Gruene, Texas, I thought it was spelled as 'Green' and it turned it was not. Tada! It was one of the coolest places I visited in the US. I am fond of the downtown vibes and Gruene downtown did let me down. I am glad the government continue to preserve and take care of the place.
Originally settled over a century ago, Gruene is a snapshot of Texas culture and history come-to-life. With 15 walkable acres designated a National Historic District, visitors can shop, dine, and dance within the walls of the original township buildings.The ideal balance of preservation and progress, Gruene Historic District is a Texas travel industry darling for good reason. From tacos to onion rings, antiques to cowboy hats, and Americana music to blues, every doorway leads you to something unforgettable. Gruene is for people who love good music, fun times, and old things!
Cool places we visited in Gruene, Texas:
Gruene Outfitters. It has a lot of cool stuffs for the wild. From shirts to fishing rod, the store has a lot to offer for you to be born to be wild.
The Pomegranate. It has a lot of girly things and they are little pricey. There was a sale but I did not get any that I might need.
Gruene Hat Company. Yeehaw hats for y'all! I tried one hat and it fell on the floor a few minutes after I hanged it back on the hook. My bad! I thought I embarassed my boyfriend and his parents because of what happened because he asked me to move on to the next store hehe
Greune Antique Company. Lots of old, vintage, and curious stuff and memorabilia were in the store. Wow!
Cotton Eyed Joe's. It is a souvenir shop for y'all! I got a small pocket keychain kinfe for my father.
Gruene General Store. My boyfriend and I tried a lot of different peanut butter spread with free itsy bitsy crackers too. Free taste is for the go always y'all! My favorite was salted caramel paenut butter. Yum! I also tried the coin vending machine souvenir at this store. I forgot what it was called, I have to asked my boyfriend.
Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar. We had our lunch at Gristmill and I ordered Chicken Fried Steak with Original Round Cut Fries. It was so good, but they could make the fries crispy. My boyfriend got BBQ Ribs and I got a taste of it. Yum! His mom ordered the same as mine but had green beans on the side, and it was also good in all fairness, and it provided the additional fiber I needed. Yay! Healthy! hehe His father got a burger and fries. The weather was getting cold and it was expected since there was a storm warning. It was winter season after all.
The Company Store. It was another souvenir shop we went to and I noticed on the informational brochure that the store was not listed there. Probably, a new shop. They had shirts, caps, and Christmas tree ornaments.
Gruene Hall. The Texas Oldest Dance Hall, y'all! It looked so olds and there was a lot of framed pictures on the wall of singers and actors who performed songs and shot a film. My boyfriend and I got to dance on the hall and it was a silly-sweet dance, that was so much fun!
The Great Texas Pecan Candy Co. They all got varieties of candied pecan. The store staff handed us free pecans for tasting. Yum! I ended up buying Pecan Beer Nuts. Yum! I thought it had beer, but when I read the ingredients it only had pecan, salt, and sugar.
The Black Smith. The name spoke for itself. The store had tools made out of metal. They forged most of their products on sale. They had knives, bags, and accessories.
San Marcos Premium Outlet. Last stop was the outlet. I did not buy any and my boyfriend got two books from BAM which stood for Books A Million. They had a lot of books and a huge manga collection. Yippie! Yey!
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The Great Divorce is one of the many books written by C. S. Lewis. I just have known recently that he is a Christian and some of his books deal with idea, philosophical, or spiritual views of Christianity. Growing up, I have known him for the movie series The Chronicles of Narnia which based of the book he wrote.
This is the first book I finished reading this year 2025, thanks to our reading date I finally made a little progress to my books to read backlogs.
C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.
The book style of story telling got me confused at first. I did not know who's who. The point of view had me questioning what was happening in the story. In the quarter part of the book, I finally realized that it was being told in the first person point of view. There were ghost, bus ride, hell, heaven, life on earth, and after life on earth throughout the story.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
I stayed with the book despite of being confused and totally lost at the plot of the story, since it was giving me a sense of promise about the great divorce between heaven and hell which the book title strongly suggested.
The ongoing war between good and evil has been existing even before human race realized it is actually happening. The Great Divorce will give a refreshing view of good and evil. At one point while reading the book, I was reminded that what may be considered good on earth may not be good in heaven, and sometimes what humans may consider bad or evil on earth is what is right in heaven.
The bus ride with C.S. Lewis maybe one of the rides you may be needing right now. I enjoyed reading this book even though I had difficulty in the beginning of the story and was able to reach the end. Life is the same. No matter how hard life is we just have to keep moving towards the end of our story. The end that is orchestrated by the most powerful being. He is in our story, God is in this story. I just pray and hope we all make it according to His purpose.
Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil,who put darkness for lightand light for darkness,who put bitter for sweetand sweet for bitter.
Here is a list of places we visited on the second day in NY:
The Brooklyn Bridge. It was a long walk. The bridge looked so vintage. Wow!
Staten Island Ferry and Statue of Liberty. We got free rides back and forth on a boat ship. We saw the Statue of Liberty from a far. We did not get to explore the island and I wished we could have.
Wall Street. The New York Stock Exchange building was impressive. Wow! It was a street for stock exchange.
Charging Bull. The charging bull statue was also at Wall Street. I was not so fond of taking a photo with it, so I decided not to, and I was fine with it.
9/11 Memorial. There were two huge water fountain or waterfalls in place of the two tall building in memory of those who died on the 9/11 bombing of the twin towers.
New York Public Library. It was closed and just took a picture outside for posterity sake. Yay!
Grand Central Terminal. It was big. So huge! So vintage! Wow! So grand!
Time Square. meh :( rainy :( cold :( I have to say it is a Divisoria of New York. In the Philippines, we have a shopping district called Divisoria and it is somewhere in Manila.
The foods we tried:
Churros. They were cold already. It cost me $5 to buy 3 pieces of Churros. I had been curios how a churros would taste like and finally got to try it at the Brooklyn Bridge.
Nathan's Chili-dog. Cheesy and meaty hotdog in a bun. Yum!
Mcdonald's. Fastfood for y'all! hehe We wanted Jollibee, but could not get into the closed parameter around Time Square because of the ball drop. So we just settled for Mcdonald's that day.
Starbucks. Yey! Chocolate chip creme frappe hehe
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ~Matthew 6:19-20
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