The Cross at Kerrville

Have you heard of the Cross at Kerrville?  It's a 77-foot cross located at the top of a 2000-foot hill overlooking the Texas Hill Country.  "The Empty Cross" is located at the intersection of IH-10 and Hwy. 16 in the Sculpture Prayer Garden and can be seen for miles.

We visited this Sculpture Prayer Garden when driving home after a recent camping trip.  The sculpture garden is currently home to the giant cross, a prayer rock garden and several beautiful sculptures.  Some of our favorite sculptures included "Mary, Mother of Jesus" which shows Christ's mother clutching the crown of thorns; "The Coming King" which shows Christ returning as King with a sword of victory in his hand; and "Divine Servant" showing Jesus washing the feet of Simon Peter.

Right now, the Sculpture Prayer Garden is a work in progress.  The final plans call for a large, landscaped garden in the shape of a cross.  It will have walking trails, sculptures, a chapel, an amphitheater, and a visitor's center; at the center of the garden will be The Empty Cross.

Before leaving the garden, we walked along the Prayer Rock Garden.  This rock garden started spontaneously when visitors began writing prayer requests on rocks and leaving them along the pathway, much like people leaving requests at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Today there are thousands of such rocks lining the path. And every week volunteers come and pray for those requests.

So using the markers provided onsite, we each found a rock and took a moment of silence to prayerfully write our requests and leave them with all the others.

After returning home and doing some online research about the garden, I learned there are documented miracles happening here daily.  Yes, I believe in miracles! (Ask me to tell you sometime about my youngest sister, Jamie.)  Here's just one link to a story that San Antonio's KENS TV news did about the spiritual phenomena taking place at the Cross in Kerrville. http://www.kens5.com/home/Kerrville-cross-site-of-miracles-164937776.html.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, this garden is home to beautiful works of art and is well worth a visit. And for those who want a special time of prayer and meditation, then this is definitely a place you'll want to visit!

London Calling

Last July we decided to visit London with the kids.  They are both big fans of Doctor Who, Sherlock, & Harry Potter; and I am absolutely fascinated by Downton Abby & all things Royal.  So a trip to London was something we were all excited about!  

And our timing couldn't have been better because the world was awaiting the birth of Prince George.  All of London was on Baby Watch while we were there.  Our hotel was just down the road from St. Mary's Hospital where he was born, and crowds were already camping outside waiting for the birth.  We missed being there for the birth by 3 days!  But I did come home with a souvenir mug.

One of the best things we did in London was hire a private tour guide to show us around the first day.  We used the company British Tours  http://www.britishtours.com and loved the whole experience.  Our tour guide picked us up in a private car at our hotel, Hilton London Metropole, at 9:00am.  He took us to see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament & the Tower of London.

   

Our guide also took us down to one of the tube stations and showed us how to use the London Underground system.  Being from Texas, that was a new experience for the kids. They loved riding the tube, and quickly became experts at reading the underground map and figuring out which line to ride and where to make our transfers.  The phrase "Please mind the gap" soon became part of their daily banter.

 

We quickly found a favorite restaurant in London, The Dickens Inn.  Our tour guide actually recommended it to us and he was spot on.  It's located at the docks near the Tower of London in a beautiful 18th century, 3-story building. The bottom floor is a tavern, the second floor houses a pizzeria and the top floor is the grill.  We ate fish-n-chips and burgers in the grill.

We even found a little taste of home in Victoria Station and my son would not leave without his $15/dozen glazed donuts. (The exchange rate was NOT in our favor!)

Throughout the week, we visited several palaces, including Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth lives and Hampton Court Palace, home of King Henry VIII.  

Hampton Court was lots of fun to tour and see what life was like in the 16th century.  But our favorite part of the tour there was the garden maze.  I was like a lost rat wandering through the maze, but the kids quickly figured out how to find the center.

After a few days of touring old palaces, my son asked if we could go see "something from this century".  So off we went to Warner Bros. Studios for the Harry Potter Tour.  We had made reservations for the tour months in advance since it had only opened recently and tours were quickly selling out.  The kids were absolutely entranced to walk through the Great Hall and see all the sets used to film the popular movie series.  And even though I've never read the books or seen the movies, I also found it quite an entertaining afternoon.

And, of course, our trip to London would not be complete without a little shopping. We hit Bond Street, Regents Street, Hamley's Toy Store, Harrod's Department store and more...

One afternoon, we even had the chance to go visit some friends in nearby Watford for a Texas-style BBQ. My son loves BBQ ribs in England as much as he does in Texas!

My daughter's one request while in London was to go to the theater and see a play.  So one afternoon we were able to get matinee tickets to go see Wicked.

Even though we were there for about 10 days, we didn't even begin to see everything we wanted to.  Nor did we get to ride the London Eye...the line was too long the night we were there. So I'm sure we'll be back soon.

Full English Tea

Wow, it's been awhile since my last post and I don't know where to start!  We've been busy the last year and have visited many great places.

This past Spring we found a neat little gem right here in Austin when helping my son with his "Texas Cultures" project for school.  His assignment was to research how English settlers influenced Texas culture.  So we visited a restaurant called FULL ENGLISH (http://www.fullenglishfood.com/) in South Austin where we enjoyed a proper British High Tea.

This hole in the wall is apparently very popular.  We had a hard time finding a place to park and it was quite crowded inside.

If you plan to go for Tea, reservations are required.  But feel free to stop by any time they're open for All-Day Breakfast or Friday Night Fish-n-Chips.  You can order the Big British Breakfast for $12 and pretend you're in jolly old England for a bit.  The breakfast includes "two bangers, two rashers British bacon, two fried farm eggs, pan-friend mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, & fried bread". And if you want all the above PLUS the traditional British Baked Beans for breakfast, then order the Full Monty!

But we were there for the High Tea...this time.  The menu for High Tea ($15/adult) included:

A pot of tea of your choice

Tea Sandwiches:
Cheddar cheese with house-made chutney,
Ham and mustard, Cucumber vinaigrette

Raisin Scones with Jam and Cream

and a selection of different cakes and biscuits (cookies)

What you see in the pictures above was service for 4 people.  It was delicious and very filling.  The scones were my favorite!  Ohhh that cream .....  And the cheese sandwich with chutney was an interesting combination that we'd never had before, but will definitely eat again.

I remembered to raise my pinky!

It was all delicious and we did our best to leave no crumbs behind!

We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing a taste of English Culture here in Texas.  And my son earned an A grade on his project!

Stay tuned for another blog exploring English culuture when I tell you about our summer vacation to London. Yep folks, the Griswolds, I mean the Bairds crossed the pond and what a trip it was!!