Mum & Dad Visit Texas – March & April 2011 (Part
Two)
DAY THREE: Thursday, 31
March 2011
We got started nice and early so we
could get ahead of the morning rush hour traffic. Considering we were going to be heading “west
and south,” the easiest path when taking the highway would also be where the
congestion would be. Instead of eating
in the morning, and since we were heading out past Fredericksburg , we figured we’d just
breakfast along the way. Mum had a
specific place in mind to go. So, near Johnson City , we stopped
at the Hill Country Cupboard, for the “world’s best chicken-fried steak.” Strange hadn’t changed from the “nearly three
dozen sold” which it said when we first ate there in 2003, and passed by there
in 2007.
Southwest of Fredericksburg
was the city of Kerrville . Mum wanted to check the area out
specifically, because she heard good things about “potential retirement
communities” there. While she wasn’t
really thinking seriously about getting property there (because she wouldn’t
want to be that far from the grandchildren), Mum still wanted to see what was
out here. Other than looking at the nice
little park next to the Guadalupe River , there really wasn’t much to see in Kerrville .
We made our way back to Fredericksburg , because we
heard the Museum of the Pacific War had been completed, so we figured we check
that out (and if there was time, we’d finally finish the Nimitz-specific
gallery). This ended up being the
highlight of the day.
The way the museum was laid out, it
flowed from one section to another logically, without any “rat in a maze”
feel. The opening portion gives a brief
overview of the geo-political situation of the events in the prior decades
which lead up to World War II (like the Russo-Japanese War, and the Rape of
Nanking). The next section focuses on the
attack on Pearl Harbor , and the Doolittle
Raid. These had short films and some
computer simulation to help show how specific events unfolded.
The sections after that took us
through each step of the Pacific campaign, from the island hopping which began
with Guadalcanal, and ended with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima .
Every inch of the available space was filled, but it didn’t feel crowded
at all. And there were a lot of places
to sit down as the short films were being played. For someone interested in the historical
nature of this, it was fabulous. I tried
to note some specific items that interested me as I went along. I liked the piece of coral and container of
beach sand from the island
of Tarawa
In addition to the Japanese
mini-sub at the beginning of the museum, there were a few tanks, jeeps, planes,
and other large items spread out among the exhibits, in addition to smaller
items (like weapons and gear). We began
to realize how massive the building was, in addition to everything there was to
see. Sometimes we had to look above us
to see the actual item the informational cards were describing.
Working for General Motors, I get
amused when I encounter stuff makes me remember that during the war period, GM
didn’t make too many actual cars. The
“GM Special” plane I stumbled upon in Valle, AZ (at the Planes of Fame Air
Museum) was one such example. The
wartime advertisement of a tank built by Buick was another. Little things like that, items the everyday
person would see, were constant reminders of the conflict which raged around
the world.
There was so much information to
absorb, and it was worth the entire time we spent here. This was one place I’d want to go back to
again, and take the entire day to go through this. The museum was designed to allow visitors to
step out for brief periods (either to the restroom or a place for lunch), and
return back to the portion you’d left.
On the outskirts of Fredericksburg , we nibbled
on some ice cream at a Dairy Queen.
Being in Texas , I never thought much
about them, but as there hasn’t been a DQ in New York in about thirty years, this is a
treat for Mum & Dad. That was a lot
of walking which tuckered my parents out, so they then took a trip to the comfy
couch to end out the day.
More information can be found on the places we visited at:
Hill
Country Cupboard:
hillcountrycupboard.com
Museum of
the Pacific War: www.pacificwarmuseum.org
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