A visit to the Museum of Texas Handmade Furniture ...

We had a really interesting trip to New Braunfels recently that I want to share with you.  NB is pretty close to us -- about 20 miles.  And there's lots to do there.  For one thing, there are at least four great antique shops downtown, not counting lots of other interesting shops in the same area.  And a few decent restaurants.  Like lots of towns, most of the everyday shopping is now in the suburbs, but we really like New Braunfels.  If we 'had' to choose a town to live in around here it would be NB.  (But I wouldn't move here unless someone gave me a house, then I'd sell it and move elsewhere.  Just too many people ......)

But anyway, we enjoy visiting this area.  There's a lot to do and see.  We enjoy visiting the town of Gruene, which is really just part of NB.  More about Gruene later maybe (we were there again just last week).

So anyway, we took a day and went to NB.  Had a great lunch at a place called the Fork & Spoon that was recommended to Wendell.  It was really pretty nice and surprisingly so.  It was in a large strip center and when you walked in you could see that they had lots of business!  So we figured the food must be good and it was.  Plus they have a bakery in the next room and had a couple cases in the front of the restaurant.  Then we went on to the Museum ...

When we arrived a docent was just starting a tour.  There was only one other couple and us.  It's a house museum and when you first drive in it doesn't look like much.  But it's bigger than you think ...  Anyway, the docent gave a really good and extensive tour of the house which took about an hour.  The house had been moved to that location decades ago and the entire story of the house was interesting.  As I've mentioned before, this is a German area and most of the histories around here involve Germans.  The furniture, which is the centerpiece of the museum, was all handmade.  When you first walk in, in the large center hall, is a huge wardrobe!  Almost all of the furniture was made of walnut, which we found surprising considering we haven't seen any walnut trees around here.  I guess they're all gone now ...  She allowed us to go upstairs on our own and it was great!  The back part of the house was added at a later date and I loved it because it had lots of windows and was very light and airy.  She wouldn't let us take many pictures and I actually 'snuck' a couple besides the few she would let us take.  They are worried about people copying the furniture (like I would be able to do that!). 

After we left the house we visited the woodworking shop, an old dog-trot log cabin where one half was furnished in primitive pieces (more my style), a cabin they called a line shack (stone and log), and the detached kitchen which was fully stone.  It was a full afternoon and I could have looked around a lot more on my own if they would have allowed it.  We toured with a very nice couple from Alaska who were staying at an RV park nearby.  Another interesting thing -- they had a few college students there that day doing yard work and I was encouraged by their willingness to volunteer to help keep the grounds there in shape.

Here's some pictures I took that day .... Enjoy!

Now I know this is a weird picture, but I took this in the bathroom.  I have NEVER seen fixtures that looked like they were made from copper tubing!  This bathroom was carved out of a closet in the main house and it was long and skinny.  I think there was an outhouse in the back yard originally ...

Now back to the subject at hand ... Here's the front entrance of the Museum of Texas Handmade Furniture, a house museum in New Braunfels, TX.

I was especially taken with this walnut kitchen cabinet with screen wire on the doors. This was my favorite piece on the tour. Most of the furniture in the front part of the house were more formal pieces.

This is the back dining room. There was a large collection of ironstone in this room! That on the table and in the cupboard on the left is just a small part of it. To my back was an entire wall of it! But I wasn't allowed to photograph it ...

This is one end of the upstairs, which was the son's dormitory back in the day; they had 7 sons.  It was unfinished but fully furnished.  There were lots of woven rugs which especially interested me ... Below are just a couple of the chests up there.  The beams were amazing! 

This was the dog trot cabin; the log end was primitively furnished and I really liked it.  The flower bed on the left had bluebonnets coming up already!

Here's one wall of the woodworking shop. I took lots of pictures of some really old tools; too many to bore you with here but I have some neat pictures of some unusual tools!

Here's the summer kitchen. It was fully furnished in period (mid to late 1800s) kitchen furniture. There was a wonderful long work table in there! Believe it or not, at one time this building was turned 90 degrees. It's cut stone! Awesome!



Here's the line cabin which was part cut stone and part log. It was of course moved here from the original ranch. Also on the grounds was an old, large school house, but it was not on the tour. The school is used for special events now. The grounds are beautiful and I could see weddings here with the 'school' used as the reception area.

I just liked this picture ...

Catching up ...

I've been remiss in not updating this online journal!  We have been busy visiting several places in the area and I've not shared with you.  So in the next few days I'll try to put a few pics on here of where we've been and tell you what we've been doing.

Today is slightly overcast and only 60 degrees this a.m. when I got up.  We want to drive to Banderra this afternoon but might not go if it stays so gloomy -- we'll just stay home and vegetate!  We did go to New Braunfels yesterday and 'did' the railroad museum and a couple downtown antique shops.  Had a wonderful lunch at a local German restaurant.  This area, from NB to Fredericksburg, was settled by Germans in the 1800's.  Lots of German influence in all aspects of the local culture.  And yesterday at the RR museum the guy who was the host had a strong German accent, and a large family group touring ahead of us were speaking German. 

But anyway, today I want to share our experience a couple weeks ago at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg.  We actually went on two separate days because we just couldn't cover it as we wanted to in one day.  This museum is in three separate locations but all near each other.  We first visited the Admiral Nimitz Museum.  Admiral Nimitz was raised in and near the Nimitz Hotel, which his family ran.  The old hotel building in encompassed by the museum.  It was very interesting because they staged the displays from his birth to his death, of course including his years as commander of the Navy in the Pacific. 

An exterior shot of the Nimitz Museum, built around the old Nimitz Hotel.

As we exited the Nimitz Museum into the courtyard to go next door to the gift shop (far left) there stood a larger-than-life statue of the Admiral himself.  Lots of people were taking pictures with him ...

His life story is very interesting (did you know that he made admiral in spite of being court martialed early in his military career? he went to sleep on duty!).  After we visited the gift shop we walked straight back of this building, through the Peace Garden, and on the opposite corner of the block was the larger War in the Pacific building. 

East entrance to the National Museum of the Pacific War.

We stayed in this building until we were feeling like we were saturated and getting nothing out of it, so we called it a day (for that day) and went for a late lunch.  Now let me say a word here about Fredericksburg.  It is a tourist town.  We went to a restaurant that was rated #2 by Trip Advisor so we expected something great.  What we got was surly service at a order-at-the-counter place where we 'enjoyed' a Boar's Head cold cut sandwich, drink and a bag of chips for $13.  Geeeeeezzzzz!  What a rip.  ANYWAY ...  Except for lunch it was a great day.

We went back two days later (you can use your ticket for 48 hours) and went to the third part of this wonderful museum, the Pacific Combat Zone ... 

This combat zone was one block south of the other buildings and it was just a beautiful day for the walk there from the parking spot.  Part of this area was indoors and part outdoors with a tour guide who talked about the air war, the war on the ocean and the war on land.  Our guide was an older fellow and he knew his stuff; he took lots of questions and knew all the answers.  The tour ended in a Quonset hut field hospital mock-up and was really a great experience.  I learned more about WWII those two days than I did in high school.  

After we finished the combat zone, we returned to the large museum building and finished what we missed the first day.  That building took you all the way from the reason Japan wanted to go to war, to Pearl Harbor, all through the Pacific war, ending with the atomic bomb and the surrender ...

This was one of the two-man type subs that the Japanese used inside Pearl Harbor.

This fighter-bomber was used in the Pacific islands.

This landing craft was used on Iwo Jima and was named Lucky Strike.

 

Here's an empty casing for another atomic bomb ...

So ... here's the lesson I took away from our visit to the museum: