Honeymoon in the Hills

Well folks, after our first week back in the real world (back to internship, class, and work for me), I finally have some time to sit down and write about our honeymoon! I apologize for the delay, but without further ado, our honeymoon was in......

The Texas hill country!

Day 0: Friday (6/10)

After the wedding we drove to a gas station to pop some of the balloons filling our car so Nickolai could see enough to drive.

Then we drove straight to Fort Worth to stay at the Omni. We had a very nice room, and Nickolai had the bellhop take a picture as he carried me across the threshold.

Day 1: Saturday (6/11)

On Saturday morning we discovered that our hotel was literally across the street from the Fort Worth
Water Gardens! I had been mentioning periodically for the last year or two that I really wanted to go there, so we spontaneously decided to go explore.

After the water gardens, we packed up the car and drove to Steel City Pops to get fun and interesting handmade popsicles! Mine was strawberry balsamic and Nickolai's was pineapple.

Then we headed out, and I still didn't know where we were going. As soon as we got on I-35 South, I figured we were staying in Texas, and probably going to Austin or San Antonio. But I tried to keep my mind open and excited for the unknown. On the way down, we stopped at Common Grounds in Waco for some delicious drinks and made a plan to stop at Fuego on the way back (because obviously).

We got to San Marcos and started driving into the country, and Nickolai said we were getting really close. This last part probably threw me off the most because I didn't know what there was in the country between the big hill country cities. As we were driving on the winding roads, all of a sudden we started getting glimpses of the beautiful tree-covered hills and kept saying that it was hard to believe we were still in Texas! Then all of a sudden we had arrived at Hill Country Resort in Canyon Lake, Texas, the place that would serve as our home base throughout the week.
Our "room" was basically a two-bedroom apartment, with a full kitchen, guest room and bathroom, living room, and master bedroom and bathroom. Once we settled in we ordered some pizza from a local restaurant and watched Crazy Stupid Love in our living room.

Day 1 clue: A fun sign at the water gardens and a scary bug that greeted us outside our room and stuck around for too long.

Day 2: Sunday (6/12)

Sunday morning Nickolai surprised me with the gift of a robe (which he embroidered) and a note that read, "Itinerary: noon-lunch: get some yummy German foodstuffs... After: Go on a safari!!! After that: Dinner at the Tower of Americas in San Antonio."

First, we drove to New Braunfels and decided to try a place called "Alpine Haus." We were sold as soon as Nickolai called ahead to ask about vegetarian options and they immediately told us they had daily vegetarian specials! However, nothing could have prepared us for the deliciousness of that meal.

The restaurant was just a cute little historic home, and once we were inside it felt like we were visiting someone's home in Germany. We ordered an appetizer meant for 4 people because how could we pass on a wheel of brie coated with almonds and lightly fried, served with fresh bread and red pepper jelly?! It was legitimately one of the best things I've ever eaten. For our actual meal, Nickolai got chicken schnitzel with potato dumplings and (his favorite) red cabbage. I got spaetzle with veggies and again (for Nickolai) red cabbage. We also both shared a Weihenstephaner, which was a delicious imported beer that tasted like banana bread.


Next we drove out to the drive-through safari at Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We got to feed all kinds of cool and interesting animals, and we both broke the rules and fed the zebras from our hands. Nickolai was more excited than I was about it. We perused the gift shop and picked up some souvenirs for family members, and then we drove to San Antonio.

The first thing we did in San Antonio was visit the mall on the riverwalk. We were hoping to do some fun shopping, but we walked in pretty much right when the mall started closing down. We took a scenic walk along part of the riverwalk and arrived at our dinner destination: the Tower of the Americas!

We checked in downstairs and then took the elevator up to the Chart House restaurant, which had an amazing, revolving view of San Antonio. Honestly, the food wasn't amazing. But the atmosphere was! And we got to finish up with a chocolate lava cake, which is their signature dessert. After dinner we walked back along the riverwalk to our car, drove back to the resort, and watched Food Network.

Day 2 clue: A close-up of our mind-blowingly delicious brie, bread, and pepper jelly.

Day 3: Monday (6/13)

Monday morning, Nickolai presented me with a picnic basket and another note, "It's only natural... that we take a walk in the park... Zilker Park that is. Also, a picnic!!!" Inside the basket was a tree necklace, which Nickolai very ambiguously told me was a hint. Then, we headed off to Austin with our leftover brie and some food from the local grocery store to have a picnic. When we arrived, we found a nice spot under a tree and had lunch. We tried to walk around and explore the park, but it was ridiculously hot and we gave up pretty quickly.


From there we just did some spontaneous shopping at Lush, Anthropologie, Book People, and the mall. Finally, we finished up with dinner at Tatsu-Ya Ramen in Austin, which was just another mind-blowing meal. We both got veggie ramen and shared spicy edamame. On our way back to the resort we stopped by Hey Cupcake's foodtruck and got ourselves cupcakes. I got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and Nickolai got lemon on lemon. When we got back, more Food Network!

Day 3 clues: A polaroid of us picnicking, and a section of the wallpaper outside of Tatsu-Ya

Day 4: Tuesday (6/14)

Tuesday's gift was dark chocolate with a waterfall on the packaging, the movie "Swiss Family Robinson," and a disk of wood with "you are my greatest adventure" burned into it- all of which Nickolai said were hints. An accompanying note said, "Dear Laura, This trip through the hill country has been so pleasant and relaxing with you! I know that we've just settled in but I still have many surprises left waiting for you! But first let's take a trip to Hamilton Pool and hike around the wonders of nature. Perhaps, if we're tired, we could end the night with a drive-in movie... How does that sound?" He told me to pack my bags and then we headed to Hamilton Pool... and I had no idea what that was.

We arrived and parked, then started walking down the trail to the pool. Then all of a sudden there was a river next to us with bluish-green water, perfect trees, and a white river bed. It honestly looked like a scene from Lord of the Rings, right after they leave Galadriel's kingdom. Sadly there were signs prohibiting getting in the water there (which is probably why it was so beautiful).

Then we turned a corner and saw the pool! It was amazing. The same beautifully-colored water, in the form of a waterfall, flowing into a large pool, surrounded on one side with a partial cave. It was probably one of the most beautiful sights I've ever witnessed. We didn't bring our swimsuits so we didn't get to swim, but we hiked all around in the cave and elsewhere taking tons of pictures and just marveling at it all.

We weren't able to stay for very long, but we felt like it was just long enough. Afterwards we ate lunch in the car and then drove to the Gruene historic district in New Braunfels. We did a wine tasting at a place called "Winery on the Gruene," which by the way was super duper affordable and worth it if any of you go there any time soon. Then we walked around a did some shopping at little boutiques nearby.

Then it was finally time to check in to our "hotel" for the next two nights..... which ended up being a tree house! It was amazing. Everything was made of wood, the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom were made of little buckets, and the bed was in a lofted area with a spiral staircase lined with rope leading up to it. It really felt like a much nicer version of the Swiss Family Robinson.

Once we got settled in, we went to Chipotle for dinner (and got it for free thanks to the wonderful cashier who found out we were on our honeymoon!), and then took it to the drive-in movies to eat while we waited for our movie to start! We decided to see the new X-Men movie, and after almost an hour of technical difficulties we finally got to see it. Because of the delay, it didn't end until almost midnight, so we didn't stay for the second movie.

Day 4 clue: Water dripping from a huge mossy cave formation at Hamilton Pool

Day 5: Wednesday (6/15)

Wednesday morning we ate Einstein's for breakfast, which was amazing because that is a rare treat for us. Then we went to Natural Bridge Caverns to explore the caves. We took a tour, which was really cool but also mildly torturous between our really awkward and quiet tour guide, the 99% humidity and 0% air flow in the cave, and being surrounded by tons of loud children in an enclosed space.

After escaping back into the fresh air and daylight, we did a fun maze, perused the gift shops, and most importantly ate some Dippin Dots. Then we headed back to our resort to get ready for a fancy dinner that night (that's all the information I was given).

When we got back, Nickolai surprised me with a brand new dress, shoes, and a note that said "Get ready to have the dinner of a lifetime at Austin's Counter 3 Five VII. You are beautiful and elegant and I thought you should have clothes to match!" So we got all dressed up in our fancy clothes and drove into Austin.

The restaurant was pretty unassuming-looking from the outside, and inside we found a relatively small space with bar seating surrounding an open kitchen area with several chefs cooking and plating. Nickolai had arranged for us to experience the seven-course tasting menu, with mine being a special vegetarian menu complete with wine pairings.

The chefs plated each course right in front of us, and then handed us our food and explained in detail what we were eating. Then the sommelier explained the wine pairing. The whole experience took about two hours, and the food was absolutely incredible. I was particularly excited that they were so willing and able to accommodate for my being a vegetarian! We also got to chat with the chefs as they prepared the food. The atmosphere was very relaxed and it was just an amazing experience overall.

 My favorite course: A watermelon-pickled radish carpaccio, compressed olive oil radishes, sunflower butter, charred vegetable oil, sunflower petals, radish greens, dianthus flower, sunflower seed granola.

 The next course: Celery and celeriac soup, dashi broth made with seaweed, celery leaves, soft poached quail egg yolk, charred pearl onions, celery seeds.

Third course: Locally-sourced grilled zucchini (previously marinated), charred onion oil, koji, zucchini puree, a variety of white kombu seaweed, onion flowers, nori powder and green onion powders.

Fourth course: Pole green beans, fermented nectarine vinaigrette, fermented chili powder, cilantro, black garlic A1 sauce made in-house, shaved squash.

 Fifth course: Creamy risotto, half of a grilled summer squash, shaved fennel, fennel fronds, squash blossoms.

 Sixth course: Waco blue corn grits, fermented corn pieces, grilled cactus, grilled celery, sunflower petals.

And lastly, Dessert: A matcha chiffon cake, blackberry halves, shards of frozen white chocolate, elderberry flower ice cream, blackberry gastrique.

Day 5 clues: A moth on the door of a Natural Bridge Caverns gift shop, and my grilled zucchini course

Day 6: Thursday (6/16)

Thursday morning started with more Einstein's after checking out of our treehouse, and then Schlitterbahn! After about a 1.5-hour debacle at the front gate, we finally got our tickets figured out and spent pretty much the whole day at the park. There was a lot of tubing, slides, and most importantly a lot more Dippin Dots. After a long and exhausting day, we headed back to the resort and ate leftovers and watched more Food Network. And Nickolai gave me that days' gifts (which he had forgotten to bring to the treehouse): a swim cover-up and some coconut lotion.

Day 6 clue: Nickolai and I rocking our Tevas in the Schlitterbahn parking lot

Day 7: Friday (6/17)

Friday was mostly a recovery day of sorts from the busyness of the week and especially the day at Schlitterbahn. We slept in and then ordered some food from a local Asian restaurant and watched the
Lego Movie while we ate. Nickolai said we had plans later in the day, and gave me a big bag full of board games and a puzzle box with notes inside. The notes alluded to us going to a museum and also needing to use our brains.

Before we left for the undisclosed plans, we played a very frustrating but fun game of putt putt at our resort's poorly designed course. We started driving in the general direction of Austin/San Marcos, and I had a weird feeling that we were going to meet up with Will (my brother). I hadn't solved the puzzle box yet so I had to do that while we drove on the winding roads.

We parked in a kind of sketchy-looking parking lot in Austin, and I saw a small sign for the "Austin Panic Room," which confirmed my suspicion that we were doing an escape room! Needless to say, I was really excited, because I have done most of the internet escape games that exist and I love them and have wanted so badly to do a real life one.

I got out of the car and turned around to see Will and Kamarie (his fiancée) getting out of the car next to us! I was super excited but also pleased with myself for figuring out that he would be there. We waited in the building for a while before we started the room, and after a few minutes Aly (my best friend/maid of honor) and her husband walked in! This time I was completely surprised, and so happy. As much fun as we were having throughout the week, I kept thinking about how close we were to all four of them and how it would be sad to not see them.

The room was museum-themed (hence the clue), and had a 36% success rate. We had an hour to find a stolen artifact and escape before the security guard came back in one hour. We made an amazing team and ended up completing the room and escaping with about 8 minutes to spare! It was very fun and interesting and exciting, and having unexpected friends there made it even better.

After the escape room we all went out for pizza and just hung out for a few hours. I was sad to say goodbye to them, but it was such a perfect way to spend the last night of our honeymoon.

Day 7 clue: The Austin Panic Room logo, on the shirt that we got to buy because we escaped!

Day 8: Saturday (6/18)

Saturday morning we packed up and checked out of the resort. On the way out we decided to check out the tiny arcade there, played a few games of skee ball, and won enough tickets for Nickolai to get me a plastic ring. Then we hit the road and drove back to DFW, stopping at Fuego (because obviously) and Common Grounds one more time.

Day 8 clue: driving through the winding hill country roads one last time.

Our honeymoon was wonderful, exciting, fun, relaxing, and full of surprises each and every day! I am so thankful to my amazing husband for the incredible amount of planning and organizing that he put into the trip! I felt excited, loved, and had new experiences every single day. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend our first week of marriage! If you made it this long, thank you for reading this incredibly long and convoluted explanation of our honeymoon and I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long!

Love,

Laura Lanier