Fredericksburg, TX

 We first visited Fredericksburg a couple of years ago with some of Jerry’s high school friends and were eager to return.  This is an Old German town founded in the mid 1800s by heirs of German Duchy royalty.  Among them was the grandfather of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz.  The town is now the home of the National Museum of the Pacific War, one of the best war museums we have seen.

Jerry and his schoolmates spent a brief couple of hours in the museum and knew they had barely explored it.  Tickets are good for forty-eight hours, so this time we planned a two-day visit.  This turned into an excellent audio/visual lesson on the war in the Pacific.

The tour of The George H. W. Bush Gallery starts with Admiral Perry steaming into Tokyo Bay in the 1800s and the opening of relations between the US and Japan.  The Russo/Japanese War, the Opium Wars between China and Britain, and tensions between Japan, China and Korea and, ultimately, the US blockade are all presented.

Then there is the attack on Pearl Harbor and our efforts to build the naval defenses needed to wage the war in the Pacific.  Exhibits detail Japan’s capture of islands in the Pacific and the grueling, bloody battles on land, at sea, in the air and under the water to regain these vital islands.
An entire section covers the Doolittle Raid and we saw an actual B25.  It was hard to see how this airplane could take off from a WWII aircraft carrier.


The reasoning behind the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the ultimate surrender message of Emperor Hirohito are detailed.  This is a mockup of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

Air and water craft, recordings of actual participants, and first person documentation augment the displays.  We also saw a real PT boat.

Nearby is the hotel that was run by Nimitz grandfather.  Displays there focus on his life.

The guided tour of the Pacific Combat Zone has both American and Japanese weaponry, a medical Quonset hut, and a re-creation of a Japanese bunker on Tarawa.

To see all this took us about seven hours over a two-day period.

We broke up the time with a 10K Volksmarch around the town visiting the library with its card catalog and the Vereins Kirsche, used as a meeting hall in the early days.

We also walked by several “Sunday Houses” which were small houses that the ranchers and farmers used when they came into town on Sunday to attend church.

 


The town is a popular tourist destination with streets lined with shops ranging from clothing to salsa to art.  Food items included chocolate cover jalapenos and lots of hot sauces.  Anna Lee was really interested in sampling.

The first Friday of the month has the Art Walk.  We sipped wine and admired excellent paintings and sculpture.  Our favorite gallery was Insight with its street-level windows overlooking top quality bronze work in the basement.

There is an abundance of restaurants in town and we had good lunches.  Beer is everywhere.

Cabernet Grill Texas Wine Country Restaurant was outstanding for dinner.  It was recommended by Peter and Carol, an RV couple we first met on our Canadian Maritime tour and who will also be on the Louisiana tour.  What they actually recommended was the fried pecan pie but first we enjoyed some Texas wine with our steak and shrimp (Jerry) and crab (Anna Lee).  Then we shared the wonderful pie topped with Jack Daniels chocolate ice cream.  As anticipated, we had a great time in Fredericksburg.