SOLC 2015 Day 15: Riding the rails

College girl's spring break occurred this past week, when teenboy and I were still in school/ work.  And hubby, who works in the "real world", was only able to take his birthday off this past Friday.  So what's a family to do with only two days of overlapping spring vacation time to celebrate together?

Why, take a trip on a train, of course.

It was a gorgeous day for a ride on the Hill Country Flyer.

Our car was called "Nambe", and dated back to the 1930s.

We picked up a gunfighter in Bertram.  He told us about the shootout we could watch in Burnet, and gave us the history of his weapon.

We rode through the Hill Country.

Saw lots of ramshackle homes and barns,

and cows, of course.  This is Texas, after all!

Found signs of spring along the way,

And one dome house.

We arrived in Burnet before noon, 

just in time for lunch in a cafe, at a table painted a la Alice-in-Wonderland.

Time for some sightseeing!  This sword decorated a memorial to our Armed Forces.

My family jokes about the number of county courthouses we've seen in Texas.  We thought this was oddly modern and new; turns out that it was built in the 1930s, after the original courthouses were burned by arson and razed.

We like old jails, too.

Burnet is famous for their recreation of the Nativity story; we thought this was an old fort at first, didn't realize it was a permanent backdrop for their Christmas tradition!

After two hours of good food and interesting sights, we said goodbye to Burnet.

The conductor was gracious and posed with our children before we boarded.

I had to take a picture of the interior.  The color scheme and fixtures were lovely!

We saw many chunks of pink granite alongside the tracks; I thought "possible gorgeous countertops" when I saw them.

Getting close to home; they don't call it "Cedar Park" for nothing!

Halfway through the trip up to Burnet, this white-haired gentlemen from the nearby table approached my husband, and said, "By any chance, do you go by "Margocs"?"  Turns out, he was my husband's master sergeant during their assignment at Bergstrom AFB.  They hadn't seen each other in over 25 years.  They spent some time reminiscing and catching up, and exchanged contact info after we disembarked.  An amazing coincidence to highlight our day on the rails.