Das Ladenstraße

It's every man's nightmare. The very thought of it makes me break out in cold sweats. The 'it' I am referring to is accompanying his better half during a shopping spree.

When Angie first informed me of my birthday gift (a trophy whitetail deer hunt in Laredo), we knew that we would have a long ride on our hands. I thought it would be fun to do some sightseeing together on that ride. Fredericksburg was a destination that was often mentioned as a neat little city (and, by chance, it is about the halfway point in the journey). So, we knew we were going to want to stop and spend the night.

I thought this was a great plan. We were going to stop in a German town in the middle of Texas. This meant two things to me: beer and wiener schnitzel. I am not a huge beer drinker, but when I drink beer, I prefer a flavorful German import. I have since I started sucking down 7 ounce nips of Lowenbrau as a much younger person.

We got there pretty late, so much of main street was closed. That was fine by me. In fact, there were only a couple of restaurants open, we were hungry, and I could smell the hops...we found two restaurants side by side. One was indoors and one outdoors. It was a beautiful night, so we opted for outside. We both ordered a Spaten pilsner and all was good. In fact, Angie didn't like hers, so she gave it to me and all was better. She ordered a glass of German white wine to make up for the difference. I ordered the wiener schnitzel and she got a wonderful country fried quail. The meal was great and wasn't completely ruined by the live music which wasn't very entertaining. Angie mentioned going store to store tomorrow, as well as a bunch of other sight-seeing items, but I didn't really understand what she meant.

We got up and ready and left for main street. We parked about halfway down as to keep the full car in sight of a lot of traffic and entered the first store. It was a holiday collectibles store. We entered and didn't come out for over 30 minutes. The store went on and on and on and on and Angie needed to look at everything little thing it offered. I started thinking at this point, if we take 30 minute for every store we'll get out of Fredericksburg sometime in 2012 - just in time for the end of the world which, by then, would have been welcome.

We did the next store and the next. Angie really looked at the stuff and took her time in each. At this point, I noticed that I was neither inclined to keep up nor capable. So, I did the next best thing...I sat on the husbands benches while she shopped. Each time she reached me, I'd move the the next bench. If I needed to stretch my legs, I joined her in a store. This went on, store after store until we reached the end of the block....several hours later.

We decided to have a late lunch in a brewery and then some gelatto in a small shop. We purchased some cigars for the other side of the block and started it all over again. Antiques, collectibles, toys, clothes and touristy stuff...she is like the energizer bunny when she shops (think Lithium) - she just keeps going and going. I went bench to bench, cigar in hand. Sometimes I would talk to another husband, sometimes just play on the phone. She was happy and I was patient, or rather, she was happy because I was patient.

Unfortunately, there is a ton more to do and see in Fredericksburg and that will be for another trip. For now, understand, that the cost of my hunt was not only turning 40, but also shopping with my baby.

SL