A completely different realm
Fredericksburg is a special Texas place that offers great food, rich heritage, gorgeous scenery and more
February 13, 2019
In this week’s #TuesdayTop10, guest photographer Bella Kisler takes you to Fredericksburg, a unique Texas town less than an hour away from Austin.
Located in Central Texas about two hours away from Austin, Fredericksburg is known for it wineries, its natural scenery, its German heritage, its great food and much more. In this photo you can see a sign the welcomes visitors as they first cross into the town. The sign says welcome in German, which is established upon entry the German heritage and culture of the town. “From the time you enter Fredricksburg you just feel like you are in a completely different realm, not in Texas at all” said Joe Brickson, a frequent visitor to Fredericksburg.
Trail Closed! At Fredericksburg’s Hill Country State Natural Park, there are countless views that are stunning. At the time that I was there, many trails were closed due to routine maintenance. “The views are out of this world,” Janet Kisler said. “It’s scenery you would never expect from a random town in central Texas.”
On the road again: Fredericksburg is also known for the great views while driving along the countryside. In the photo, you see an old rusty tractor in the middle of nowhere with rusty broken down fence in the foreground. Along with the commonly known town of Fredericksburg, there is also a lot of country roads throughout Fredericksburg and the surrounding areas.
Christmas Time! As for the city life in Fredericksburg, it is always very lively, the streets filled with people, musicians playing on the streets, and much more. If you go in the afternoon, there are many unique shops selling very interesting things. This photo shows the central park of Fredericksburg around Christmas time, when they put up decorations on all of the trees and erect a giant Christmas tree up in the center of the park, along with a temporary ice skating rink.
On the Road Again: Right off many of the Fredericksburg highways in the fall, you can see many leaves on the trees that leads to a beautiful sight while driving down the interstates. The scenery is unbelievable; you can’t even begin to imagine it, miles on miles of orange, red, and yellow trees, that seemingly go on forever.
German Heritage! A restaurant in downtown Fredericksburg called Auslander Biergarten serves authentic German food and offers a very unique environment inside. There are many other German restaurants around the area in addition to this one, that are equally as good. It really shows off the German heritage of the town with all the German shops and restaurants around the area.
Structures of Fredericksburg! There are many beautiful buildings and churches scattered throughout town. This is a photo of one of the churches, located in the middle of downtown. This picture is a very interesting angle on the temple of the church, which leads to making the church look very large and powerful.
The Wall of Pins! There are many unique shops spread throughout Fredericksburg. And this shop in particular decorates their shop in a very unique way. The shop itself is a shop that sells all types of spices, jarred goods and much more. The store is an outdoor store. It is not inside walls and glass; instead, anyone walking by can just casually stop by.
Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ in the river! This photo from Pedernales State Park is of the river leading up to the official Pedernales Falls. It is a beautiful sight, even on a slightly overcast day. On a warm day, it would also offer a great swim.
The MarketPlace! Located down in Fredericksburg, it is the center park of the town. Here is a sign, that again, shows the German heritage of the town. It says marketplace in German, on more example of the German heritage that is woven throughout the town.
Photos and captions by Bella Kisler.
![A PRIDE-FUL WEEK OF CELEBRATION:
As part of AISDs week-long celebration of PRIDE, students of the McCallum Spectrum Club worked to create a week full of activities, prizes and helping hands to support the schools LGBTQ+ community. The club is widely available for anyone to join, and specializes in creating a safe space for students to share and give advice. While Pride month itself isn’t until June, AISD designates one week in March to celebrate and commemorate the importance of this part of the student body.
As part of the week of festivities, the club held a booth in the front hall handing out pride stickers, pins and merch to passers by. For junior Zane Joly, the booth idea was brought up as a way for students to engage with one another, and connect with the community.
“I call out to people in the halls, ‘hey, do you want stickers?’” Joly said. “We just give out free pride stickers and sometimes other free pride merch to the students of Macallum because everybody likes pride stickers.”
While the week itself is packed with a variety of different activities, the overall goal is to bring students closer together and create a safer environment for self expression at McCallum.
“The idea for the student panel largely came from the black [history] student panel that is done during Black History Month,” Joly said. “And the idea for giving out free stuff was developed at Spectrum last year.”
Joly is not only a member of the Spectrum club, but also holds a leadership position giving them a more hands-on role with the projects and Pride Week activities.
“McCallum has a very high queer population,” Joly said. “I think Its nice that we get a chance to celebrate Pride because Pride Month is during the summer, and I think its just a nice thing for the community and getting to just celebrate it.”
While the merch table at lunch was only a small part of the numerous parts of McCallum’s Pride week, for Joly this small impact made all the difference.
“The purpose of Pride is to make people not feel alone and to make them feel safe,” Joly said. “The goal is [to make people] happy about a part of themselves that theyre often conditioned to not feel good about.”
Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Shila Gill.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/53597258192_6e7168d8ae_o-1-600x338.jpg)
![BACKGROUND IN THE BUSINESS: Dressed by junior designer Kaitlyn Gerrie, senior Chamila Muñoz took to the “Dreamland” runway this past weekend. While it was her first time participating in the McCallum fashion show, Muñoz isn’t new to the modeling world.
I modeled here and there when I was a lot younger, maybe five or six [years old] for some jewelry brands and small businesses, but not much in recent years,” Muñoz said.
Muñoz had hoped to participate in last year’s show but couldn’t due to scheduling conflicts. For her senior year, though, she couldn’t let the opportunity pass her by.
“It’s [modeling] something I haven’t done in a while so I was excited to step out of my comfort zone in a way,” Muñoz said. “I always love trying new things and being able to show off designs of my schoolmates is such an honor.”
The preparation process for the show was hectic, leaving the final reveal of Gerrie’s design until days before the show, but the moment Muñoz tried on the outfit, all the stress for both designer and model melted away.
“I didn’t get to try on my outfit until the day before, but the look on Kaitlyn’s face when she saw what she had worked so hard to make actually on a model was just so special,” Muñoz said. “I know it meant so much to her. But then she handed me a blindfold and told me I’d be walking with it on, so that was pretty wild.”
Caption by Francie Wilhelm.](https://macshieldonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53535098892_130167352f_o-600x400.jpg)
Isabella Dietz • Mar 26, 2019 at 10:27 am
I like this story because it has a lot of interesting photos and it makes me want to go to Fredericksburg.