I’ve been hard at work on my book, and looking forward to a great day. It began with meeting our friends for a brunch to celebrate my better half’s birthday. Our waitress noticed his Pacific Coast Highway t-shirt and began talking to him, she’s originally from L.A. and they talked about that drive up the coast. Realizing it was his birthday,  she brought him a gigantic, freshly made brownie with an enormous scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a fistful of spoons. That brownie was enjoyed by all!

From there, we rode out toward the hill country to Treaty Oak Distillery, where they are producing some of Texas’ finest spirits.  It’s a large piece of land, with picnic tables under shade trees and a little shop selling everything a mixologist needs. Another large building provides places to sit inside, have a cocktail and appetizers, and gab for a while.

We were sitting outside when I saw a helicopter touch down and people exiting. “What fun,” I thought, and went back to my conversation.  A few minutes later, the pilot came to our table and started talking to the guys. The next thing I knew, I was following the pilot back to the copter with my girlfriends!

When I was little I used to imagine myself flying on a magic carpet over the nearby orchards, and this was that cool. When we took off it felt like the land fell away beneath us, and with a swoop to the side, we were gone.

We all wanted to see Hamilton Pool, a natural pool created when the dome of an underground river collapsed thousands of years ago.  People can swim there,  it has a beautiful grotto, and there were a few folks enjoying the water when we flew over.

Our reception upon landing, complete with photos and videos, had the three of us feeling like rock stars. That’s one more thing I wanted to do that I can check off my wish list: trains, planes, automobiles, sailboats, motorcycles, and now a helicopter.

I had the great time I was looking forward to, I’m pretty sure we all did.
Everything turned out even better than we had planned.

XO Donna