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"Takeoffs are optional but landings are required," Nichols said. Floating through the sky in a hot air balloon is an incredible way to see the Hill Country. Prior to my flight with Heart of Texas Hot Air Balloon Rides, I was filled with anxiety. As someone who hates flying and gets woozy peering out the window of a skyscraper, I wondered what I got myself into as I hopped into the balloon's gondola. Our pilot, Skip Nichols, who also owns the company, assuaged my f ...

Those who come to the Texas Hill Country from some less-blessed location may not understand the phenomenon of a real Texas dance hall. Sure, other parts of the country have places to dance–nightclubs, ballrooms, or repurposed roller rinks. But the folks who settled Texas had the foresight to build halls designed for dancing. Actually, the original halls were multi-purpose and multi-ethnic, according to Stephen Dean, co-Founder of

Walk down the dusty streets of Pioneer Town and picture what it was like to live in a Western village more than 100 years ago. See the blacksmith shop, emporium, chapel, barbershop, saloon, sheriff's office, post office, newspaper office, and don't miss the bottle house, made entirely of glass soda bottles. Then stay for a few nights at the adjacent

The Big Bend area of Texas is unique, is beautiful, is important, and one of the least visited locations in the Lone Star State. Why? I'm glad I asked myself that question and I'll answer all of it, starting with its location first. Big Bend is remote—tucked away in the deepest southwestern area of the state—formed when the Rio Grande flowing southeast makes its big bend to the northeast.

As the violinist gracefully drew her bow back and forth, Diana Blackburn held her breath, transfixed by both the notes and the musician's ability to play them. For Blackburn, seated in the audience in the Ballroom at Uptown Blanco, the March 2010 ensemble performance would change her life. "My only other exposure to a concert was one my husband and I attended in San Antonio back in 1968 when we were dating,"

The McCulloch County courthouse square in Brady sports an actual World War 2 Howitzer cannon. I especially wanted to visit this artifact because as a boy I had assembled a plastic model of a Howitzer. Looking up from the cannon, right across the street I saw a store entitled "

You know something? Those of us who fish the waters of the Texas Hill Country can count our lucky stars. Not only do we have world-class angling for warm-water species like largemouth black bass, stripers, catfish and crappie — we also get a chance at a great sport fish from those cold-water streams up in Yankee land.

The Texas Blue Topaz, the State Gem of Texas, is found only in west to northwest Mason county in the geologic region known as the Llano Uplift. Topaz is a mineral compound of aluminum, silica and fluorine and found in certain, but not all, pink granite outcroppings. The Texas topaz was designated the official state gemstone when Governor Preston Smith signed the 61st Legislature's House Concurrent Resolution No.

Topaz is not commercially mined in Texas as it is in many countries. You could buy a crystal, but where's the fun in that? Wouldn't it be more adventurous to dig for your very own Texas topaz in the hills of Mason county? A topaz hunter can use a type of screed, sort of a gold-panning method to sort through other rocks and minerals.

When European athletes were looking for new ways to challenge human endurance in the 1920s, they found inspiration in the rugged terrain of the French countryside, as well as the mighty Seine River. That is how the triathlon was born. In more recent times, Kathy Rainey's imagination was also sparked by equally stirring terrain found in and around Canyon Lake, an oasis boasting 80 miles of shoreline nestled in the Texas Hill Country between Austin and San Antonio, just minutes from New Braunfels ...