Even as children, Wayne and Mary Brown had visited and fallen in love with the Hill Country. During their business careers, they owned a ranch near Bertram and, later, a house on Lake Buchanan. In the meantime, their heritage as fourth and fifth-generation Texans had given them a keen appreciation for Texas history, so when they saw a "For Sale" sign on the historic (but deteriorating) Galloway House one block south of the square in Burnet, they bought it.

Enchanted Rock is Central Texas's most intriguing and enigmatic natural landmark. Rising from the surrounding oak savanna amid a chain of rugged granite hills, the massive granite dome rises 325 feet from base to summit and covers an area of one square mile. Visitors approaching Enchanted Rock are offered a sudden and spectacular panorama of this remarkable attraction.

It was a good day for Marble Falls when Marc and Carolyn Seriff decided to retire here after successful business careers. Marc was one of the founders of the fabulously successful America On Line (AOL), and helped make it into the household name it is today. Carolyn had a great career of her own in the broadcasting and data communication business. Together, they make a wonderful team.

Whenever Malinda Caudle got peeved at her family, "she'd threaten to run off and go back to the Indians," says her great-grandson, Damon Benson. "She said if she just knew a good Indian tribe somewhere, she'd go to them." That wasn't an idle threat, for Caudle had spent six months in a Comanche village in 1868.

Especially at Christmas, the hills are "alive with the sound of music." And it's not just country and western music, either. Both Austin and San Antonio boast professional symphony orchestras that traditionally host performances during the holiday season of such memorable pieces as Handel's Messiah. Both cities also hold various volunteer ensembles that show the widespread musical talent in the Hill Country.

Long before Interstate 35 stretched far into the horizon, The Page House enjoyed its perch on Leander Road in Georgetown, sprawled across a 2,000-acre estate, without a SUV, motorcycle or 18-wheeler in site. Although the first automobile was invented in 1886 and Ford started manufacturing the Model T in the early 1900s, the typical mode of transportation to be seen around Georgetown was more likely to be of the horse-driven variety.

Wimberley has long been known, and rightly so, for its thriving arts community. Just south of town, a group of diverse establishments sometimes known as the "South Wimberley Arts District" will broaden your understanding of the word "art," and allow you a delightful weekend at the same time.

Out behind the feed store, off Highway 281 on the south side of Burnet, sits a nondescript blue metal building with the the letters "HCR" painted on a cutout map of Texas. Inside the building, without fanfare, a uniquely Texan success story involving goats, coyotes and international commerce is still unfolding.

These small, tower-shaped buildings were attached to a windmill, which pumped water into the wooden or sheet metal tank at the top, where it gravity-fed the nearby house. In some tankhouses, the tank was exposed, while in others, the tank was enclosed within the structure itself. A counterweight was used to measure how much water was inside the tank at any given time.

It was warm and sunny -- one of those January afternoons when the thermometer climbs into the 60s and you forget that it's still the middle of winter. The river was deserted. The only other fisherman was a cocky little blue-and-white bird whose clattering cry let me know that I was trespassing. But the belted kingfisher and I weren't rivals -- he was happy with the occasional minnow; I was after something a little larger.