The Antlers Hotel, Pt 1

For this monthiversary trip, Kevin and I drove an hour into the Hill Country to stay at The Antlers hotel in Kingsland, but first, I had a wedding to attend Saturday afternoon! My friends Samar and Ben were getting married out on the lake and had a beautiful ceremony. I had to leave early in the reception and after picking up Kevin, made the drive to Kingsland in my wedding attendance attire. Kicking off my heels, I drove in the rain barefooted and Kevin and I talked about everything from future trips to the war in Vietnam over our quietly playing classic country western CDs. 

My weekend getaway attire.

The hotel was beautiful even against a grey sky background and earth that had turned into one giant mud puddle. Originally built in 1900, it was a major hotel on the passenger train line from Austin to Llano but in the 1930s, the rail line significantly dropped in use and the hotel dropped in guests along with it, eventually falling into disrepair until a family who had stayed as guests during its hey day decided to buy the property and use it as their vacation home for the next 70 years. Just recently, it was turned back into a hotel and entirely renovated to be as close to its original splendor as possible. Even though trains only chug past every six months or so, the hotel's reminiscent nod to the time of train travel has you expecting to hear the rumble of the tracks at any moment.

The lobby still has the original furniture, including the chalkboard used for the train timetables with the last passenger train to pass through still written on it... from 1935.

My suitcase and the check in desk

The entire hotel, aside from the main building, also includes log cabins lining Lake LBJ and four train cars that have been converted into rooms. We stayed in the main building in the Railroad Suite. Our room was absolutely phenomenal. We were the only guests in the hotel so along with our room key (an actual key on a train car keychain), we also got a key to the lobby/dining room/kitchen and were told that after the lobby closed at 10 pm, if we wanted coffee or to make a snack in the kitchen or anything, we were welcome to unlock the front door to the lobby and hang out in there.

Lobby seating

Telephone room off of the lobby

Our suite was beautiful. It was huge, with a living room area, a bedroom, and a full bath, all of which had hardwood floors and high ceilings. The suite had four doors leading outside, two in each room to both the front porch and the back porch. The living room had a wooden table and chairs set, two upholstered chairs, and a leather couch that pulled out into a queen sized bed, as well as an antique metal ice chest and complimentary water bottles, soda cans, and chocolates. The bedroom had an amazing king sized bed, two bedside tables with lamps, a chest at the foot of the bed, a dresser, and a wardrobe.

We unpacked the stereo I brought, kicked off our shoes, put on Johnny Cash and laid in bed for a while. I brought two books on roadtripping in Texas and we read through each of them, looking for interesting things to see in the neighboring towns. We also flipped through the books that were in our living room, including a book on historic hotels in Texas. Flipping to the page on The Antlers Hotel, it was surreal to be reading about the history of the hotel and its rooms while being in one. With each sentence, we could point to different details around us, playing a sort of time traveling eye-spy. From the frames around each door to the ceramic sinks in the corner of each room, every historic detail was accounted for. It was really quite incredible. We laid reading in each others' arms until our growling stomachs convinced us out of bed and into the restaurant across the railroad tracks.

To the left is the door to the front porch and the dresser, to the right is the bathroom, wardrobe and door to the back porch.

Beautiful hardwood floors and beautiful new high heels :)

Wardrobe and original sink from 1900 with running water

Mirror in the bathroom

Doorway from the bedroom into the living room. Each door  was made of solid wood, with a thick border and a window above it that cracked open at a slant.