What's the secret to a perfect Texas vacation? Good friends | Suzy Fleming Leonard

My husband and I recently spent a long weekend in Texas with my childhood best friend and her husband. It was a postponed celebration of our golden friendiversary originally planned for 2020.

In the days since our return, I've wondered:

What makes a perfect getaway?

Is it the restaurants?

If so, this trip was beyond perfection with an abundance of memorable meals.

It started Thursday with Chimichurri's South American Grill in Kingwood, where I devoured Churrasco A La Chimichurri, a fork-tender steak with the restaurant's signature chimichurri sauce.

Next came Friday lunch at Trudy's in Austin. Trust me: Trudy's Famous Stuffed Avocado lived up to its name. The chicken and cheese-stuffed avocado was fried, then smothered in suiza sauce and more cheese. I needed a nap when we left the restaurant.

Luckily our dinner reservations at Otto's German Bistro in Fredericksburg weren't until 8:30. I had every intention of eating light, but the aroma of schnitzel refused to be ignored. We shared an appetizer of seared scallops with shaved fennel, clementines, pickled chilies and Texas olive oil. Heaven on a plate.

Then our server placed the main event in front of me. I ate every bite of my Jäger Schnitzel with its roasted mushroom cream, and most of the käsaespätzle and rotkohl.

Saturday brought us down a steep flight stairs to Vaudeville, a charming bistro on Fredericksburg's main drag that serves an amazing burrata with charred asparagus and dressed greens, as well as a darn good French dip sandwich.

It wouldn't be a trip to Texas without waiting in line for barbecue at Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood. The brisket! The ribs! The sausage! All worth the wait.

And as if we hadn't eaten enough already, we stopped for one last meal of pecan pancakes with cinnamon butter at Humble City Cafe on the way to the airport.

Do the unexpected pleasures make the perfect weekend?

A stop at the mega-mart that is Buc-ee's in Katy was wonderfully overwhelming.

The Texas Mesquite & Fine Arts Festival coincided with our time in Fredericksburg, which meant we got to wander among the booths and displays enjoying the beauty of Texas' exotic wood. Furniture, cutting boards and art pieces shared space with jewelry, paintings and photography.

Who knew spending a half hour tasting jellies, salsas, barbecue sauces and dips could be so much fun? Our friends introduced us to Rustlin' Rob's Texas Gourmet Foods, and we'd already paid for jars of mayhaw jelly, prickly pear jelly and blueberry bourbon pecan jam before we remembered we couldn't pack it in our carry-on. (Thank you, Sindi and Mike, for agreeing to ship it to us.)

And how did I miss the news about a lunar eclipse? It was a fun surprise to to be handed eclipse glasses by one of the festival vendors so we could watch as the moon crept further into sun territory until a fiery ring surrounded it.

While seeing the moon overtake the sun was pretty darn cool, I also loved watching all the bachelorette parties and gallery strollers and tourists stop to look up. Meanwhile, I was looking down at the beautiful shadows the eclipse created.

Do the quiet moments make it a vacation to remember?

Our first night in Fredericksburg, we enjoyed enjoyed crisp fall weather and a bottle of local rose while lounging in Adirondack chairs under an arbor outside our Wine Country Cabins.

We sat on the front porch of the Becker Vineyards downtown tasting room sipping a nice Voignier and watched the parade of cowboy hats, boots and flowy skirts go by.

All these things add up to a great mini break. The things I'll treasure most, though, even more than the mesquite cheese board and Luckenbach T-shirt, are the conversations.

Sindi and I have been friends for more than 50 years. Luckily, our spouses have become friends in the past 20.

We talked about friends, children, aging parents and siblings. We talked about life, the old days, finding happiness and what retirement might look like.

It's always fun to get away for a few days to eat great food and discover new things. But sometimes the best part of a of a weekend trip is spending it with your best friend.

Suzy Fleming Leonard is a features journalist with more than three decades of experience. Reach her at sleonard@floridatoday.com. Find her on Facebook: @SuzyFlemingLeonard or on Instagram: @SuzyLeonard. 

More by Suzy

Where can you find pure, innocent joy in a hectic, grownup world? | Suzy Fleming Leonard

Being a redhead in Florida finally caught up with me | Suzy Fleming Leonard

I'm no prude, but some of y'all need to bite down on a bar of soap | Suzy Fleming Leonard

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Good friends make great trip to Fredericksburg, Texas, even better