Hill Country Bed and Breakfast

The 4th Annual Thunder on the Colorado Biker Rally is March 19-21, 2010. The location is beautiful RiverBend Park, Hwy 71, in Smithville, Texas. This is a really fun weekend!  Our city park is full of large beautiful trees, and is next to the Colorado River.  There will be live music, a Bike Run, a Swap Meet, a Bike Parade, a Bike Show and much more.  The entry fee is $15 for the entire weekend. No glass, knives, weapons or pets will be allowed in the Park. The event benefits Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA), Texas National Guard Family Support Foundation, and the Smithville Area Chamber of Commerce.  The park is only 3 miles from our Bed and Breakfast, the Katy House.  For more infomation on this fun weekend see www.ThunderOnTheColorado.com

The First Annual Sherwood Forest Faire will start February 27 – April 4th, 2010. Saturday and Sundays- 10:00AM – 7:00 PM, Rain or Shine. The location is in Paige, Texas.  Paige is only 35 miles East of Austin, and 20 miles North of Smithville, Texas.  There will be music, theatre and Pageantry, Lords and Ladies, Knights in Shining Armour, and Robin Hood and his Merry Men. This is a family Faire.  Come stay in Smithville and stay at the Katy House Bed and Breakfast.  Have a great breakfast and head to the Faire.  For more information go to www.SherwoodForestFaire.com   For more information on the Katy House, call (512) 237-4262 or www.katyhouse.com

Geocachers, Take Notice of Smithville!

    For about two years now, the Katy House Bed and Breakfast has been one site of the many geocaches that can be found in or near Smithville, Texas. Whether you’re an old-timer at geocaching or a brand-new fan, you should come look in Smithville. There are now 40 geocaches hidden within 4 miles of the Smithville Post Office, making this area an absolute gold mine of geocaches!  If you want to see what we’re talking about, go to http://www.geocaching.com/  and put in Zip Code 78957 to search for geocaches in this area. 
    Since being placed, the Katy House has had about 70 visitors coming to find the geocache.  Further, some friends once hid a Travel Bug in the geocache called “A Ticket to Ride” (not far from the Katy House), and it has now traveled to Japan, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, Switzerland and Germany! They just wished they could’ve gone with the Travel Bug.
    So – do you want to know where the geocache is hidden at the Katy House?  We’re sworn to secrecy, but we will tell you the coordinates are: N 30° 00.500 W 097° 09.663.  You can find our geocache listed as “Katy Bar the Door” on the geocaching web site listed above.

The parlor, here at the Katy House Bed and Breakfast,  is full of fold-up tables. You can not see the top of the tables because they are filled with paper, photos, stamps, rulers, type, ribbons, and all sorts of stuff I can not name.  We have 10 ladies here for the weekend scrapbooking!  This is their 6th year to come.  We take most of the furniture out of the parlor, and they move in! There are type machines called Cricut that cuts letters and lots more.

They come early on Friday and scrap book late into the nights.  We feed them three meals on Saturday and they leave around 3 pm on Sunday.  There is always lots of laughter coming from the room.  I just asked the group, “How many kids are mother-less this morning?”  There are 15 kids, under the age of 18, with their dads today. I believe these ladies will return home today, having solved most of the problems of the world. They will return home refreshed from having time for themselves.  They scrap, shop downtown Smithville, eat fried pickles at Pocket’s Grille, stay up till all hours, and did I mention ‘laugh’?

And of course, their photos from the past year will be on creative, wonderful pages, and in beautiful albums, with labels and notes.  It is a fun weekend for us too!

Round Top Festival Hill Institute presents:

 Synergy Brass Quintet, Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 3:00 pm

 This entertaining group performs more concerts than anyone in classical music today, averaging nearly 300 engagements per year. Acclaimed for “a veritable fireworks display of outstanding musical ability combined with superb showmanship” (Door Concerts,Inc) in addition to “blazing precision [and] amazing technique” (The Watertown Daily Times), the Synergy Brass Quintet has emerged as one of the world’s most exciting ensembles. Synergy “has hit on a magical approach…unadulterated exuberance, and a rock star approach of performing,”

If you have not visited Festival Hill, put it on your list.

It is only 35 minutes from our Bed and Breakfast, here in Smithville, Texas.  The Katy House is a great place to stay. You can go to concerts at Festival Hill, drive back to Smithville, have a great dinner at the Back Door, located on Main Street. Then have a restful stay at the Katy House and awake to the smell of fresh baked bread.

 For more information on Festival Hill see the web site:

http://festivalhill.org

See the information on the Winter Show.

 This is only 35 minutes from our Bed and Breakfast. The Katy House is one block from all the antiques shops on Main Street, here in Smithville.

Last Saturday was a Quilter’s Delight, here is Smithville.  Downtown antique shops were displaying quilts in the store windows and out in front. There were over 140 quilts shown just on Main Street.  Many old homes had quilts on balconies and porches.

 The Merchants are already planning for next year’s  “Airing”.

Watch the Smithville Chamber web site, for the new date. 

 Call the Katy House  for more information.

Our beautiful Colorado River will be featured this Saturday in Bastrop Texas, just 12 miles from Smithville. There will be ‘newbie floats’, Snakes and lizards, arts and crafts, a petting zoo, river padding and much more.  For more information see  www.VisitBastrop.org

All of this is just 12 miles from our B and B. Come join in the fun.

Be sure to visit Smithville November 7, 2009 because quilts will be on display all over town. Some will be for sale, but most will just be displayed. It will be a beautiful site and great photo opportunity.  This event is sponsored by the Smithville Business Association.  Smithville is located between Bastrop and LaGrange.  We are 43 miles East of Austin.

If you need a place to stay, check out our B and B.

1st ANNUAL SMITHVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL WITH JIMMIE VAUGHAN, DALE WATSON, THE JONES FAMILY SINGERS AND MORE!

The town of Smithville, TX, is proud to announce the 1st Annual Smithville Music Festival on Saturday, November 7th, 2009.

The musical event is one of the largest in Smithville’s history. Four-time Grammy Award winner Jimmie Vaughan will headline. Also on the bill are honky tonk troubadour Dale Watson, jazz trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe, a native of Smithville, the sensational Jones Family Singers from Bay City and many more.

“This will mark the inception of an annual music and arts festival that will continue to grow and join the ranks of the high caliber musical events known throughout Central Texas”, says, Adena Lewis, President of Smithville’s Chamber of Commerce.

The event will be held at Smithville’s beautiful Crockett Riverbend Park.

Food and beverages can be purchased throughout the day from various vendors. Participants are also welcome to camp on the grounds following the concert — those interested in camping must register on the festival website prior to the event.

Advance tickets, priced at $15, can be purchased at www.frontgatetickets.com or via the festival website, http://www.smithvillemusicfestival.org  .

Proceeds from this event will go to Project Community, a non-profit effort based in Smithville that seeks to support Health, Education and Arts initiatives.

The Katy House B and B still has rooms!