Five fun activities to do with the kids this Thanksgiving holiday

Stonehenge at the Hill Country Arts Foundation in Ingram, Texas.
Children will love it, as a place to play hide-and-seek.
Click any image below to enlarge.

Thanksgiving – my favorite holiday, a holiday that doesn’t require gifts, cards, or costumes, just a thankful heart and a hearty appetite. After the last bite has been eaten, though, and you look around at your sated dinner guests and think – ‘what now?’
Here you've got a house full of relatives, some of whom are children. Gentle Reader, children have a lot of energy, and it’s good to keep them busy.
Welcome to my updated "Free Things You Can Do with the Kids Until They Go Back Home" column. Hopefully there'll be an idea or two in the following paragraphs that will help you with your younger visitors this coming week. These ideas have two criteria: they must get the kiddos out of the house, and they must tire the children out a bit, so when you bring them home, they might (just might) be tired and want to be still and rest.
1. Play Hide and Seek at Stonehenge. Years ago, the late Al Shepperd constructed a huge replica of Stonehenge -- the ancient structure in England -- in a field in front of his house near Hunt. After Shepperd's death, the monument was moved to the grounds of the Hill Country Arts Foundation. While it is interesting to visit the replica and wonder about the purpose of the original, we discovered long ago it makes a perfect place to play Hide and Seek. The children in your life will love visiting the place, and there are thousands of potential places to hide. Each stone column will hide a child quite effectively. To get to Stonehenge, travel to Ingram, and take Highway 39 toward Hunt. Just past the Johnson Creek Bridge, you’ll see the structure in a field on your left, on the campus of the Hill Country Arts Foundation, near the Little League fields. Tip to the adult players: the shadows are an important tool in this game. Pro tip to adult players: you can take your time looking for the hiding children.

Kerrville's River Trail,
below Guadalupe Street

2. Go for a Nice Long Walk on the River Trail, which follows the Guadalupe River through the heart of Kerrville. There are several places where you can park, including the Dietert Center, on Guadalupe Street; Riverside Nature Center, on Lemos Street; Louise Hays Park, off of Thompson Drive; at the G Street crossing; and off of Loop 534, near the bridge. The trail is a concrete sidewalk with gentle grades, suitable for most walkers. Be sure to stay on the right side of the sidewalk, as there are many bicyclists also enjoying the path.

Tranquility Island, taken from
the Francisco Lemos Bridge

3. Learn to Skip Rocks at Tranquility Island. There is a beach of smooth stones near the far upriver point of the island, to the right hand side, just downstream from the footbridge below Francisco Lemos Street. The river forms a pool there, where water is still, usually without a lot of breeze. Teach the rugrats to throw a skimmer. (Instructions are available on YouTube.)

Footbridge connecting downtown
and Louise Hays Park

4. Find the Fisherman below the Louise Hays Footbridge. Not everyone knows there’s a footbridge connecting Louise Hays Park to the downtown area. From the pavilion at the end of Earl Garrett Street, overlooking the Guadalupe River, you can see the footbridge just downstream from the Louise Hays Park dam. I think it’s easier to access the footbridge from Louise Hays Park, since the stairway down from the pavilion is rather steep. Tell the young ones you're looking for a fisherman. You might run across a human fisherman or two -- but they're not the ones you're looking for. As you approach the footbridge, look downstream. A great blue heron usually stalks small fish there; I’ve also seen a white great egret there, too. You can tell the kids it's a "professional" fisherman -- it fishes for a living. Bonus: a pair of Egyptian geese have a new gaggle of baby goslings in the park.  Look for them in the grass, near the riverbank, staying close together.

Fossils found near
downtown Kerrville

5. Hunt for Fossils. Fossils are everywhere in Kerr County, usually on the hillsides, one strata down from the crest of the hill. I’ve seen a lot of fossils by the footbridge described in No. 4 above, in the chalky conglomerate of the steep riverbank. While Texas Hearts and bivalve shells are easiest to find, you’d be surprised at the variety of fossils scattered all over Kerr County.
We are lucky to live in a place of such natural beauty, and we have so much to be thankful for. I hope your time with young relatives is blessed with safety, fun, and warmth.
Until next week, all the best.

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Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who will be enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner at home with family, after trying to help Ms. Carolyn get everything ready. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times November 23, 2019.

I have two books available, both filled with historic photographs of Kerr County.  Both books are available at Wolfmueller's Books, Herring Printing Company, and online by clicking HERE.

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