Blanco State Park, Blanco, Texas
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who pours out lies will not go free. ~ Proverbs 19:5
Finally, we made it to San Antonio. It was cool today, but mostly sunny, and there were a lot fewer people than there would’ve been yesterday!
Our first stop was to find the Visitor Center, where the helpful and knowledgeable woman who worked there drew all over their map of the city, writing dates and times, etc. on it. That’s a practice that every person in a VC should employ, because it eliminates the probable chance that we’d forget what’s said.
The Alamo is situated right in the middle of downtown. A very strange location, but at least no one bulldozed it down. However, they’re dealing with a lot of disintegration of the limestone because of traffic vibrations (and age, of course), so they’re trying to figure out what to do about that. Meanwhile, they do what they can. Including, not allowing photography of any type inside. ☹
No silly! That’s just a tall building in the background.
The low wall is part of the Alamo .
But actually, we discovered that this is just the church
that was built at the back of the large compound.
It may be easier for you to read it there. It’s worth taking a minute to read. : )
How Blaine managed to get a picture with no one in it is beyond me.
and we found out at a later stop today that they used to keep fish in them for a food supply.
It’s really too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the church, because we met Jesus there.
Say that with an Hispanic accent, and you’ll get it.
Jesus was a paid staff member, employed to stand there and answer questions. I imagine he does other things as well, but at the time we were there, that’s what he was doing. He was able to give us a brief and interesting take on what exactly the Alamo was all about. I won’t do as well, but I’ll give you what I can. Especially since by the time I’m writing this, we’ve discovered that we are without WiFi or phones.
The battle, which was more of a massacre than a battle, took place February 23-March 6, 1836. And actually, after hearing about the odds, it’s surprising the battle lasted so long. But let’s begin our history lesson by backing up a few years.
What we know as the state of Texas was claimed by Spain. And then it became part of Mexico. But because hardly anyone lived there, it could easily be overcome, so Mexico paid immigrants (mostly German descent) to come live here. Land was really cheap. Much cheaper than it was in the US. So people came, and they figured out how to live with the Native Americans and the Mexicans and the land. And everyone was happy.
Until Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (aka Santa Anna) came into power as president of Mexico in 1833. He was mean and he was greedy and people didn’t like him at all. And his name is a perfect example of one more reason for me not to learn Spanish. I could never remember all that!
A former Catholic Mission (the Alamo) was turned into a fort and 200 men took up the call to defend it, including David Crockett. But the man in charge was William B. Travis. He knew the Mexican army was advancing with a bunch of men and he sent a few letters requesting help, but help didn’t arrive in time, and 200 men took on 2-3,000. It wasn’t much of a battle, and as I said, all the American defenders died.
But it served as a battle cry for America to get involved and take control of the land that now makes up Texas and California (and probably other states too that I don’t know the history of). And that’s where “Remember the Alamo!” came from.
Did you know that?
By the way, the now State of Texas has had 10 flags flying over it. Spain, Mexico, America, its own country (yes at one time following the Alamo it was its own nation), several others that I can’t think of right now, and finally the United States. Who knew?!?
And now for a quick tour.
FYI – for those of you who don’t know your New Testament well,
Caiaphas was the High Priest responsible for the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
That’s David Crocket in the buckskin suit and coonskin cap. : )
Sorry it came out a little blurry. : (
It’s located in front of the Alamo, alongside the street.
and most of them were wearing black cowboy hats. : )
It’s located beside the bus stop.
San Antonio has another National Park. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. There’s a few churches (aka Missions) along one of the main streets in San Antonio. They’re former Catholic Missions that they’ve preserved. You can drive to all of them, but we already had a coveted parking spot for the day and didn’t want to leave it, plus there weren’t enough hours in the day to visit them all, so we took a bus to the one the VC lady recommended – Mission San Jose y Miguel de Aguayo. I have no idea what all that means, so let’s just stick with San Jose, okay?
You’d have to lift weights to be able to use that key!
And what does that say about the size of the door it opened?!?
There’s a key in the next picture if you’re curious as to what everything is.
In 1719, there was a Franciscan (I don’t know what that means, but I’ve heard the word) monk named Father Margil de Jesus stationed at The Alamo (then called Mission San Antonio de Valero). Somewhere along the way, he saw a need to build and operate another mission down the road. He obtained permission and the founding ceremony took place in 1720. Leaders of three Indian bands wanted to bring their people into the mission for protection from the other raiding Indians and European diseases, and Father Margil now had his mission – converting those Indians to Christianity. By 1768, there were 350 Indians residing within 84 two-room apartments. I’ll let you do the math. We saw the rooms. They weren’t very big.
We didn’t even take a picture of the inside of the rooms because they were too small.
Anyway, the job of the monks were to convert these hunter/gatherer people into Spanish tax payers. Everything about their lives changed – including their names, plus they were required to learn two additional new languages – Spanish and Latin.
Here’s what the Park brochure says about their days living in the mission:
Now that we know a little bit about the place, let’s take a tour, shall we?
But seriously, isn’t this map incredible considering when it was drawn?
They’re working to restore this mission too, I think eventually to its former glory, but it looks pretty great even now. Especially when you consider the pictures from before good people decided to save it. And today it’s an active parish with services conducted by a Franciscan Friar.
Back on the bus to return to town.
In the foreground is a sculpture you can see from all over the city (at least where we were today)
called the Torch of Friendship.
Lunch today was intended to be just a quick stop and something light because we were anticipating a big dinner. And that’s exactly where we were headed, on the bus, when the driver shared a lunch tip at one of his stops – a German delicatessen named Shiloh’s. He also shared that it was the oldest restaurant in town; opening in 1917! We got off the bus.
On our way to the restaurant, we passed by one of the entrances to the Riverwalk. Can’t wait to go there!
Isn’t it incredible?!?
My thought was that we could still eat light by ordering one thing and sharing. But when I suggested sharing a Reuben, Blaine looked at me like I had three heads covered in fuchsia skin and sporting chartreuse, violet and skyblue polka dots respectively.
We each ordered our own.
It came with potato chips. And we ordered their “famous” root beer as well. So much for a light meal. But the sandwiches were really awesome! Our server told us about their signature spicy mustard that “goes well with any of our sandwiches”, but when they say spicy? They mean Spicy! I put a pinhead-sized drop on the tip of my fork, and scrunched up my face, while grabbing my frosty root beer. Blaine said, “It can’t be that bad!”, and he tried a dime-sized drop. He didn’t quite make the face I did, but he didn’t care for it either. 😊
It did not make it onto our sandwiches, however their homemade 1,000 Island dressing did, and it was yummy!
Time to walk off that lunch!
The Riverwalk is not a walk like any others we’ve ever encountered! It’s a gorgeous, landscaped-for-14-miles, place to walk! And it provides access to all kinds of restaurants, shops and hotels.
We took a boat tour, and while it wasn’t very historically motivated, it was still interesting to see and hear some about it. It’s actually the San Antonio River. Back in the 1940s, some guy had this brainchild to landscape it to bring in tourists. I forget how long it took, but it wasn’t long, I think two years? What we wondered about was what happens when it rains? We’ve seen signs around this part of Texas that talk about flash floods, and there’s even flood gages along the roads. Along this Riverwalk, the water is barely under the sidewalk!
We got our answer later today, when we visited the Brisco Western Museum and I asked the lady at the ticket counter. It seems the city regulates the amount of water that flows into the walk area, both up and downstream. Marvelous! She also told me that they completely drain it just after the Holidays in order to clean it out – algae, sediment, trash, even bicycles end up in there! Bicycles? As in more than one? Yes! They always find several! Can you believe that? And this year, they removed nine tons of sediment! Plus, we learned that San Antonio has a festival around the clean-up – – the Mud Festival – – with Kings and Queens, parades, etc. Too funny!
So back to our walk and boat ride pictures. And a bit of history from the ride as well, just for good measure.
The five-ton mosaic measured 2,600 square feet and consisted of 540 numbered panels, each weighing about ninety pounds. The panels were produced at O’Gorman’s studio outside Mexico City and trucked to San Antonio for installation at the newly constructed convention center.
The Visitor Center lady told us about several things that are free on Tuesdays. Must be their slow day? Anyway, one of the things was the Brisco Western Museum, but only from 4-7pm. So we wandered up and down the Riverwalk until it was 4pm. 😊
It was a small but interesting place – especially for free. Not sure we would’ve been so pleased if we’d paid full price for it. It only took us about 45 minutes to go through it.
We were still full from lunch. So now what?
Take in some more of the Riverwalk, of course!
Dinner was at another famous San Antonio spot – Casa Rio. It was the first restaurant along the Riverwalk and opened in 1946. It was good food, but tasted quite a bit different than the Mexican we get back in Ohio. Oh. And while we were killing time, waiting for our stomachs to empty enough to shove in more food, I looked up the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex food. Wanna guess?
Seems virtually everything we eat in the US is actually Tex-Mex. Hardly any of it is authentic Mexican. Hmmmm . . . .
Well, in that case, I guess this was Tex-Mex, and they just make it a little different down here. 😊
Blaine had beans and rice, a taco, a chalupa and a flauta.
Excellent food! But we’re beyond stuffed now. Time to head home.