We really don’t like cities. Between the traffic, the noise, the crowds,… But San Antonio has one endearing feature that we decided was worth a visit – the Riverwalk.
The Riverwalk is a 15 mile long urban stretch of restaurants, shops and neat walkways all about 1 level below the main streets. The Riverwalk apparently originated as a flood control project following a 1921 flood that killed several people. A diversion channel was built, shops opened along the channel and the rest was history.
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Seeing the Alamo in San Antonio has always been on our list. What we didn’t know before is that the Alamo is only 1 of 5 Spanish missions along the San Antonio river. The 5 missions were built in the early 1700’s as the means for Spain to extend their presence in the New World. The idea was to convert the indigenous people into good Spaniards which, at the time, also meant good Catholics.
The Mission Road along the river connected the 5 missions to New Spain (now Mexico).
Mission San Jose is the best preserved and most extensive of the 5. Each mission had a large central plaza where families camped/lived, a granary for storing food, a convento where the missionaries lived and a chapel. Eventually a perimeter wall was added to protect the inhabitants from Indian attacks. The walls also contained housing for the resident families.
The Chapels were amazingly ornate with beautiful stone work.
These curved pillars were fascinating – an ingenious way to hold up the walls starting with a vertical column.
Mission San Juan Capistrano was less developed than the others. The chapel was actually a facade built around the granary. But the land was fertile and so this mission supplied much of the food for the others.
Mission Espada was the oldest of the missions and was originally established in East Texas before being moved to the San Antonio river in 1731. It was the only mission that made bricks, which can still be seen in the construction detail.
Mission Concepcion was the northernmost of the 4 missions south of San Antonio. The Alamo is located in what is now San Antonio.
The Alamo. Probably the most visited, least preserved of the 5. But since there are a lot of visitors, it had a very touristy feel. While the others were open for wandering around, the Alamo had guards, concession stands (souvenir picture??) and the granary is now a gift shop. They also didn’t allow photography in the chapel, perhaps hoping to sell their pictures instead.
But it also told a very strong story about the culture of Texas independence. The 13 day siege during the battle for Texas independence against President-General Santana is a central part of the Texas mystique.
We visited during the middle of the anniversary of the siege.
Some French visitors learned that the rifles used by the defenders were made in France!
Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were among the most well-known of the defenders to die in the siege.
Visiting the missions was great. It gave us a bit of a window into the times and conditions of the day and, more importantly, into the Texas psyche.
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While we were at Padre National Seashore, someone told us about a small county park up the coast a little ways. It sounded intriguing so we headed that way. Turned out to be a fascinating week. The park was beautiful, as long as you faced the beach. If you turned around, the view included the largest chemical plant in the country and a huge LNG exporting pier. We could occasionally hear the engines of a ship at the LNG dock, but otherwise we really didn’t notice the plant while we were there.
We asked a few locals for some recommendations about places to go and things to see. They turned out to be good recommendations. Dinner and a show, Texas style (BBQ & Nunsense), several wildlife refuges, a fish hatchery and a planetarium. The show at the planetarium was all about Betelgeuse, a star in Orion that has dimmed considerably over the last year. There is some speculation that it might be about to go super nova, which would really mess up Orion since Betelgeuse is one of his shoulders. We’ve since read that it seems to be getting a bit brighter over the last couple weeks, so no one really knows what’s about to happen. Well, God knows. But He won’t let us know til it happens.
Brians BBQ. Great place for brisket and pulled pork and some local Texas atmosphere.
A funny, off-Broadway play with a small cast.
A lot of our stops this season seemed to involve beaches. Hmm – maybe says something about us?
Local wildlife, mostly rattlesnakes. Signs were everywhere and almost everyone told us they were serious. The weather was cool enough so none came out – thankfully!
Flowers blooming. Spring!
Our campsite with an LNG ship loading up in the background. We were told that the dock was originally built to import LNG. But, thanks to fracking, the dock was converted to export it instead.
More warnings. Locals told us the snakes don’t like mowed grass or gravel trails. So we stayed out of high grass!
Bird watching platform
Intracoastal Waterway along the Texas Gulf coast.
Thankfully it was too cool to test the truth of the sign!
The beaches along the Gulf coast have been some of the flattest we’ve ever seen. There’s not much tide, but the little bit there is covers the entire beach up to the dunes. Camping on the beach is also allowed, although the high tide marks made us wary.
Storms are coming!!
One day we drove up the barrier island to Galveston State Park. The weather was iffy, but held until we had a chance to see the park. Bad weather moving in is always dramatic and beautiful.
Spoonbill Cranes in the pouring rain.
A small water moccasin…
4 year old alligator
Mom alligator
3 year old alligator
Baby cat fish…food for juvenile alligators.
1 year old alligators
This sign was right next to the bunch of babies and about 20 feet from the momma alligator.
Aquarium and fish hatchery
Outdoor fish hatchery
After Quintana, we’re heading inland. No more beaches for awhile!
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Padre Island National Seashore, Texas
A kite festival, the beach and sunshine make for a perfect weekend!!
He quieted the sea with his power!
The National WWII museum in New Orleans is one of the best museums we’ve ever visited. Originally the D-Day museum, it now tells the story of the whole war and doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It’s very moving and well worth a visit.
The visit starts off seated in a troop train and progresses from there through the various campaigns and battles.
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New Orleans, Louisiana. Home of the French Quarter, amazing cajun food and, the real reason to visit, the Beignets at Cafe Du Monde! The best part of the visit, though, was spending time with Butler and Jill who flew down for the weekend.
The weekend was filled with searching out interesting places to sample the local fare.
It’s a city of balconies, mostly for hanging off to view the madras gras parades.
It’s also a city of street artists, musicians and other performers.
The beignets!!
Of course, we end up at the water…
Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.
Watching street magicians ply their trade.
Interesting concept…
It was a great time with great friends. A highlight was the day at the WWII museum, next post.
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We found a nice little National park campground tucked away in the southern tip of Mississippi. Turns out Davis bayou is at one end of the longest national seashore in the USA. Who knew?
The park is small but quiet. There are not one, but two “gator ponds” along the trail that are supposed to have several juvenile alligators in them. At least that’s what the ranger claimed. We can’t verify that claim. Unless the gators were cleverly disguised as snapping turtles, there was no sign of them the couple times we walked by the ponds.
The ranger we talked to had some interesting info. Turns out that gators are rarely threatening to humans. Unless, of course, people have been feeding them. Generally, they try to stay away from humans. He did say that they are generally cannibalistic and eat young gators. So the young ones tend to leave home pretty quickly.
Definitely not a gator…
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“I think we have a fair hope of success.” Supposedly that’s the quote from one of the founders of Fairhope Alabama, a picturesque little town on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. It’s a quiet little spot with a couple of hotels, some boutique-type shops and a nice walk to the town pier. The big surprise for us was the flowers blooming everywhere and the “see our new spring arrivals” signs in the store windows. It’s mid January! There’s still snow on the ground and more coming back home.
Somehow we find these types of exhibits often! Who knew there were so many successful writers living in little towns. Guess that’s where they found their inspiration. Fairhope is home to Winston Groom, the author of Forest Gump.
Fairhope apparently was founded on a political principle called “single tax.” The idea was that a single land use tax should be sufficient to raise all the funds needed for the town. The “Single Tax Corporation” is still around and gets credit for all the flowers around town.
Mardis Gras displays are everywhere. We learned something new on this trip. Turns out Mobile Al is the home to Mardis Gras. New Orleans gets all the press because it’s a big city. But Mobile and the surrounding small towns have a succession of parades and celebrations throughout the month of Feb.
Flowers everywhere!
Nice little town marina. Looks to be a bit shallow based on the type of boats docked here.
We love murals! Not sure why more towns don’t decorate with them.
Not sure about the need for a railroad. It was a very pleasant walk down to the dock and back.
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After leaving MD, we drove south down the east coast looking for some warm weather. After stops to visit friends in Wilmington, NC and Beaufort, SC, we finally found some warm in North Florida in a National Park just outside Pensacola Beach near an 1834 Army fort. The campground and the fort are actually on a spit of land nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and Pensacola Bay. One day the bay side was calm enough to break out our new inflatable kayak and give it a try. It was great to be out on the water. As is often the case, we went into the breeze and current with a lot of effort and then floated back to our launch point with no effort at all.
Our first time assembling the kayak went pretty smoothly. Only a couple gotchas with the sequence of how things are supposed to be inflated.
All ready to go!
The fort is pretty impressive, even though it only saw action once – during the Civil War.
Interesting bit of trivia for military buffs: this gun weighed 13,000 pounds, took 15 minutes to load one round and had a range of about 8 miles. The bad news is that it is a smooth bore cannon so aiming it is a bit random.
Restoration work in progress. It looked like very slow work remortaring and tipping all the bricks.
And, of course, we are always on the lookout for new lighthouses!
This is the Pensacola Lighthouse built in 1859 and is the opening of Pensacola Bay.
It’s a beautiful area to spend a couple weeks relaxing. We’ve also found a great church with some very friendly people. We also went to their Wed night Bible study and fellowship dinner this past week. Turns out the pastor is a sailor so we talked boats and passages for a while before dinner. Made us miss Paperbird!
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The 2 leads all the way from Washington State through to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
We remember one of those!
More lighthouses. There are more lighthouses in Michigan than any other state, even though it borders no oceans! That must say something about the navigational hazards on the Great Lakes.
We weren’t sure what in the world this was. A little googling and we discovered that it is a brand of saunas. Who would have thought? Seems a little claustrophobic…
Some RV friends we met in Alaska recommended this stop. And we’re very grateful to them. It was a memorable and moving place.
The original bell on the Fitzgerald was taken off the wreck and replaced with a new one inscribed with the names of the men lost in the wreck. This original bell was then installed at the museum as part of the exhibit about shipwrecks on the Lake.
Even with all the science available, there’s still no definitive answer about what caused the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Lots of theories, but even the formal official inquiries came to different conclusions.
Life in a lighthouse. Not all glamorous and a lot of hard work.
Another pretty cool boon docking spot we found along the road. This was a large parking area that was welcoming to RVs for overnight stays. No hookups, of course. But a great view!
A little disturbing…
As we turned south, the fog rolled in.
Crossing the bridge from the UP into Mackinaw City was interesting. The fog was so thick, we couldn’t see the water at all.
A Coast Guard icebreaker.
These ferries were amazing. They came roaring into the harbor at full throttle.Then turned sharply to starboard and throttled back just before reaching the docks.
Despite the fog, it was fun to walk around the town.
We didn’t take the ferry out to the island…the fog was too thick to see anything. Maybe next time!
We pulled off the road for a stretch break and found this neat little harbor. Complete with a pretty large resident salmon.
Everywhere we went, we found places named after the distance either from or to someplace else. Sometimes the names made sense. Other times, we never did figure out what the distance referred to. This lighthouse was on a point 40 miles from somewhere, but where?
Probably the most unusual placement of a boat lift we’ve ever encountered. Not even sure which house it belonged to.
Good ole Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox.
Out of the UP, off the 2 and headed on the final stretch towards home.
Only in West Virginia…
Two continental divides in one drive!
This was an interesting series of rolling hills, each peak slightly lower than the previous one.
Back to our home turf. And back to the reason we come back every time! The kids and grands!
They make it worth coming home to, every time!! Love these guys!!!
Wow. Five months. One month to drive across the country out to Prince Rupert where we started the ferry hopping up the inside passage. Then three months visiting the islands of the inside passage and then wandering clockwise around the rest of Alaska. Then another month to drive back across “the 2” to Maryland. We’ve talked about going to Alaska for most of our married life. To get to do it in such an amazing fashion was beyond anything we ever anticipated. It’s a wild, beautiful, amazing, friendly place. Tons of pictures, even more memories. Oh, and we’ve started our list for our next visit…
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