The
tour company picked us up at the RV park at 8:30 am this morning and took us to
their ticket office just across the street from the Alamo. After purchasing our tickets we visited the
Alamo when it opened at 9:00 am. We had
an hour to visit before the bus took us to our next stop on the tour.
The
Alamo was established in 1718 as a Spanish Mission and was the first of five
built along the San Antonio River. It is sacred ground for Texans and a
significant site in Texas and American History.
The complex was solely managed for over 106 years by the Daughters of the
Republic of Texas but is now managed by them under the Texas General Land
Office. The primary mission building has been heavily restored and is the only remaining
part of the Alamo complex as it existed in 1836. And of course, it is now
surrounded by city buildings instead of open prairie land as it was then. They
have done a nice job with the building restoration and there are attractive gardens
behind and along the sides of the building.
All of the gardens lie behind a replica of a wall that surrounded the
original complex. Inside, there are numerous
historical displays explaining the history of the Alamo and the men that died
there fighting the Mexican Army in the Texas War of Independence. We even noticed, on the roll of the 186 people
who died in the battle, there was a William Ward from Ireland. Not much else is known about him other than
he arrived in Texas from New Orleans. There were also plenty of docents
providing information as well as real Texas Rangers providing security. The Alamo is one of the most visited tourist
attractions in the country as well as a popular destination for groups and
school age children on class field trips.
Even though the Alamo might be considered a tourist trap to some, we
enjoyed our visit and were surprised on how well the restored building, in an
impacted urban setting, has been preserved as a significant historical site.
We
then travelled by bus to Mission San Jose, just south of the RV park where we
are staying. All of the four remaining
missions have been designated as a National Historic Park and are managed by
the National Park Service. Mission San
Jose is the park headquarters and home to the park visitor’s center. The buildings and grounds have been extensively
restored, and it is the best known of the Texas missions (except perhaps for
the Alamo that is not really known as a mission). San Jose, built in 1720, was the main mission
in the area and a major social center surrounded by rich pastures and fields
with plenty of water available in the nearby San Antonio River.
We
then visited another smaller mission, Concepcion, about 4 miles away, also an
active Catholic Church as are the other mission churches in the park. This mission and adjoining grounds are also
very well restored and fit well into its present urban setting.
Our
next stop was the El Mercado, a large market place featuring just about every
type of Mexican souvenir and decorative furnishing, clothing and assorted
knick-knacks you might ever want to own.
There were also several restaurants and street vendors throughout the market
area. It was definitely tourist-oriented
and felt like something like you might experience getting off of a cruise ship
in Mexico.
It
was then time for lunch and we visited the Buckhorn Saloon and Texas Museum. It was another tourist-oriented venue, in a downtown
building built in 1881. It features a
large bar and restaurant and has over 33,000 square feet of artifacts from
Texas history. There are also world
record wildlife exhibits with African, Asian, Alaskan, and North American
themes with over 520 different species of stuffed and mounted animals from all
over the world. After lunch, we walked
through most of the exhibits but primarily focused on the Texas history
displays. The Texas Ranger exhibit was
especially interesting. They had a car
riddled with bullet holes on display, reportedly Bonnie and Clyde’s car in
which they were killed in a police ambush.
We
then traveled to an old cement quarry that had been converted into a Japanese
tea garden in the 1920s by
a Japanese family. After their
internment in relocation camps during WW II, the family chose not to return to
the area and abandoned the site. It then
became a Chinese tea garden, was sold again and has now been restored once more
as a Japanese tea garden managed by a non-profit foundation. It is now primarily used as a wedding
reception venue and tourist attraction and includes a small restaurant and tea
house. I guess we have been spoiled as
we have seen many beautiful Japanese gardens.
This one didn’t quite live up to its name. It needs a lot of work and modification to
truly become a Japanese garden, but of course, we are in Texas and a long way
from Japan.
Our
last stop was a 30-minute boat tour on the San Antonio River along the River
Walk in the center of the downtown area. Each boat holds about 30 people and
floats past numerous outdoor shops, restaurants, hotels and other businesses
along the River Walk. The boat we were
in was very crowded but the narration and sights along the river were
interesting. The boat ride is another
tourist attraction with lots of people from the many hotels in the area
visiting the River Walk attractions, including the boat ride.
We
were then driven back to the RV park after a long day of sightseeing. Admittedly, just about everything we did was
tourist oriented (and actually we are tourists) but it was a good way to get an
overview of the area and a taste of San Antonio. The last time I spent any time in San Antonio
was going through Air Force basic training and flight school in 1959/60 and
things have changed quite a bit since then.
San Antonio is now the third largest city in Texas with a population of
over 2.3 million people and is rapidly expanding north towards Austin and south
towards Corpus Christi.
Dinner
was at a small Mexican restaurant across the street from the RV park. The clientele was all local and our waitress
didn’t speak or understand English very well.
As a result, we didn’t get exactly what we ordered, but was pretty good
nevertheless. Tomorrow, we leave for
Fort Stockton, TX on the way home. The weather ahead still looks OK, so we are
keeping our fingers crossed for dry roads and a tail wind the rest of the way.
Day 54 Pictures
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