San Antonio, Texas

We stayed in a campground (commercial) near San Antonio. Our new friends, Kathy and Tim, were also staying there. We spent one day with them, touring three of the missions south of San Antonio: San Jose, San Juan, Concepcion. Very interesting. All were established by the Spanish to expand their influence northward from Mexico and to introduce native inhabitants into Spanish society. The missions flourished during the middle of the 18^th century, but later declined due to inadequate military support, disease, and increased troubles with the Apaches and Comanche. The three missions were different from each other, but, of course had some similarities. One impressive thing was the beauty and artistry in the stone work. I'm sure the work was done by local people - such skill and care! Most had only partially been restored, but the San Jose Mission has been rebuilt to look pretty much as it did back then. The Concepcion mission was actually closed for some restoration work, but the workers there allowed us in to snap some photos and admire. Inside Concepcion were some wall paintings that were faded but still beautiful.

Dan and I spent one day in downtown San Antonio. We enjoyed the River Walk, taking a barge tour, eating some lunch, enjoying the beautiful surroundings, flowers, architecture. We toured the Alamo, some of which was closed or off site for some restoration work there. We had both visited in the past (not together). I had actually visited several times. Interesting to be reminded of the history of the building and the big battle fought there. The Alamo, as it is today, is actually a memorial and is not representative of the historic structure. When the battle was fought, the mission was already a ruin – even had no roof! The iconic roof line from The Alamo was actually constructed by the US Army years later when they used it as a storage place!

One really cool spot near San Antonio was a huge art installation, about a year old, that can be seen from quite a distance. It has the appearance of a huge tree, constructed of metal. From all of the branches of the “tree” are hanging over 700 pieces of art made by citizens of San Antonio.

The first pictures, below, are from the missions.