The first evening was a romantic evening for two along the river walk in downtown San Antonio. We strolled and people watched and sampled margaritas along the way. A nice quiet evening. We skipped the shopping that is EVERYWHERE. That is for tomorrow.
Remember the Alamo
We read and listened and walked and looked. Pretty interesting history. I suspect that the people who actually lived at this mission were more that a little irritated at those crazies that decided that it should be their last stand. Really trashed the place. It is wonderfully restored and a fun history lesson. We walked surface streets today and checked out old churches and other old buildings. Then on to the shopping.
The Marketplace
Wow. I never saw so much stuff. It is like a giant flea market with some higher end stores thrown in. We looked and laughed but didn’t find anything we had to have. Sombreros, cowboy hats, boots, clay thingys, paper mache thingys, T-shirts with nearly anything printed on them, bright colored clothes and jewelry. Fun.
Missions National Park
We checked out the four other Missions in San Antonio that are part of the park. It is an amazing story for the Indians who lived in this area. They didn’t stand a chance of maintaining their own way of life between the Spanish Crown who wanted to claim their land, the Catholic Friars who wanted to claim their souls, and the raiding Apache from the North who wanted to claim their stuff. They were pretty much screwed. Mission life with all the rules and the push to change even how they think and believe had to be a bummer; but, you so what you have to do to survive I guess. The volunteer docent at the Mission San Juan was a direct descendent of the Indians who were at the original mission. He was very excited to tell his family story and the story of the Tejas culture that was borne of this attempt to make Spanish citizens of the locals. One day maybe I will read up on the Indians’ side of this story. I am sure that we haven’t heard the whole story from all perspectives. Beautiful buildings that are both simple yet ornately decorated with stone carving and wall paintings (colors created from bug innards and plants). The Catholic Church brought stone masons and woodworkers and artists from around the world and their work shows up in the Mission Churches. They are spending millions now to restore them. At Mission San Jose there are two world renown stone restoration experts here working on the front façade. Wonderful to know they will be around for many more years for people to appreciate.
BBQ – we found a down-home kind of place and had some great mesquite smoked, dry rub BBQ. Add some of their own home made sauce and it was all finger licking good.