San Antonio

If you google the top 2 things to do in San Antonio you will find The Alamo and the Riverwalk.

We visited The Alamo on Monday. A very interesting piece of American history. Indulge me for a minute if you will.  While the guide was talking, I was taking notes.

Texas, in the early 1800’s was a part of Mexico. The Texan settlers rebelled against the Mexican government seeking independence. It all started a few miles east of San Antonio in a town called Gonzalez. It seems the Mexicans had loaned the settlers a cannon for defence against the Comanche’s. With all the Texans’ talk of independence, Mexico got a bit nervous and demanded the return of their cannon.

This was the cannon, note the Flintstone carriage (he, he, no disrespect intended).

And this was the banner that the town of Gonzalez erected in response to the request from Mexico.

The Gonzalez altercation was the first conflict between the settlers of Texas and Mexico in their quest for independence. About a year later, 200 Texans defended the Alamo against a Mexican Army of 6000 for nearly 2 weeks and were then overrun.

This is the Mission building at the Alamo. Cannon ball dents are still visible in the walls. It is right in the heart of downtown San Antonio.s

A few months later, Sam Houston and some 800 Texans
defeated a Mexican force of twice that number at San
Jacinto (present-day Houston). The victory led to the
success of Texan independence and their eventual annexation to the United States in 1845. 

And that, in a nutshell, is why we didn't have to cross a border to get from Louisiana into Texas.

The Riverwalk is also right downtown, just a few blocks from

the Alamo. It is well below street level and is an endless
stretch of restaurants and bars of every description, lining
both sides of the San Antonio River. For the most part, there are no railings to keep over-indulgers from getting wet. You’re on your own.

In the daytime it looks like this.

And at night,

Oh, and one more thing. Installment number two in the “interesting”  billboard series. See my blog from April 1, 2016 for the first installment. It’s all about that “base”.

Uplifting!

The weather has finally normalized after 8 weeks of bad skating. I know there will still be cooler spells in store for us but activities like chipping ice off the Honda's windshield were not supposed to be a part of the deal.