Friday, April 2, 2010

San Antonio….A Great Good Friday!

Early yesterday, we

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pulled out from the Last Resort, leaving Rockport behind to head North.  First, we made a stop at Freightliner where we finally got

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the recall part installed for the adjustable brake pedal.  We didn’t have to wait too long, and soon we were headed up Highway 37.

All along the way, we enjoyed the

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beautiful Texas wildflowers that bloom along side the highways.

It wasn’t long until we fell in behind

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Bob and Molly and Mac and Lynette.  We followed them until they turned off for a fuel stop and that is where we waved bye to them.  You guys have fun in Bourne…and we hope to see you soon.

We continued on and made it through San Antonio without any trouble and on to the

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Stone Creek RV Park in Schertz.  Deb and Rod were not far behind us and settled in on the row just behind us.

After we all rested up from the travel today, we headed out to a great little Pizza and Sandwich place.  We then all called it an early evening.

Today, we were up early.  I made waffles for the four of us before we loaded up and headed out for a self guided tour of the San Antonio Missions.

First stop was at

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Mission San Jose.  This is were the visitor center was located and

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Deb and I got the official date stamp for our National Park Passport Book.  In addition, we got a stamp for each of the mission churches.

Once we had our books stamped, we were off to see each of the churches.

This is San Jose, it

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was founded in 1720, and it is best known of the Texas Missions.  One of the things that caught my eye was this

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beautiful window.  It is known as Rosa’s Window.

Next was

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Mission San Juan.

This

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mission was originally known as San Jose de los Nazonis in East Texas.  In  1731, it was moved to it’s permanent home on the San Antonio River’s east bank.  The fertile farmland soon made it a regional supplier of produce.

While here, we enjoyed

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a back trail that took us down by

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river.  We enjoyed lots of

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beautiful flowers.

We were also entertained by

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this little lizard, and this

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little lady bug, as well as

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this bee who was busy about his work day.

Well, we had to get on about our day as well…so it was off to

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Mission Espada.  This mission was

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founded in 1690, and was also moved from East Texas in 1731.  It looks nearly as remote now as it did in the mid-1700’s.  This mission was known for teaching the Indians a trade.  Men learned  blacksmithing, carpentry, masonry, stonecutting, and cloth weaving.  It was the only mission that made bricks.  These trades were a boon to San Antonio’s post-colonial growth and the mission’s artisans’ influence can be seen all through the city of San Antonio.

I so enjoyed all the beautiful

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flowers that were planted around the grounds of the mission.  And, yet another beautiful

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window.  Ellie, the windows are for you!

Last on the mission trail was

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Mission Concepcion.  This mission

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was transferred from East Texas in 1731.  The church looks essentially as it did in the mid 1700’s.  This church is being

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resorted to show the beautiful designs that have faded away.

This concludes the missions that are listed on the National Parks Mission Trail, but we wanted to visit one more.  And, that was

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Mission San Antonio de Valero.  Better known to us as The Alamo.  It was founded in 1718, and was the first mission on the San Antonio River.  And, we know the rest of the story!

By this time, it was mid-afternoon and our waffles had long since left us, so we headed to Market Square

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and located

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La Margarita where we enjoyed a great Mexican food lunch.  Afterwards we made a quick stop by Mi Tierra’s

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bakery for a few goodies.

From here we decided it was time to head back to Schertz before things picked up pace…as San Antonio is the site of

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a little weekend basketball.  LOL!

What a great day and how special it was to tour the missions on Good Friday.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great tour of the Missions. Next time we are in San Antonio, I hope to do the same thing. Also, we stayed in the same RV park back in January while visiting some friends. In January, it was a very busy place but certainly passable for a night or so.

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  2. We love the mission tour Dortha, looks like the weather has warmed up, too.

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  3. Yes it makes me want to become a Catholic...HE HE. We love those missions too and wish we were there with you

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  4. Oh what a nice tour! Love your walk in the woods too along the pathway.

    Karen and Steve
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com

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  5. Wow, it has been years since Bill and I were at the Missions... Beautiful pictures...I think we will have to go back to them again before we leave the area. Thanks for sharing.

    Helen

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  7. I only live a few miles from the missions and have directed many a relative and visitor to their steps but I thought your tour of them was very informative. Great pictures, too.

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