DID YOU KNOW? San Antonio, Texas was once part of Mexico and home to the historical Alamo mission where the Battle of the Alamo took place back on March 6,1836. This epic battle took place after 13 days of siege on the Texans by Santa Anna, a Mexican General who was serving as Mexico's President. He had overthrown the Mexican Constitution and taken away much of the Texan's rights. When they rebelled against this tyranny, he marched on them at the Alamo flying a blood red flag from San Fernando Cathedral...he would grant no mercy. Present in the Alamo were Commanders William Travis and James Bowie (yes, he's responsible for the Bowie knives we know today), Davy Crockett, and approximately 189 others. They were vastly outnumbered by Santa Anna, but all would fight bravely to the death, taking around 600 of the Mexican General's troops to the grave with them. A month and a half after the Battle of the Alamo, Sam Houston led the Texan Army against Santa Anna, uttering the iconic war cry, "Remember the Alamo!" This fight, the Battle of San Jacinto, would prove to be a resounding victory and a integral part of Texas gaining it's independence from Mexico. The next day, Santa Anna surrendered to Sam Houston and the Republic of Texas was born. Texas would exist as an independent country for 9 years, until it became part of the United States of America in December of 1845.
This was a very educational visit, and it felt a little unreal to actually be at the site that was so quintessential to Texas breaking away from Mexico. Hearing the stories of the courageous men who fought a battle they knew was hopeless for a cause they knew was good, seeing many of the original cannons that were onsite, and walking through the grounds was truly incredible.
Inspiring Fact: At the end of one of William B. Travis' final letters pleading for help, he wrote:
"P.S. The Lord is on our side - when the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn - we have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of beeves [cattle]."
After touring the Alamo, we explored the city for several hours via the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus system, before heading back to the RV to eat and exercise the pups. Our next stop was San Fernando Cathedral at the heart of San Antonio. Founded in 1731, San Fernando is the oldest continually-functioning religious community in Texas. The Catholic cathedral is ornate and beautiful, both inside and out.
Just inside the Cathedral's front doors lies the resting place of Travis, Bowie, Crocket and other Alamo heroes.
Every Tuesday through Sunday, the Cathedral hosts 'The Saga'...a 24-minute laser light show projected onto the front of the building. Acoompanied by music, this show depicts the historical discovery, settlement and development of San Antonio.
After the San Fernando Cathedral, our final stop was a boat cruise along the San Antonio Riverwalk. The lights were beautiful, the city and riverwalk all lit up, and our captain both informative and funny. Although the boat was crowded, we had a wonderful trip and didn't sink...unlike the boatload (pun intended) of police officers we passed who had over maxed the weight capacity of their tour boat. It was a little amusing to see the men and women who rescue others needing rescued themselves...granted that particular location in the riverwalk is only about 3-4 feet deep :)
Captain Nick, full of humour, first pushed us away from the sidewalk without boarding the boat himself. He told us to have fun and be sure to have the boat back in 30 minutes. He next announced it was his first day with real people onboard...all previous trips had been made with cadavers. Over the course of thirty minutes, he admitted that in the time he'd been piloting boats for Go-Rio, he'd hit his head on six riverwalk bridges and had even fallen overboard once...in the only deep part of the river where the bottom is mud. His boots got stuck and he nearly drowned before being able to get out of the troublesome boots. With a number of other jokes and stories, he kept the boat laughing through much of the trip. His safety rules included don't stand up unless you want to get knocked out and if the boat goes down, don't panic. Just stay in your seat until the boat settles in and then stand up... so it made it all the more amusing to see the police boat going down. All in all, cruising on the riverwalk was a wonderful way to end the night.
The next day, we made a quick stop at Buckhorn Saloon to see their unique wall decorations... the owner of the old saloon used to accept antlers and animal heads as payment. His stock includes lots of typical animals such as bear and deer...and also more exotic animals such as elephant, tiger and giraffe. Attached to the saloon is the Buckhorn Museum, which hosts even more of the hundreds of horns, antlers, animals, and other weird wonders that the owner collected over many years. We didn't go to the museum, but just walking throught the saloon and gift shop revealed some pretty cool creatures.
On our way out of the San Antonio area, we stopped at Mission San Jose - the longest functioning mission in Texas. Built in 1777, Mission San Jose earned itself the nickname Queen of Missions for it's beauty. Back then, missions were not just churches, but instead, entire communities that centered around the church. For 104 years, this Mission was home to approximately 2,000 Natives, teaching and baptizing them into the Catholic faith. When visiting San Jose, we explored native family quarters, soldier's quarters, stone arches, the remains of the historic convento, grist mill, and granary, and more. It was fascinating to explore the ruins and areas which have been rebuilt/restored. The lovely chapel is still in use today, with daily Mass and other special events.
Visiting Mission San Jose was a neat way to end our time in San Antonio before heading off tto Magnolia Beach for a few days. Although we aren't usually city people, we did enjoy exploring Alamo City. It was very clean and everyone was very friendly and helpful as we tried to learn how to navigate the city bus system. We were very impressed also by how safe we felt in such a large city. It has a much different feel than so many large cities we've visited.
Until next time, God bless!
Haha. We've been to the Riverwalk and the Alamo. Captain Nick had me laughing tonight with his jokes. Good post!