March 23 to 27, 2025
To visit friends Anne and Larry and their grandbabies, Elliot and Noah
Flights DAB to ATL and Houston, TX and back again. When asked how my flights were, I responded “What flights?”. I’m so blasé about flying I don’t realize I’m flying — it’s just inconvenience and interruption to my magazine reading, salad eating, and movie watching.
These are padlocks, installed by lovers who were married at the nearby administration building. So interesting to see all the different types. I’ve seen padlocks locked on to other padlocks. Some are heart-shaped.
San Antonio was founded as a Spanish mission and colonial outpost in 1718, the city in 1731 became the first chartered civil settlement in what is now present-day Texas.
Coming from Morocco, where all fountains except Marrakesh were turned off to conserve water, I think this is a wonderful idea! Use air conditioning water!
Larry and I took a barge ride through 1-1/2 miles of river in the heart of downtown San Antonio. It was beautiful. The cypress trees along the way are more than 300 years old.
The first building had gargoyles and happy faces carved on the outside of this building to provide good luck to the business housed in it. It closed within the first year. ….So much for good luck charms.
It was a wonderfully warm day, and it was such a pleasant surprise from the cold in New Zealand, Morocco and Florida until now.
Palm trees in Texas. Seems wrong somehow.
I wanted so much to stand up on the barge and slap the ceiling of the overpass. But little boys were in front of me and I didn’t want to set a bad example.
A mural of Dwight D. Eisenhauer and Mamie. Texas was Ike’s home town.
The Liberty Bar was recommended. It used to be a Convent as listed on the building. That’s why their calendar says It’s never too late to enter a convent… get in the habit.
This is the Tower of the Americas. Trip Advisor recommended we steer clear of this dirty and underwhelming tourist trap. It was pretty at night though.
It does not spin nor does it go up and down.
People warned me the Alamo was small, so I wasn’t surprised at its size. It’s amazing how men slaughter each other for control of a tiny little church. I understand that once you gain this little fort, you go on to kill and maim other groups of men to claim even more land. Pretty soon, you can own it all, if things go right.
On March 6, 1836, the 200 men fighting, not for the United States but to be a free country called The Republic of Texas, had written to many U.S. states and countries requesting soldiers to come and help defeat Mexico and their advances into their territory. Sadly Mexico invaded before others could come to help and those 200 men, including David Crockett, were slaughtered at the Alamo.
The women and children inside the sacristy while he battle raged, were allowed to leave before Mexico executed every soldier inside the Alamo. It is rumored that the male slave was also allowed to leave.
However, in April of the same year General Santa Anna of the Mexican army fought the final and decisive battle of the Texas Revolution against Sam Houston — and lost. The battle lasted all of 18 minutes. As Texans and their allies killed hundreds of Mexicans, their cries of “Remember the Alamo” became etched into Texan history and legend.
Texas remained a republic for the next ten years until it became the 28th state of the United States of America in 1846.
Emily D. West (c.1815–1891), also known as Emily Morgan, is a folk heroine whose legendary activities during the Texas Revolution have come to be identified with the song “The Yellow Rose of Texas“.
West was a mixed-race free woman of color, or a “high yellow“, and Connecticuter born in New Haven.
In 1835 she was contracted to James Morgan in New York to work as an indentured servant for one year as a housekeeper. Several months into her year of indentureship, on April 16, 1836, West and other residents were kidnapped by Mexican cavalry. West was forced to travel with the forces of General Antonio López de Santa Anna as they prepared to face the army led by Sam Houston, and was in the Mexican camp on April 21 when Houston’s force attacked. The Texans won the Battle of San Jacinto in 18 minutes.
According to legend, Santa Anna had been caught unprepared because he was having sex with West. No contemporary accounts indicate that Santa Anna was with a woman at the time, but the story was recorded in the journal of Englishman William Bollaert in 1842. And then amateur historians began to expand the tale, with Henderson Shuffler suggesting that West fit the description of the girl in the then-popular folk song “The Yellow Rose of Texas.” The story continued to grow, with many references to West’s beauty, as the legend took hold by the 1986 Texas Sesquicentennial.
Historian Philip Thomas Tucker questions the reliability of the tale pointing out that “Santa Anna possessed a distinct aversion to the intermingling of races.” Santa Anna held that much of Mexico’s political troubles were due to this, holding that “We have failed because of our deplorable racial mixture, and the responsibility for this sad state of affairs lies with the Spanish missionaries who saved the Indian from extinction.”
From a young age, Phil Collins was enthralled with Davy Crockett and began to acquire Crockett memorabilia. In 2014 he generously gifted his collection to the people of Texas.
Interesting things in the museum. A wall of different sized cannon balls, a poster of John Wayne’s movie, The Alamo, and great artwork.
The next (and last) blog page includes the house we rented from an artist.