Alamo Fun

During my San Antonio trip recently, we got a little dose of a lot of stuff - the big parade (see tomorrow's post), the Cornyation show, and some Alamo/Riverwalk history! San Antonio was the first place in Texas that I ever visited. I flew down there to meet my parents for a weekend in February 2002 and absolutely fell in love with Texas right then and there. It was fun to be in downtown San Antonio last weekend and see those sights that I saw that very first time. There were also new things I learned and saw!

Here is a hospital that sits right on the Riverwalk - it's where Carol Burnett was born!

Here's the beautiful, fabulous Riverwalk. The weather was breezy and perfect, so we hung out down on the Riverwalk for part of the afternoon - I loved it!

This is a mosaic wall that depicts historic buildings/sites in San Antonio:

This is one of the entrances down into the Riveralk - right at the Hyatt Hotel, I think...

And, of course, here's the Alamo!

For those that know the story, here's the 'line that was drawn in the sand' - literally. It's marked with a metal line in the stone with a plaque. Those that were on one side of that line chose to stay and face certain death defending what they believed in. (A lesson that everyone in this country needs to remember).

Even though the Alamo is kind of a tourist area now, there are still rules to show respect for what happened there. All hats off, no pictures at all, they ask for quiet in there. If you've never been there, I highly recommend it. There are such neat memorials in there (and I can't take pictures of them to illustrate!), as well as original artifacts from Crockett, Travis, etc.

Something that is absolutely insane to me is that the State of Texas owns the Alamo, but doesn't contribute ANY money towards its upkeep, restoration, etc. WHAT?! This country is passing bills that include research on ridiculous things and balls of twine museums....and NO tax money is going to upkeep one of the MOST important symbols of the American values that this country was founded on?! That is HORRIBLE.

This is a super cool tree that is on the grounds of the Alamo, alongside a well that was installed way back then. They chose to have the well inside the walls of the Alamo grounds, even though the river was very nearby - just in case they were forced to stay within the walls during a siege. Man, did they have premonitions or what?!

Here are Mayce and I against the Alamo (side wall) with a HUGE flowering cactus!

What I thought was a beautiful touch was that during the Battle of Flowers parade (see tomorrow's post) - the HUGE parade during FIESTA, every float stops at the Alamo and places a memorial/flowers on the front lawn out of respect. It was very moving and beautiful!

There is just so much history here - if you ever get the chance to go to San Antonio, definitely take a walk through the Alamo and learn what true heroes look like.