Young Snowbirds » historic

Spanish Mission of Goliad

Rob — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:00:05 +0000

The Presidio La Bahia in Goliad is known as the birthplace of Texas independence. With a presidio comes a chapel and of course a mission. As with the Spanish Missions of San Antonio, the Mission Espiritu Santo is also located on the San Antonio river. It was the first large cattle ranch in Texas supplying the needs of the Spanish settlements as far away as Louisiana.

Spanish Mission Espiritu Santu in Goliad

This is file #1111 entered into this blog if you're keeping track

THIS was on the mission! Explain why a mission has a skull and crossbones on it? I can’t.

Presidio La Bahia

Last stop before heading back was Presidio La Bahia, “the Fort of the Bay”. Established in 1721 and moved to its present location in 1749, this fort is the most fought over in Texas history having seen 6 National revolutions / wars of independence. Spanish, Mexican and Texas soldiers have all garrisoned its walls.

Soldiers here fought with the Spanish army against the British during the American Revolution, making Goliad the only community west of the Mississippi to participate in that war. The cattle industry has its roots here too, as the soldiers oversaw herds from the two nearby missions (Espiritu Santo and Rosario).

The Texas revolution from Mexico started here as well. The first declaration of Texas Independence was declared at the Presidio December 20, 1835 and the first flag of Texas was flown. Might it have looked like this? I wondered if this is where the lone star originated?

Presidio La Bahia Chapel

The chapel at the Presidio, “Our lady of Loreto”, is the oldest building in the compound in continuous use since the 1700′s. It is one of the oldest churches in America. Restored in the 1960’s it is considered one of the most authentic restoration projects in the US.

During our stay at the Sea Breeze RV Park in Portland Texas, we learned how important Texas history is to Texans. Their state constitution is unique and from a Canadian’s point of view, Texas state patriotism rivals that of the entire United States. Independence happened twice in this America, once in Texas and once for the US as a whole. Goliad is the central point of that history and it’s Spanish mission, presidio and court house reflect that history. These photographs of the Spanish Mission and the Presidio are part of Dar’s tip to Goliad.

Day 55 San Antonio

Darlene — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:48:03 +0000

This is actually the second part of our time in San Antonio Texas, the first part is the second half of the Riverwalk. Are you completely confused?

Instead of posting them in order, we decided to keep all the Riverwalk photos together, even thought we did it two different days. This is the rest of what we saw on both of those days.

The famous Jackalope

Rob’s comment: So here’s the thing. When we were at the Grand Canyon, Dar took some photos of deer alongside the roadway in front of the Bright Angel Lodge. A friend on Facebook, Dallas Huybregts asked if we had seen any Jackelopes yet and if maybe the deer were actually Jackelopes. I honestly wasn’t quite sure they were deer because of their big ears and I wondered if maybe they were Jackelopes. I’d only ever heard of them, never seen one. I googled it and found the answer. The deer were indeed NOT Jacekopes. Then, in San Antonio, we stumbled up on this one.

Crockett building – named after, you guessed it – Davey Crockett. Did you know Davey Crockett fought at The Alamo? Whether or not he was killed in the fight is actually unknown. Some accounts say he was killed in the great battle, others say he was taken hostage by the Mexicans and executed. No one knows for sure, but at least he’s got a building named in his honor.

The courthouse - later I'd learn about the significance of these ornate courthouses in Texas.

Courthouse detail

San Fernando Cathedral

The Fairmount hotel - the one that moved 5 blocks!

This is the historic Fairmount Hotel that in April 1985 went into the Guinness World Record books as the largest structure ever moved on wheels. We HAD to go see it with our own eyes to believe it. Sure enough, in the basement they’ve got newspaper clippings and stories about the move and the controversy surrounding it all. You can read more about this on the Fairmount’s web site.

Take a look at my shot above, then look at the “Quick facts” page on their web site. See a similarity? Funny, hey?!

Inside the hotel.

The inside courtyard

Besides being famous for moving down the street, the hotel also has a famous concierge – Luke Tips. He’s had stories written about him and is always there to greet guests with a tail wag and he’ll gladly accept a tummy rub.

Luke Tips, lying by the piano

We didn’t see any of the rooms but it seems pretty opulent and very high class. A very nice place to stay if you ever visit this fair city.

The RED trolley, we took these all over the downtown area. $4 for an all day pass, off and on and we found parking that was FREE with purchase of a trolley pass. If you want to find it, the parking lot is on the other side of the freeway from downtown – park over by the Park and Ride station, you should be able to find that on a map. Otherwise parking downtown is $10 a day or more. We know cause we paid that much the first day, took the trolley all the way around, and noticed the park and ride station and sign while we waited for the trolley to continue.

The Majestic Theatre

San Antonio has several old theaters, we managed to see 2 or 3 of them. Not much to see in the day and with vehicles parked on the street in front of them, hard to get a good shot. Here’s a few of the Majestic theater in downtown San Antonio.

Inside the Majestic

Lobby of the Majestic

Lots of neat architecture and old buildings in San Antonio. WARNING: In fact, if you don’t like old things, I’d suggest you not come to Texas at all. There are lots of old things here! Right Glennis?! ;-)

I had to do some research on the flag shown above on the left. The right one of course is the Texas flag. Never before in any state, have I seen so many state flags flying – many times instead of the national flag! I discovered the other one is an old Confederate flag, before they redesigned it as the Navy Jack. I don’t remember seeing the American flag on this building as well – it might have been though. Interesting!

More American iconic symbols - the eagle

I just thought this scene above was humorous with the photo of the old city and the people waiting for the bus. Did you know that Texas ranks the highest for obesity rates in the country!? After seeing how everyone here eats, it’s no wonder. LOTS of fried foods!

An old elevator, it just caught my eye as interesting in this empty building.

The Alamo

Darlene — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:41:41 +0000

Ever since he heard we were going through San Antonio Texas, Rob has wanted to go to one place – The Alamo!

Many people know the phrase “Remember the Alamo” but do you know why? It is the infamous battle were less than 250 men defended against over 2500 Mexican soldiers, and most of them fought to their death. They were unsuccessful in keeping the Mexicans out, but the battle went down as one of the greatest stands of bravery, honor and fighting against impossible odds to defend freedom, and pretty much sums up how many Texans still feel about this land they call home.

I’m not going to go into a great deal of the history of the Alamo because you can google it – but I’ll give the brief overview.

History of The Alamo

The Alamo was built in 1724 and was a Spanish mission (Misión San Antonio de Valero) until 1793 when the land was given to the Indians living in the missions of San Antonio. Then in the early 1800′s the cavalry was stationed here and they called it The Alamo (the Spanish word for “cottonwood” in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila).

Today most of it is gone except for the iconic chapel (seen in most images representing The Alamo), the Long Barracks (held the first hospital in Texas), and some of the walls. What used to take up a large area (several modern city blocks) is either gone, or under the existing buildings.

The chapel at The Alamo, known as "the shrine"

Many battles were fought and won and they were able to hold the intruders out. Until February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna’s army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. (quoted from The Alamo’s web site) They called for reinforcements, but few were able to come to their aid. It is said that the Colonel drew a line in the sand and said that any man that crossed it would stay and fight, and all but one did. No one can confirm the story, or identify the one that supposedly didn’t cross the line.

Davy Crockett fought and died at The Alamo.

After the battle The Alamo remained a military post for years, then it became a mercantile (store) and eventually a historic monument. But not before it felt into a state of decay and only after the 50th anniversay of the battle when The Daughters of the Republic of Texas took ownership did it begin to be preserved and repaired.

The history of the alamo is quite fascinating and it was a little bone chilling to have stood on the very ground where such an event had occurred. I know Rob had a few moments while we were there. Edmonton and most of Alberta didn’t even exist when the battle took place. Gave us some perspective on what life might have been like in the early days of the west.

Rob at THE Alamo

Most of the walls of the current exhibit were not part of the original mission, but built in the early 1900's as part of the preservation efforts.

A funky tree in the Alamo courtyard