San Antonio

   

Thats a Big Star

After a couple more six hour road days and an overnight in another Camping World, we arrived in San Antonio at the KOA. I have to admit, Texans do everything much bigger. We were going to take our picture at the welcome sign but this sign was more of a Texas welcome to the Lone Star state.

Just a little guy

Thats a Big Turtle

Something else Laura and I never realized, Texas has swamps and gators! Ya! Gators in Texas! Now technically we should have known that since Texas shares a border with Louisiana but for someone like me who had not seen this area of the US, it was a shock. The welcome center coming into the state had a great little boardwalk where you could go out into the swamp and we actually saw gators, lots of turtles and a bunch of snakes, some poisonous and some not. The only thing I saw in that area that really freaked me out was a spider that had to be three inches across! Which happened to be running from one of the snakes which kept trying to grab it.

Since we arrived pretty early on Sunday I decided I wanted to get out and do a couple things in case work got in the way this week. We found the San Antonio Missions National Parks along with the Alamo and the River-Walk for our first day here.




There are four missions just minutes from downtown San Antonio. One has been almost completely restored so visitors can get a sense of what it was like during that time. The other three are more run down except for the churches which are all fully functional and operating to this day.








We were able to visit three of the four that day along with an aqueduct built at the same time between two of the missions. The boys were able to add another National Parks badge to their vests and learn a little history at the same time.

San Juan Mission

San Jose Mission

Espada Mission

Badge Time

     Next stop was the Alamo and it was not as great as I remembered from my first visit. To give a little back ground on that statement, most of you know that I served in the Army back in the 90's but you may not know that I spent my AIT here in San Antonio Texas at Fort Sam Houston. My parents came down for my graduation and our only liberty off base. While downtown we were able to see the Alamo, the bridge caverns and I believe a drive through safari park but I could be mistaken.










I know, I know, enough history! This trip to the Alamo was great because Jacob did his second grade report on Davy Crockett and he was able to see some of the things that he wrote about. He was pretty excited to see the guns and knives that were used. I think we are going to read about this period in time together so we are both up on our facts.

Dinner

Downtown

We ended the first day on the San Antonio River Walk where we had dinner at the Original mexican restaurant which happens to be across from the place where I had my first drink at the ripe old age of 20. I was on leave from Fort Sam Houston  and  they figured since I was old enough to die for my country I was old enough to have a drink or two. I wanted to end the day with a bang so I had one of those 32oz beers I remembered from my youth.

Oh That's a BEER

Another part of San Antonio that we loved, (Oh, now it's Laura by the way!) was the Witte Museum. This, again, was free do to our museums reciprocal pass. (PEOPLE, do yourself a favor, get your memberships up to date, we have seen so much cool stuff just through the reciprocal program!) The Witte had a great Texas history piece about dinos and vicaros but our favorite parts were the outside water garden and the space/android exhibit! A whole piece about how we travel in space, why we can't travel far in space, what androids do for us and the future of that industry. The kids also got great hands on practice with air pressure, wind resistance and the Archemedies Screw. We had just talked about the concept of moving water the day before so when they saw the Archemedies screw and the response was that akin to seeing a rock star I realized two things. 1.) They are really learning a lot, and retaining it as well. 2.) I am raising them to be nerds. We liked those pieces so much, we did it twice! And, I can't leave without telling you that Jacob got to see David Crocketts fiddle, he was an accomplished musician. Jacob was awestruck! He adores the big D.C. so this was really special.

 Laura and the kids went to the Japanese garden in San Antonio which was a nice little surprise in the middle of Texas.

Dining Room

Yum

The last stop for the Hamilton's in San Antonio was the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. This place was a little over priced but was fun for me and the kids. There was a stuffed head for pretty much ever animal on the planet along with every fish. I was really interested in the Texas Ranger part of the museum and some of the other exhibits like the Bonnie and Clyde car.

Rattler Picture

Bonnie & Clyde Car

Scene from up top