Day 14 – San Antonio Missions

After 14 days of traveling we are starting to feel the wear and tear of non-stop traveling. Luckily, we have decided to spend a full day (and therefore 2 nights) in San Antonio, Texas with my brother and Nancy. That should allow us to get a little rest before heading out again.

After arriving in San Antonio late last night, we got up today ready to see the sights. We started by heading to the Alamo / River Walk area of town. The Alamo stands as a monument to the battle for Texas’ independence from Mexico and Spanish rule and is located in the heart of the most touristy side of downtown. It does look a little odd to have a historical monument of this nature directly across the street from tourist attractions such as “Ripley’s Believe it or Not.” Unfortunately for us, it was spring break and huge crowds of school kids were also at the Alamo.

After spending a while at the Alamo (and realizing how much we have forgotten from our high school history classes), we made our way down the River Walk for an inexpensive lunch in which we split a $5 plate of Chinese food.

Next we headed to another of the San Antonio Missions — Mission San Jose.  Mission San Jose (like the other missions) was essentially a fortified city in which the Spanish settlers offered protection to Native Americans who wanted to join.  In return, the Native Americans had to contribute by working the land or learning another skill which would add to the community.  The Spanish also used the missions as a way to spread both Christianity and Spanish culture to this group of Native Americans and to secure this land from being taken over by other European nations like France.

Oddly enough, we discovered that Mission San Jose is only about 20% original.  The other 80% was rebuilt by the WPA during the depression and the re-builders, not having any information on which to base their guesses, made lots of noticeable mistakes in their recreation.

After visiting Mission San Jose for a few hours, we picked up a few things at Walmart and then got stuck in the worst traffic we have experienced in our two weeks on the road.  After 2 hours of traffic (to go about 30 miles), we eventually made it back to Ward and Nancy’s house where Nancy treated us to a really tasty authentic Thai meal of Pad Thai and Summer Rolls.  Yum yum!