December 2nd we moved from Fredericksburg to San Antonio. The weather has been great, mid 70's every day with only a few rain drops one day. Our new campsite, the nicest park we have been in so far.
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12/3/12 - 12/5/12 - Our first week in San Antonio included several visits to the River Walk. Our first visit was during the afternoon, sorry no camera the first 2 visits to the River Walk. We took the boat ride through the river, a 45 minute ride to see the entire river walk and learn about the history behind it. The second visit was on December 4, the 37th Anniversary of our first date. Our first stop was Pat O'Brien's for a Hurricane before a very nice dinner at Boudro's on the river while enjoying the Christmas Lights along the river and a concert after dinner.
12/6/12 - We took the bus into town and spent the whole day touring downtown and the river walk. Our first stop was the Alamo, so much history. Our second stop was the Texas Ranger Museum that included the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, the oldest Saloon in Texas. Lunch at Casa Rio on the river, the oldest restaurant on the River Walk. We spent the afternoon riding the Street Car Routes to tour the rest of the city. The bus ride back home gave us a good perspective on the local culture, we sure stuck out as tourists.
12/7/12 - We drove north to the New Braunfels area. A stop at the Snake Farm was Jerry's favorite, they had the top 10 most venomous land snakes. The park was very well done with animals from all over the world along with the 500+ live snake and reptile displays. A stop into Camping World is always a must when driving by. We walked through the historic district of Gruene, established by German immigrants in 1850. Lots of shops, restaurants and art galleries. We enjoyed lunch on the outside deck at the Gristmill Restaurant on the banks of the Guadalupe River. F4C127
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The week of 12/10/12 we spent the afternoons visiting the Mission Trail including Mission San Jose, San Juan, Concepcion and Espada along with the Espada Aqueduct. The Espada Aqueduct converted water to all the Missions built along the San Antonio River, it is still in use today. All of the missions were built in the 1700's by Franciscan missionaries from Spain as part of Spain's expansion. Their objective was to convert the indigenous hunter and gatherer Indians into Catholic tax-paying subjects of the King of Spain. All of the missions are still active parishes, Mission Concepcion has the most original intact church. There was a wedding taking place at Mission Espada on 12/12/12 while we were visiting.
12/16/12 We moved from San Antonio to Aransas Pass which is about 20 minutes east of Corpus Christi. While in the area we visited Rockport, Port Aransas, Mustang Island, North Padre Island and Corpus Christi. To get to Port Aransas you have to take a free 5 minute car ferry across. We used this several times, it was quick and efficient. We drove along the beach on Mustang Island for about a half hour. This area is known for Charter fishing, shrimping, and crabbing along with great beaches. There are a lot of bottle nose dolpins in the area. It is also quite the resort area, Rockport reminded us of Harbor Spings and Mackinaw City. We visited the "Big Tree", over 1,000 years old and 11 feet across at the base.
12/20/12 We spent the day in Corpus Christi visiting the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington. It was a very windy day with winds up to 40 miles an hour. It was a challenge walking across the deck of the USS Lexington. After touring all day we went to Whataburger, the Texas "McDonalds". The burgers were very good, just way too big, Texas sized!!
12/21/12 We took the ferry back over to Port Aransas and drive down Mustang Island to Padre Island. We drove all the way to the Padre Island National Seashore Visitor's Center. At the Visitor's Center we were able to join the National Park Service Bird Watching Tour that took us along the beach and out into areas of the island we could not have driven in our vehicle. It was a great sightseeing tour. The picture that looks like a log is actually a cross section of sand crystalized by a lightning strike.
12/23/12 to 12/25/12 We moved to just north of Galveston. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!! We did a nice drive around Galveston Island on Christmas Day, no traffic so it was a nice sightseeing drive. We visited the Bishop's Palace this week, no pictures were allowed inside. Built in 1892 and is listed as one of the top 100 outstanding buildings on the American Institute of Architects. The inside had amazing woodwork and stained glass windows.
12/29/12 - We visited the Port of Galveston, the Crown Princess and the Disney Cruise ships were in port. We visited the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum and walked through the Strand Historical District. The actual drilling rig was quite the surprise educationally, we learned so much about offshore drilling history and technology. The Strand Historical district had very well preserved historic buildings filled with very unique gift shops.
12/30/12 We spent the day at the Johnson Space Center just south of Houston. Learning about NASA's history was also very educational. We saw many of the items used on the missions including a tour of Mission Control where all of the manned space missions were controlled .from We viewed Moon rocks and touched one of them and also saw a full Saturn V Rocket.
12/31/12 We visited the Galveston Island Aquarium at Moody Gardens. It is considered one of the largest aquariums in the U.S. The large tanks filled with various species were very impressive. Happy New Year's Eve!!
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