Sun, Water, and birds.....

The beach was very nice, and basically very deserted. But we didn't have any beach essentials so we opted for enjoying the water and sun by our pool. But, to our disgust, so did the seagulls. No swimming for us, the seagulls spent alot of time in there! But we enjoyed a couple glasses of wine as we soaked up that beautiful Texas sun. We both got our share of sunburn, Dave more than I as he has an aversion to sunscreen...

Across the street from our hotel was a restaurant called Blackbeards. It was nice, we simply wandered across the street for our seafood dinner. Dave was happy to have his oysters. Ugh...

Texas Gulf Coast

On to the Gulf Coast. We took a nice long drive this morning from San Antonio. We planned to spend a couple days at the beach. Our book pointed out Port Aransas, which is the north end of Mustang Island. So instead of going south to Padre Island, we decided to go north. Or so we thought. We drove and drove and took the ferry across the bay to Port Aransas and looked for the hotel we had picked out. Well, I wish that pelican (above) would have told us that we were going the wrong way. Anyway, we ended up in Corpus Christie on Padre Island! So we had driven in a big circle, after having driven all the way from San Antonio. For a break, we decided to take a tour of the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier "museum" that is sitting in the bay. It is a self guided tour, very interesting! They let you roam through the bowels of the ship. Pretty small quarters for all those Navy men and women.

While up on deck we looked on the beach and saw a row of hotels. I pointed at the Radisson and said, that is where we are staying tonight! We just didn't want to drive anymore! So we went to the hotel and talked down the price of a very nice room, beachside. We stayed 2 days.

The Alamo

The Alamo was another place on Dave's "must visit" list. A number of people told us it was no big deal, but we very much enjoyed it and felt it was worth the visit. There are so many artifacts and so much information is available about early Texas and the fight for independence from Mexico.

Ahh, San Antonio!

San Antonio was our next stop. We read our book about a Comfort Inn in San Antonio that is a remodeled old Bexar County Jail building. After driving around the roads around and around (due to a lot of diagnal/one way streets...) we finally found our hotel. The staff there was friendly and very helpful. We parked our car and walked. We were only about 8 blocks from the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The weather was warm and very humid. This is a photo in the room. You can't tell from the photo, but the bars on the windows are still visible on the outside.



















Our favorite spot was the River Walk. It was so nice to walk up and down the river banks. It is full of stores, restaurants, and plenty of places to just sit and watch people. We took the boat tour, which was about a one hour trip all around the river walk. We learned that Texas is the only state in the United States that can fly the state flag all by itself. We were told this is because Texas is the only state that used to be a country. Which brings us to our next stop, the Alamo.

Austin

After we left Fort Worth we headed south to Austin. Austin is the capitol of Texas and very similar to Madison. We enjoyed it, staying just a block away from the Capitol building. We had read all about the millions of bats that come to Austin and roost under the Congress Street Bridge. They come out every night around dusk and eat insects. Well, that was one thing we wanted to experience. So, we read up about genuine BBQ's and find there is one just a couple blocks from our hotel that is one of the best. So, we head there and find out it is closed. Texas is "dry" on Sunday, and so alot of the restaurants close. Our second choice is one that is called the Salt Lick. It was down the road about 20 miles. It was so delicious. Smelled good, tasted good, everything!

This is a photo of the BBQ pit. They specialized in beef brisket, pork ribs and sausage.

Because we went so far out in the country for our dinner, we got back after dark. We didn't get to experience the bats. Apparently boats float under the bridge and lite it up, making the bats visible.

I guess we will have to put that on our to-do list for our next trip to Texas.

Fort Worth

I love Fort Worth and the Stockyards! I get the true Western feel down there. I had been there many years ago when the kids were little. I enjoyed it just as much this time. There is a cowboy with his longhorn "parked" for visitors to see. I swear it is the same cowboy who was there all those years ago. We enjoyed the round up of the longhorns down the middle of town.



The weather was perfect for walking around, warm, but the sun wasn't out very bright.
Dave and I ate a beef brisket sandwich at Risky's BBQ in the stockyards. We shopped around all the shops. I found some little pink boots and a pink cowboy hat that I knew I had to get for Savannah. I decided to wait to buy them. But all week long all I could think about was those boots. We never saw them again in all the cities we visited so we made another stop back to the Stockyards on Friday before we left for home.

Dallas

On Dave's to-do list was to visit Dallas and the GrassyKnowll where President Kennedy was shot and killed in 1963. Here is a photo of the Book Depository where President Kennedy's assassin stood in the window of the 6th floor.

The X on the ground is the exact place the President was when he will killed. Luckily we went to Dallas on Sunday. The downtown was a very pretty, clean city.