San Antonio Confidential

The Alamo--Where the Legend of Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie Was Made!
(Click to enlarge.)

Before we left San Antonio, we went back into the city to photograph its most famous landmark: The Alamo. The light wasn't the greatest, but this Texas sight lived up to expectation in terms of what I had in my mind's eye. The Alamo--or Mission San Antonio de Valero--was the site of a Spanish mission and home to missionaries and Indian converts in the 1700s. In the 1800s, the Spanish stationed soldiers there who called it Alamo, meaning cottonwood. To read more about the key role this site played in the battle for Texas independence, go here. And to see a few more ho-hum pictures of the Alamo, as well as some of the lovely spring flowers surrounding the mission, see the slideshow.






Photo copyright: Janet Kincaid, 04/09

Missions Confidential

Mission San Juan y San Miguel
(Click image to enlarge.)

Leaving Louisiana behind, we continued westward and entered the great state of Texas. I wish I had a picture of the 14+ lanes of freeways and expressways and interchanges in and around Houston. That was some insane roadways, boys and girls! Houston is notorious for some of the worst traffic in the nation, but I think traveling through the area on a Saturday proved advantageous. We made it through and past this sprawling--and I do mean s...p...r...a...w...l...i...n...g--metropolis in no time. The destination for the day: San Antonio. The goal: to photograph the Alamo--scene of the battle for Texas independence from Mexico. Unfortunately, it was Fiesta San Antonio, which meant the streets around the Alamo were closed and traffic was horrific. So, we skipped the Alamo and went down to the southern end of the city to see the missions down there.

Mission Concepcion
(Click image to enlarge.)

Mission San Jose y San Miguel De Aguayo is "the queen of the missions" and begins a line of missions established by the Spanish in 1720 along the San Antonio river. We visited Mission San Juan and Mission Concepcion.




Photo copyright: Janet Kincaid, 04/09