“Texas Sun”

Georgetown, Texas April 16 – April 20, 2024
Austin, Texas April 20 – April 24, 2024
Canyon Lake, Texas April 24 – April 28, 2024
San Antonio, Texas April 28 – May 5, 2024

Our first stop in Texas was Georgetown and the home of my good friend, Al Lewis. He and his wife moved here after hurricane Michael. We had dinner with him a couple of times and enjoyed touring the downtown. Upon his recommendation, we went to a cute restaurant in Georgetown for our anniversary (Wildfire). We stayed at a nice park and Ziva really enjoyed walking around. Georgetown was very cute, unfortunately we missed the Poppy Festival (maybe next time). We had fun with Al and he really likes living in Georgetown. I’m sure we will see him again. Thanks Al!

We then moved down to Austin and spent a few days seeing the sights. We loved the LBJ Presidential Library. The museum was informative and very well done. Our friend from Panama City, Michelle Guinn, recommended Terry Black’s Barbeque, so we stopped in and had some delicious barbeque. We saw people that piled on the meat – and ate all of it. We ordered three kinds of meat to share and still had to take home a “go box” because ours was huge! We did not see as many live bands as we wanted because we were a little under the weather, but we did see a couple and both were pretty good.

We then moved a little south to Canyon Lake near New Braunfels. This was a nice COE park and Ziva really enjoyed tooling around our site. Another Friend, Joe Chav, is from New Braunfels and made some recommendations. We took him up and walked around Gruene (pronounced Green) to take in the sights and hear live music. We thoroughly enjoyed Gruene. Thanks Joe!

Then it was on to San Antonio. I know, I know, you want to hear about the Alamo, but we did see other things besides the Alamo. We visited a small art museum – McNay Art Museum. I wanted to visit because the museum owns a Van Gogh (not a famous one – women in wheatfield) but unfortunately, the Van Gogh was not on display. I was very disappointed! Who does not display a Van Gogh?

We also visited five (including the Alamo) different missions. Missions were started in the early 1700s as a way for Spain to acquire new citizens. The missions provided housing, food, religion and protection of any who lived within the walls. The missions were built on the San Antonio river and later served as military forts. Four of the missions still have active churches.

Mission San Jose

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

Mission Concepcion

The last mission we visited was the Mission San Antonio De Velero (the Alamo). I will not bore you with the history of the Alamo, because most people know that all 200 defenders were killed by Santa Anna (president of Mexico at the time) and all the gruesome details. The park was very nice – although over run with school buses. Phil Collins (apparently a huge Alamo enthusiast) donated his entire collection of Alamo memorabilia for a special exhibit and he provides the audio for a description of the battle using the diorama (This was awesome!). I recommend visiting all of the missions including the Alamo.

Items from Phill Collins

We also visited the Riverwalk (the number one tourist attraction in Texas). We wandered the River Walk several times. The area is pretty touristy, but I (Steve was less enthused) enjoyed walking along the river.

Next stop Fredericksburg

“Texas Sun” by Khruangbin & Leon Bridges