Rough seas along the seawall
The Star Drug Store where teenagers met in the 60's
One of the many lovely downtown buildings
Shops along Strand Street
We wonder will it float in a Tsunami
Our flag is torn and faded after 2 years on the road
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Galveston, TX
Rough seas along the seawall
The Star Drug Store where teenagers met in the 60's
One of the many lovely downtown buildings
Shops along Strand Street
We wonder will it float in a Tsunami
Our flag is torn and faded after 2 years on the road
Corpus Christi and Galveston
Well to be honest...we parked RamblingRover in Port Aransas on the Padre Islands in
a lovely RV Park with just dunes between us and the beach. The weather was
perfect and the beach seemingly endless in both directions; we were advised to
walk to the beach only on the footbridges as
there are snakes and other vermin in the tall grass of the dunes,
signs of rabbits in the area was all we saw. We walked the beach each day, we were a little too late
one day and ended up searching for the footbridge off the beach in the dark,
eventually we found it – phew! We did not swim in the sea as there was ample
evidence of Man of War jelly fish on the beach. The beach is wide and is used
as a road by locals and fishermen; parking is allowed by permit (costs $12 for
a year) on the beach; all the fishermen use big trucks. The RV Park had a nice
pool allowing Adele to have her daily swim. We were so happy to be at the beach
we didn't leave it for the 3 days we were there. Still wonder why we’ve rented a
townhouse on the beach in Saint Augustine?
From there we took a ferry ride of maybe 300 yards on our way to
Galveston, what a difference we encountered in the weather - it was cold, windy
and stormy. The nighttime temperature was a low 40F (11C); as you can imagine
we had to get up and find blankets to cover us on the first night so next day we
decided to put on our winter duvet and electric blanket and this is Texas! It does
heat up during the day but we still need to wear warm cloths during the day. First
thing we did was head for the Visitors Center which is housed in an old
historic home, from there we crossed the road to the Rosenberg Library where
there’s an eclectic collection of items from peoples attics plus a history of
Galveston. Rosenberg donated the library and other places (at least one church)
to the town; he was a big benefactor to Galveston.
Galveston turned out to be a delightful surprise there’s so much to do
and see; the sea wall which is miles long is exhilarating to walk with lots to
see – the sea wall was erected and the Gulf side of the island was heightened
by 15 feet after the disastrous storm of September 8th 1900, one of the
"must do" things is to see the film of the disaster – a collage of old photos with
an informative narration. There were 6,000 people killed in Galveston alone and
over 8,000 in all. Having watched the movie it is amazing to us that so few
where killed in the recent storm that hit the Eastern seaboard, most notably New
Jersey and New York.
We had lunch in an old Diner called The Star Drug Store which brought
back fond childhood memories for Adele – when her parents toured the US by
Greyhound Bus in 1950 her mother was enthralled by the Diner/Drug Stores and on
her return converted part of their Galway family Hotel into a Diner which was a
huge success for many years and a very popular place for school kids to meet in
the afternoon and with late night revelers.
North of Broadway which is the dividing line between the rich and poor
areas there are many old elegant mansions. One we visited was the Bishops
Palace originally built by the Gresham family as their home. Needless to say it
was opulent and ornate with chandeliers, a stunning staircase, hardwood floors,
a Chapel and servants quarters; the design of the stone work on the outside was
striking and it had the prettiest chimneys we have ever seen. The Cathedral just
across the road was locked, however we were not perturbed as we knew we could go
to Mass on Sunday to view its splendor. After Mass went to an old hotel
on the seafront called Hotel Galvez to Facetime our English Grandchildren and
check the brunch. A lady was playing the grand piano in the large foyer; brunch
was $35 per person so we decided that as we were not that hungry we would take another
walk on the seawall. We had an excellent lunch in a restaurant called Fish
Tails that cost $35 dollars for the two of us. On our way back to the RV Park we
visited Moody Gardens which has three large glass pyramids of different colors and
discovered that it is an amusement theme park, very Disneyworld and decided to
give it a miss. There were plenty of tourists around the town and on the beach
even though the weather was quite cold and the sea angry and rough. Many surfers
were in the water but the waves are nothing as compared to those we’re used to
in Santa Cruz. Along the roadway between Galveston and the RV Park there are
many big holiday homes built up on 12ft stilts - we think it’s a case of which would
one prefer to have your house swept by a hurricane or washed away by a tidal
wave!
Now for a little bit of a history lesson Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (c.1490-c.1560) was born in
Jeréz de la Frontera, Spain to a noble family. In 1527 he joined an expedition
to explore the Gulf of Mexico during which three boats were lost with
significant loss of life including the expedition leader Narváez. Others who
landed died of starvation or Indian attack however, Cabeza de Vaca and a few
companions survived. They landed finally at a place thought to be Galveston Island, Texas which they named the Island of
Misfortune. From 1529 to 1534 Cabeza de
Vaca and these others lived a meager life with the Karankawa Indians in a
state of semi-slavery and often separated from each other. During this time
Cabeza de Vaca took advantage of his slight medical skills and remade himself
as a healer. He explored this small section of the East Texas coast in hopes of
finding a way to Mexico and its Spanish colonies. In 1534 he and the other
Spanish survivors started west across Texas for Mexico. With the help of many Native
Americans along the way, they crossed the Pecos and Colorado rivers and made
their way towards Spanish outposts. Despite the arduous trip, Cabeza de Vaca
continued to note the wonders of the American west and the inhabitants’
impressive survival skills. Finally they turned south, moving inland. In April
1536 a Spanish slaving party found the four Spaniards. In all, it took nine
years from the start of the expedition for Cabeza de Vaca to arrive in Mexico
City.
A couple of hundred years later it was Jean Lafayette (Lafitte) the
prince of pirates who swashbuckled his way around Galveston island where he set
up his headquarters camp which he called Campeche. Merchant ships wisely avoided
this area. Saturday, November 17, 2012
San Antonio,TX
The Alamo
The Church at the Alamo
River Walk
Checking out a menu
A beautiful home in the King William area
The altar in San Fernando Cathedral on the plaza
The still active church at Mission San Jose;
remains of the Abbey are behind the church
Indian quarters...part of the mission/village wall facing inwards
California visit
Tennis party at Loreta's
Cearull, Adele and Sairsha
Tom and Sairsha
Cian, Granny and Caleb..quack, quack!
Caleb enjoying "horsey" with Granny
Kilian and Tom
A seasonal latte
Monday, November 12, 2012
San Antonio
The short version: Mexico fought
a war with Spain to gain its independence and become a democracy, when Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna was elected President of Mexico he declared
himself a Dictator and ruled as such. At that time Texas (a province of Mexico
known as Tejas) was populated by democracy
loving Mexicans and numerous immigrants from Germany, France, Ireland, England,
Wales, Scotland and American who had moved to Tejas to live their “dream”
clearly, they did not want to live under a Dictator. To understand
the battle at Alamo one must appreciate its strategic context in the Texas
Revolution. In December 1835 a Federalist army of Texan (or Texian as they were
called) immigrants, American volunteers and their Tejano allies had captured
the town from the Mexican Centralist force during the siege of Bexar. In
response Santa Anna raised an army of over 7,000 men with the objective of
retaking Bexar and crushing the “rebels” in San Antonio. There were about 250
brave men in Mission San Antonio de Valero who were vastly outnumbered. After
days of pounding the Mission with cannon fire, on Sunday March
6 at around 5:00 A.M. Santa Anna hurled his columns at the battered walls from
four directions. Texan gunners stood by their artillery. As about 1,800 assault
troops advanced into range, canister ripped through their ranks. Staggered by
the concentrated cannon and rifle fire, the Mexican soldiers halted, reformed,
and drove forward. Soon they were past the defensive perimeter. Abandoning the
walls, defenders withdrew to the dim rooms of the Long Barracks; there some of
the bloodiest hand-to-hand fighting occurred. The chapel fell last. By dawn the
Centralists had overcome the mission defenders. The assault had lasted no more
than ninety minutes. As many as seven defenders survived the battle, but Santa
Anna showing no mercy ordered their summary execution. The rest of the story is that a now emboldened Santa
Anna decided to chase all rebels, led by Colonel Sam Huston, out of Tejas
however at the battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna was soundly defeated by Huston’s
forces and Texas declared itself an independent country. Texas remained an independent
country for 10 years and remains very proud of this time in its history.
After our visit to the Alamo we took a walk along The Riverwalk which lives up
its reputation of a great tourist attraction, it is a lovely place to while
away several hours along its picturesque banks. We think that Oklahoma City copied
the idea for its redevelopment of their Bricktown district in their city center.
Strolling along the walk we came across an Irish Pub and had lunch of smoked salmon
and brown bread, then after lunch we took a boat tour and did some shopping. We
interrupted our visit to San Antonio to head for California and Vancouver BC. 0n
our return we spent another day in San Antonio and walked along the river to the
historic King William Area and had lunch at Guenther House Museum the former
home of the Guenther Family whose mill is still in operation next door.
Afterwards we drove south to Mission San Jose which was a big surprise; the
church remains in daily use, the surrounding village compound is intact and
provides a view of just how large these missions were with large gates on two
sides, almost like an ancient city with a few industries and farming outside
the walls. Native Americans were housed along the inside wall in two roomed
homes, with beehive ovens outside their doors. Dotted throughout the compound
were wells for water, farrier and carpenter shops; we were enthralled by it
all.
One night Adele decided to upgrade her iPad and it crashed; so we had to search
for an Apple Store and found one in the fantastic La Cantera Shopping Center;
we ended up spending a wonderful evening there - it is an outdoor shopping
center with very elaborate, tall shelters providing daytime shade, there were
fountains and water features all beautifully done. And, yes the iPad problem was
resolved.
The town of Boerne was very busy
at weekends, once again we saw antique cars, the shops sold antiques and there
were many restaurants and a lovely old hotels which Adele managed to get a tour
upstairs and downstairs.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Our visit to California and Vancouver, BC
Two weeks after we returned from England we were back in the air, this time
flying to California principally to meet Sairsha Alice the latest addition to
our family as well as to see as many of our Los Gatos and Saratoga friends as
possible. In Los Gatos we stayed with Anjali and Amit who recently joined the
club of empty nesters - one close by and one very far away. The tennis group
had a party for Adele and it was nice for her to see all the familiar faces and
catch up on news and events. That same afternoon Adele had a Doctor’s visit, of
course her cholesterol was high and so was her blood pressure!
We spent a
long weekend with Cearull, Leslie and Sairsha Alice. Sairsha was born 10 weeks
early in July her due date was September 30th we were all worried when
she was born so early weighing only two lbs but since then she has never
looked back; from the minute she was born she was feeding and fighting
(Fighting Irish!) she is a lovely little girl who cries little and feeds well.
We baby sat while Leslie and Cearull had a meal out; Tom who is very good with
babies held Sairsha every opportunity he got and loved it. It was lovely to
stay and dote on Sairsha day after day.
From there we
returned to Los Gatos for a few more days and once again it was a whirlwind of
activities with friends. Adele managed to fit in a bridge day and see all her
bridge friends. We took a stroll down Santa Cruz Avenue to where the Butter
Paddle Shop had moved from Saratoga and while passing by Adele met one of her
former co-volunteers – in she went - it was party day so quite a few volunteers
were there so Adele saw many of her friends. We had dinner engagements most
nights in friend’s homes – the Romans, Variots and Johnsons - where we were
wined and dined in style. On our last night Anjali made a delicious authentic Indian
meal for us.
Vancouver,
Canada was our next destination to visit Adele's three brothers. We have certainly
experienced several different climates in the last few two months with Vancouver
adding its rainy season. We relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, had one beautiful
day when four of us, Adele, Tom, John and Tom took a walk along the estuary from
Kitsilano to the Olympic Village via Granville Island and then returned on a
little ferry boat. Most days we ignored the weather and exercised at the
Arbutus Club where Adele’s brother Larry had signed us in as his guests. While
there we celebrated the fact that all the Cheevers siblings are now in their
60s - the question is will they all make it into their 70s?
On November 1st we flew back to Dallas, our flight arrived in the late evening and as our RV was in San Antonio we stayed the night in a hotel. The RV has been in Texas since August 30th; this is a big state and we need to get moving.
On November 1st we flew back to Dallas, our flight arrived in the late evening and as our RV was in San Antonio we stayed the night in a hotel. The RV has been in Texas since August 30th; this is a big state and we need to get moving.
Austin, Texas
Dome of State Capitol
State emblem depicting heritage of Texas
Painting in State Senate Chamber by Irishman Henry Arthur McArdle
Austin mansion
On a Duck Tour
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