Remember The Alamo!!!

We arrived in San Antonio on Thursday afternoon and by that evening we had signed up for a 7 hour bus tour the next day.  The tour included the Alamo, Riverboat Ride, Mission Concepcion and San Jose, Japanese Sunken Gardens, Buckhorn Saloon and Museum and Texas Ranger Museum and El Mercado, a kind of Mexican strip mall.  These are two of the pictures from the Alamo, one of the chapel and one of me in front of a beautiful Live Oak.  You can check out more on the Alamo at:
http://www.history.com/topics/alamo

We thought the Riverwalk was just beautiful.  So many restaurant's and shops and booths set up selling crafts and jewelry, we came back a couple of days after the bus tour to walk around and sight see some more.

Just some of the pictures we took at the missions.  There is a total of 4 Missions in San Antonio plus the Alamo.   Our bus tour stopped at the Alamo and 2 of the Missions, so the next day we drove to the other 2.  They were built in the early1700's and the chapels of all 4 of them are used as Catholic Churches today.  History buff Bruce couldn't get enough of them or put the camera down.  You can read more on the Missions at:
http://www.nps.gov/saan/index.htm

We ate dinner one night on the Riverwalk at this Brazilian Steakhouse.  It was a wonderful experience, something we had never done before, and the food was absolutely delicious!
Ten different types of meat brought to your table and sliced right off the skewer onto your plate.  I believe Bruce actually had a tear in his eye!

Well, this is what happens to you in Texas when you talk bad about George W!!

Well, after San Antonio, we are on our way to Carlsbad, New Mexico.  This picture was taken on a stop on our way in Fort Stockton.  They have this sculpture on the way into and out of this town.  Our campground happened to be right across the highway and we got this neat picture.

Yipee-ki-yay, we are headed out of Texas!!

Crabs, Shrimp, Wild Life, And What's For Dinner

Bruce's catch of the day, a stone crab!!  Fortunately, we were talking to a couple on the dock from North Carolina at the time he caught this, so they knew what it was and helped to get the hook out of it.  Trust me, they are strong!! (and stone crab claw was delicious!!) The Texas DNR says you are allowed to take the right claw then you must release the crab. Bruce says on our next trip to the Gulf we WILL have crab traps!

Spotted this little fella by the side of the road on our way back from town one day.  Believe they are called havelinas, the Texans call them skunk pigs. They are soooo cute at this size!!!

Just one of the beautiful birds we spotted.  We were afraid it would get a little boring if we posted all of the bird pics!

Never knew what we would see across the river.  There is a herd of cattle there that we saw occasionally and then one day we spotted the deer.

We got these wild caught shrimp at the grocery store, $7.00 a pound and there was like 16 shrimp per pound.  I thought Bruce was gonna cry with happiness!!

Those shrimp, along with Bruce's help, made a delicious spicy shrimp, cooked in a brown butter garlic sauce, taco dinner!!  Along with the jar of corn salsa we also found at the grocery, it was a wonderful dinner.
Don't really know how I am going to grocery shop when I get home after shopping at a chain of grocery stores here.  It's called HEB and it is only in Texas and Mexico.  They have fresh, made in the store tortilla's, a wonderful cake baked in their in store bakery, called Tres Leches (a type of sponge cake with 3 different milks poured over it then frosted with a whip cream frosting), cuts of meat you never see in a store at home, and a salsa and sauce aisle I thought I would never get Bruce out of!!  And speaking of sausage, we found Boudin sausage and are trying to figure out a way to get a years supply of it home and into our freezer!

And then, there was our buddy......On the way back out to the campground one day, this little fella on the side of the road at the river, was pointing at the ground and swinging his other arm in a circle.  Of course we had to stop and back up just to make sure he was ok.  Well, as it turns out, he was just wanting to show off his catch and we were the only people around!!  This was a drum fish and he said it took him about 45 minutes to land it.

We love stepping out of the camper at night and hearing the waves of the gulf crashing into the jetty off to our left, actually seeing the milky way, not the fuzzy, blurry strip we would sometimes see at home out in the country, but the individual stars, hearing what we think was a pack of coyotes feeding the pups across the river, and listening to the dolpin in the river breaking the surface and breathing.  It made us smile every time, but, it is time to move on.  Next stop San Antonio, the Alamo and the Missions.