San Antonio and Mustang Island

 Wednesday February 8 to Saturday February 11 - It was an hour and a half drive from Austin to San Antonio.  We're staying 4 nights at Guadalupe River State Park,which is about 50 minutes north of downtown San Antonio.  On Thursday morning we headed into San Antonio and we enjoyed exploring the Alamo and the River Walk.  We couldn't believe how big the River Walk was, There were lots of restaurants and shops and it seemed to be quite crowded even though it was a weekday afternoon.  Friday and Saturday were spent running errands (laundry and groceries) and hiking and biking around the park.  

The church at the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero)

Lunch on a bench

The iconic view of the Alamo

The River Walk from above

We found a quiet garden (with a pretty mural) for our daily crossword

Then more walking the River (lots of tourist boats on the river)

Interesting tunnels

and bridges

red velvet ice cream (and a mariachi band walking by?)

Tower of the Americas behind the sculpture.  The tower was built for the World's Fair in 1968

We stopped at the Buckhorn before heading home

quite the interesting spot for a beer

This deer had 78 points!

A beautiful night to cook outside.  We had unstuffed peppers

We walked down the hill from our campsite to watch the sunset over the hill and river

somebody has really thin blood

Our campsite at Guadalupe River SP

A hike down to the Guadalupe River

It seems like this area was hit even harder than Austin by the ice storm.  A lot of the hiking trails were closed due to downed branches

Sunday February 12 to Monday February 13 - Sunday we stopped at the San Antonio Mission National Historic Park on our way to Corpus Christi.  There are 5 Spanish missions all within 10 miles of each other and they are linked by the river walk.  You can go from the Alamo all the way to Mission Espada by bike. When we found this out we decided to get the bikes off the back of the van and use the bike trail to visit one of the missions.  It was a 3.5 mile ride from Mission San Juan to Mission San Jose.  The National Park Service has done a nice job with the sites and we learned a lot about the missions which are found all through Texas (and we've seen them in California as well).  The missions were a protected area to live, and the Spaniards of the missions taught the Native Americans how to live sedentary lives, taught them to be "civilized", and taught them about Christianity.  In Corpus Christie we're staying 3 nights at Mustang Island State Park, and will see what we can find to do in the area.   

Mission Espada (I loved the pretty door frame).  Each of the 3 missions we visited on Sunday were having Sunday mass.  The missions are maintained by the NP service and the churches are run by the Catholic church

Lots of interesting structures at the missions

Mission San Juan (this church wasn't as pretty as the other two, it had been a storage building at one point)

bike ride along the San Antonio River (still part of River Walk this far south of San Antonio)

Mission San Jose, the dome here is being reconstructed

the church at Mission San Jose

lunch along the river on our bike ride back to Mission San Juan

It was a 2.5 hour drive from Mission San Juan to Corpus Christi.  Looks like we're getting close to the gulf.

Our site at Mustang Island State Park.  Just over the sand dune behind Kev is the gulf.

Nachos while watching the Super Bowl

It was a beautiful sunrise our first morning at Mustang Island SP

We took our bikes to Port Aransas (15 minutes from our campground)

We took a 6 mile round trip bike ride down the Port Aransas beach

Then lunch with a view of the pier

We then rode our bikes into the town of Port Aransas.  Someone didn't want to walk up the steps in the observation tower

We were hoping to watch a tanker come through here, but all we saw were the ferries going back and forth

We rode our bikes to the Leonabelle Birding Center.  You know we can't pass up cut-outs.

We enjoyed the boardwalks at the birding center

and we were happy to see our first alligator!  He's a little hard to see, but he's there!

lots of birds (plovers and pelicans)

bench with a view

It got cloudy while we were gone.  Down the road from where we parked for the day, there is free camping on the beach. We will definitely try this next time we visit. (And free means you need a $12 beach parking permit-but it's a permit for the year!)

There is a woman in Port Aransas who has made all of these covers.  As we rode our bikes by, there was a woman who was brushing each of them off.  She said she is part of a group that keeps them clean.