San Antonio-Revisited

We decided since it was a beautiful day yesterday, it would be nice to go to San Antonio for the day. We were there in early January when the temperatures weren't too great, and the River at the Riverwalk was being cleaned. So it was kind of a mess there, and we originally planned on going back there when the weather improved and staying at a campground there. Our plans changed and we are staying at Canyon Lake which is only about 50 miles away.

So, we got there in time for a lunch at Rita's Mexican Restaurant at the Riverwalk. We also wanted to go to the Marketplace, which is a Mexican market where they sell everything and anything. It was quite a walk from the Riverwalk to this place, so we really got our exercise and were pretty tired at the end of the day.


There were lots of different stores inside and out.

Lots of pretty things here. It's a good thing I don't have room for any more stuff!

Shirts, purses, you name it........They have it!

I thought this was an interesting display!

See, they even have a food line with my name on it!

As we were taking the steps to the Riverwalk look who is here sitting on her nest. She totally ignored us, so it was easy to snap a picture.

As you can see, the Riverwalk is much nicer and cleaner than it was in January. We took a boat ride while there. See the boat in the background. They have several of these boat and they run continuously throughout the day.

Check out this picture, I took it as we were on the boat going under a bridge and looking up. When you look up at it, you will see it looks like a card standing on end with no sides. However, it is just an optical illusion! Very interesting to see in person. They pointed it out to us while we were on the boat ride. We went back to look at it from the walkway and it still appeared that way.

Visit to New Braunfels

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday. It actually got up into the 80's! Al and I decided to take a ride to New Braunfels. We had heard it was a nice town to visit, and we needed a couple of things at the store anyway. New Braunfels is a little German Town, population 40,000+. We walked around the downtown area which was busy for a weekday. We found it to have unique little shops and some nice architecture. The Gazebo in the center of town was barricaded off for some reason, so you couldn't go to the cute little park that was there.

This is the County Courthouse. I just loved this building. It reminded me of some buildings back East, except for the top which appeared to be more of a Spanish influence. If you look to the left of the building, this is the annex of the Courthouse. I thought it was interesting that they would choose red brick as this building was actually attached to the Courthouse.

When we first arrived we parked right across the street from the New Braunfels Railroad Museum. As our luck always seems to be, it is only opened from Thursdays through Mondays and is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So, we were unable to go in. We did, however walk around the outside and were able to get a few neat pictures.

Here is the Steam Locomotive! There is something majestic about these old trains that are so lacking in the more modern ones.

Now, to us, this is the most significant picture of all! If you can't see what the sign says, click on the picture for a better look. Railway Express Agency, which is no longer in business, is where Al's father worked for many, many years. In fact, Al worked there with his father for a short time before going into the service, and then again after he got out for a year or two. We are always looking for any memorabilia of Railway Express, and seldom find anything these days, so we thought it was pretty neat!

Potter's Creek Campground on Canyon Lake, TX

View of Canyon Lake

That's us from roadway taken from our truck

Can you see the sailboat?

This is a group camping area. Three sites are linked together. Good for families and friends.

Overlooking some of the campsites

I took this picture when we first arrived, standing in our doorway looking out.

We arrived here on Wednesday. It was a nice drive from Brazos Bend and we saw some pretty country on our way as well as when we arrived here. We had checked this place out when we were in San Antonio 4 years ago. It seemed a little remote, but we loved the scenery here. This is a Corp of Engineer Campground, and we get to stay here for $9.00 per night (sometimes it pays to be considered a senior). Not bad for such beauty that surrounds us, is it? We are about 50 miles from San Antonio and less than 25 miles from two other rather large cities, San Marcos and New Braunfels.

Yesterday, we took a ride to San Marcos, as we knew they had a Sam's Club and there were a few things we wanted to pick up. Al needed to go to Lowe's and an auto supply store as well. I managed to do a little shopping for myself, something I don't get to do much lately. Before coming home, we stopped and had dinner at Johnny Carino's, an Italian chain restaurant. Al liked it better than Olive Garden for his favorite dish, Chicken Parmeson.

With the price of our campsite being so reasonable, and our need to conserve at least a little, we decided we will stay here until the rally. We are leaving here and going to Kerrville on March 15. After the rally we will head back to San Angelo on March 24. We get another chance to see the grandkids, and of course their mom and dad, whom we also love dearly. We got a good dose of them for the 6 weeks we stayed there through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, but we would like to see them again before heading home.

Thought you might like to see some pictures of the campground and the lake here. Pictures never quite capture it. There appears to be a hundred or more campsites here and they are nicely spaced apart. Most have lake views, and some (including ours) are right on the water.

Brazos Bend State Park

Here is our campsite....nice and level

One of the cute little baby alligators!

Yikes! This is a Western Pigmy Rattlesnake! Glad he's not running around!

Warning sign! They also tell you if you have a dog, keep on a very short leash!

Doesn't this look peaceful! (Great Egret)

This is the path we walked on where we spotted the alligators!

I think this was the largest of the three alligators we spotted.
(we weren't that close, across the pond, but I zoomed in and then croped the photos)

This alligator was in close proximity to the other alligator

Can you see the turtle?

This one is a little harder to capture on camera even though we were closer to it! We didn't want to get too close!

We left Galveston Island on Sunday and headed just 60 miles northwest to a state park not far from Houston. Brazos Bend State Park is not like any park we have ever stayed at. Wayne and Julie told us about this place and suggested we might enjoy seeing all the wildlife here, and in particular, the alligators. Brazos Bend is a paradise for nature lovers. They have a nature center here that is run primarily by volunteers, so we headed there first. They had several venomous snakes and some baby alligators there. We even saw a tarantula. All these critters were live, so I'm really glad they were in glass enclosures. The baby alligators were adorable. They were born in August. We talked to the ranger there and he suggested which trails to take and where to look for alligators. Not only are there alligators here, but all kinds of wildlife.

We went on a couple of different trails. The first one we saw mostly birds, but we enjoyed the scenery. It was so peaceful walking on the paths and just being surrounded by all the sounds of the different birds. We stopped home for lunch and then headed out on another trail, where there were supposed to be alligators. We were told they like to come out on the banks of the pond and lay in the sun. Since it was a sunny day, we had hopes of seeing at least a few. We didn't have to go far and we saw two in fairly close proximity to each other. One was fairly large and the other one was huge.

We headed back to our truck and saw another couple headed out on the path we just came from. We told them about the two alligators we found, and they told us about another one not too far from where we were. I'm sure we could have found more, but we figured three was enough for one day.

We had a nice time today. We also are enjoying our campsite here. This is very peaceful, and our campsite is very spacious. We are just relaxing tonight and getting ready to hit the road tomorrow. We will be headed to Canyon Lake and staying at a COE park there.

Johnson's Space Center

Arriving at The Space Center Houston

Nose of Space Shuttle displayed in Visitor's Center

Inside the Shuttle

The Orion Space Suit worn by the astronauts

The Historical Mission Control Center (Best I could do because of the lighting)

Looking through glass at the Space Mockup Training Facility

Picture from the tram approaching Rocket Park

The Saturn V Rocket in sections for display

Here at Galveston Island, we aren't far from the Johnson's Space Center in Houston. Less than and hour from here, it was a nice adventure for the better part of a day. So, yesterday we left here late morning and arrived there around 11:30 am. We figured since they were opened until 5pm, we would easily be able to take in everything in one day. Well, we were wrong. We could have purchased a yearly pass for just a few dollars more, but we aren't sure when we will be back in the area again.

We arrived at the Visitor's Center called "Space Center Houston" and walked around to see what there was to do first and decided on The Starship Gallery and watched a film titled "On Human Destiny" This film was very good as an introduction to the space program. It brought you through the various stages in space exploration through the years. Watching the first walk on the moon again was so much fun. The astronauts were practically dancing up there (well jumping around would be more acurate). One part that was particularly chilling was the Challenger exploding and the reaction of those that were at Mission Control when it happened. These are trained professionals and you could see the shock and saddness on their faces. I think we all know where we were when this happened.

We went on a Tram Tour that took us to through Nasa's Johnson Space Center. Before getting on the tram we had to empty all our phones, cameras, wallets, watches, purses etc into a container (much like at the airport). Al had a large western belt buckle and he had to remove it from his belt. When you think about the fact that there are thousands of employees at Nasa, you realize the necessity for this type of security. Once we got on the Tram, we were on our way to Mission Control. This was the Mission Control that was used in the earlier days. It is now considered the "Historical Mission Control"as it has now been replaced with a more modern Mission Control. We didn't get to visit the current one for some reason, and I had read that that was supposed to be included. It was pretty amazing to be there and know all the things that happened there during the early days of space exploration.

Our next visit was to the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. Here is where the astronauts train. For obvious reasons, they can't do their training up in space, so there are various types of equipment that duplicates the space experience. It was quite an elaborate operation. I can't imagine the billions of dollars that went into this facility, let alone on the real thing.

Our next stop was to the Saturn V Complex at Rocket Park. The man who gave us the presentation was a retired Rocket Scientist. The rocket he showed us was a 3 Stage Rocket and was actually to be used as Apollo 18. Unfortunately, Apollo 18 will never happen do to the fact that the program ran out of money.

The Auto Tram tour was supposed to take 1 1/2 hrs, but we were actually gone for 2 1/4 hrs. All in all it was a very good tour and we learned a lot about our space program. When we got back to the Vistors area, we were tired and it was almost 4pm, so we looked around at some more displays and decided to call it a day. We would like to go back maybe next year or the year after and see all the things we missed.

Galveston Island State Park

Path to the beach from our campsite

Galveston Island Beach

Our campsite with Cabana

We arrived here on Saturday, and it was cool and windy. Wind is a big thing here in Texas, no matter where you go. Yesterday was a nice fairly sunny day, so we went out to the beach, and I picked up some sea shells. Then we headed into town, and stopped and got a few groceries. We checked out an Italian Restaurant that looked good, and decided we would go there tonight! I have been dying for some good Italian food since we left New York over 4 months ago. We did find a place in Rockport that had great pizza (NY style).

One nice thing here is, you can see the ocean from our campsite, and the sound of the waves lull you to sleep at night. Unfortunately, this place was severely damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. They used to have many more sites near the beach, and now I would estimate there are only about 25% of them remaining. It is sad to drive around the area and see signs for Restaurant's and businesses with nothing remaining other than some concrete. Many places have been rebuilt in a relatively short period of time! There are also many beautiful homes that appear to be new.

It's been a rough year for Texas as far as the weather goes. I guess it's been the same for many southern destinations. It still beats battling the ice and snow and frigid cold temperatures at home. We really don't mind cold as much, as long as there is sunshine! Regardless, we are having a really great time.

On Thursday, we plan to go to the Johnson's Space Center in Houston. It is only 25 miles from here. That will be another blog, that's for sure.

Back home we are excited about our new little grandson, Christopher. Unfortunately, we will have to wait to meet him in April. We miss all the grandchildren back home, but before we know it, we will be back to our former life in New York. It's nice to look forward to things. We will always look forward to going home, and we will always look forward to our travels. Life is good!

Blessing Hotel Coffeeshop, Blessing, TX

Sign at side entrance of Hotel

Buffet set-up

Here are the two wood stoves keeping the hot food warm

Front entrance of hotel

Front desk of Hotel

We left Goose Island, feeling very sad. We loved it there, loved the friendly people, the scenery and the peacefulness. But, it was time to go. So we said goodbye to Wayne and Julie, and headed toward Galveston Island. Wayne had suggested that we should stop in Blessing which is right on our way. They have a very unique little place called "The Blessing Hotel and Coffee Shop." He told us all about it and it sounded like a great idea and I just knew it would be good "Blog Material!"

It was almost noon when we got there. We weren't sure what door to go in, so we went in the side door where there was a sign for the coffee shop. Upon entering we saw tables with lots of people sitting at them and a buffet-type set up. There were two old wood stoves, that reminded me of a stove my grandmother used to have. On top of the two stoves were lots of pans with steam coming out of them. Next to the stoves there was a long table with salads, fruits, bread etc. Beverages and desserts were set up on another table. No one came up to us to greet us, so we just stood there and took it all in until one of the guests hollered out to us, "Just git yerself a plate and help yerself!" So, we did!

The food was wonderful. Southern cooking at it's finest! I don't know how they do it, but Southerners have a way of making vegetables taste the best! I went back for seconds on the vegetables. There were three meat dishes, many vegetables, potatoes and gravy, rice, etc. This was all made from scratch. For just $8.50 the beverage and dessert was included and you can go back for as much as you want.

There were lots of bikers there as well as local people, but people come from all over to this restaurant, according to the owner. I chatted with her after the meal and she gave me a brief history lesson. She told me that until 1983 the guests helped themselves to the food right off the stoves in the kitchen. However, the health department stepped in and they were no longer allowed to do this. They now cook in the kitchen on more modern stoves, but use these wood stoves to keep the food hot. This restaurant has been featured in Southern Living Magazine and has had many things written about it in the papers.

The hotel was built in 1906 by Jonathan Pierce. who also founded the town. According to different records I have read, Mr Pierce wanted to name the town "Thank God" because two railroads intersected there. The post office decided against it so he named the town "Blessing" instead. The hotel is still open for business.