The Alamo

Well Our time in Arizona had to come to an end. We drove back down south to visit our friends in Louisiana and then later back to Grandmas in Alabama. On our way back we stopped in Texas to visit the Alamo. A place my Mom has wanted to go to for years. After driving several times around the blocks in the center of the city we finally found a place to park. We put our quarters in the meter and walked about three blocks to our destination.

This is the first view I got of the Alamo.

It was very disappointing to find that the Alamo, the place where that grand battle was fought, was in the middle of the city with tall office buildings towering above just on the other side of the street. I had always envisioned it being in the middle of the desert With remains of the compound and not just the little church building. I always thought of it as way out in the open where it would easy to imagine the struggle that took place there. No such thing here. The dusty ground in my imagination with cacti growing and tumbleweeds blowing was covered over in roads and sidewalks. Cars drove over the "sacred" ground of my imagination leaving exhaust fumes in the air. It was really a let down.




Even the stone building in the foreground is not original. It was added later by the Daughter of the Texas Revolution, I think it was. I am not exactly sure on the name of the organization I have forgotten it. But I do know they built it as part of an effort to preserve the Alamo. It was supposed to be the long houses but they had no knowledge of what it looked like and they sacrificed historical fact  for style. (the windows and other things)



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We didn't start our tour at the Alamo itself. First we went to a museum nearby that gave a history of the area. A large display table had a model of what the Alamo looked like originally. It was actually quite a large place and not just the one church building. It was originally a mission place. No pictures or recordings of the model was aloud (don't ask me why) so I can't post any here. :(

After the little museum We began our tour of the Alamo. It was very crowded that day but even with all the noise when I stepped into the stone church building it felt special to me. It had a certain air about it that made me want to walk quietly and just look. Although it looked small on the outside it felt very big on the inside. Again no pictures were aloud of the inside of the building so I have none to share. :(

When finished looking around on the inside of the building we went back outside. There was an audio tour offered so we took our little black wands and hung them over our necks. Numbers on signs corresponded with our black stick and we punched them in to hear what they had to say about that particular spot.



The baby had a long day. Isn't he sweet? :)

We saw all there was to see and then headed over to the gift shop. There were no pictures aloud in the gift shop (What is with this camera ban?) although there were some interesting display tables of the battle with little men swarming over the miniature field. We bought post cards and two books of the history of the Alamo. The author was doing a book signing so we had our signed "To The Freedom Loving ------- Family Best Wishes and God's Blessings, Dean Kirkpatrick Signed at the Alamo January, 2012" We had the other book signed in the same way but addressed to our friends in Louisiana.

By the time we were done at the Alamo we were hungry so we headed over to Chipotle Mexican Grill for a late lunch. Yummy, healthy food, where I don't have to worry about what's in it. :)

I am sorry for all these posts being in a wacky order. It gets kinda hard to keep up with everything when your on a trip. Things happen so fast. :)