Lisette woke up early, taking advantage of our stay at the RV Park to make breakfast, do her nails and clean inside. Yay to productive mornings!
The Missions of San Antonio
Check-out time at RV parks is usually 11am, and we went to see the Missions in San Antonio, which are five Spanish colonial missions built in the 1700s to expand Spanish territory and convert local Native Americans to Christianity (the Native Americans also had to build the missions). The five missions are called Mission San José, Mission Concepción, Mission San Juan, Mission Espada, and the famous Mission San Antonio de Padua, also known as the Alamo. The missions make up the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has preserved these stone churches, historic irrigation systems, and original frescoes. It's possible to walk or bike along a trail to explore all five missions.
Our first visit was to Mission San Jose, often called the “Queen of the Missions." It's the largest of the missions and was founded in 1720. It didn't seem that we could enter the mission, but on the outside we saw striking features including the famous Rose Window (an intricately carved stone window with detailed floral and scroll designs, believed to be in memory of the craftsman's lost love). There's a separate building to learn more about the history of this mission and see some artifacts, and another one that shows its gristmill (the oldest mill in Texas). The mission once housed over 300 people, and it's quite pleasant to stroll around the grounds as well.
We drove to see the next mission, Mission Concepcion. It's the oldest unrestored stone church in the United States, completed in 1755, and still an active church today. Besides the church, there's also a food storehouse where crops including sugarcane, beans, corn, chili, squash and tobacco were kept, with the intertwining of cultures creating the cuisine that Texas is known for today. We could also see some of the original frescoes peeping through some of the walls, which we could imagine would have been vibrant colors of yellow, red and other earthy tones back in the day. It had started to rain while we were here, so we dashed back to the RV before we got completely saturated.
San Antonio's Mexican Heritage
We stopped by the World's Largest Virgin Mary Mosaic, which appears on the side of building. It's a 4-story mosaic created by artist Jesse Trevino, a Vietnam vet and prolific artist whose work depicting religious icons and Mexican American history can be seen all over the city.
A 5-minute drive away is the Historic Market Square, a 3-block outdoor plaza lined with shops and restaurants that transported us to Mexico, with the traditional, colorful and intricate banners ("Papel Picado") hanging above us. Here, stores sold everything from cheap cowboy hats to a huge range of canned beers.
A short 5-minute walk away is the San Fernando Cathedral, the oldest continuously functioning church in Texas, whose original walls date back to around 1750. It was built by Canary Island settlers alongside the Presidio de San Antonio. There are mass services each day at the church, and apparently at dusk there's a free 24-minute light and sound show that celebrate's San Antonio's rich history. We had to take turns to go in and check it out the pretty church so that someone could stay outside with Sheila. Lisette went in after Michael, and while she wasn't in the church for a long time, it started to rain again, and we were briefly caught out without an umbrella, with Michael and Sheila not having any shade apart from the leaves of the tree above them. Fortunately Sheila didn't really end up smelling like wet dog since we'd just recently washed her!
San Antonio River Walk
A level down from the street traffic is the San Antonio River Walk, a really part of the city that has a pedestrian-only path, shops and restaurants lining both sides of the San Antonio River. It's almost like Venice with its canals and bridges to get from one side to another. But instead of gondolas, there are bigger river boats for groups of tourists to ride along and have a guide sail and talk them through the history of the area.
One of the iconic pedestrian bridges along the river is Rosita's Bridge, dedicated to the Mexican-American singer and actress Rosita Fernandez who was famous throughout the 1940s to 1960s, and who helped to popularize Tejano or "Tex-Mex" music. The sign at the base of the bridge is now partially obstructed by plants so we had a bit of trouble finding it and asked someone working at a restaurant, but it doesn't seem like even locals know the names and histories of the bridges! To be fair, it didn't look too different from the other foot bridges in the area.
The bridge is right by an open-air amphitheater facing a stage, and going up the stairs is the La Villita Historic Village, with about 30 or so art galleries and shops in a square block. The village is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places. We weren't looking to shop, but there is some cute artwork here, including a couple of Calacas (Day of the Dead statues found in Mexico) sitting and chilling in front of a building, with a chair in between them, perfect to pose with them for a photo, of course!
Let's Have a Party in the Library
A cool (we mean for both meanings: great and not warm!) stop was the San Antonio Central Library, to see the Fiesta Towers, a lofty mass of multicolored glass forms all hand-blown in vibrant colors, movements, and features. It's in the interior atrium of the library, and is by Washington artist Dale Chihuly. It has such an endearing messages as well, as each piece of glass represents the multicultural qualities of the San Antonio community and the role the Central Library plays in the lives of its people. We didn't spend too long in the library, but it seems like a great one to hang out in, as there are numerous other art pieces scattered around the multi-level library, and did we mention that they were cranking out the air-conditioning when we were there?
Mirror, Mirror, Not on the Wall
While we've been on the road, we've been on all sorts of roads, from dirt gravel to bumpy highways that have melted from the heat, and everything in between. Even the smoothest looking of highways can turn out to be bumpy!
Since we've been driving our home, we've had our fair share of cringes, winces, and yelps as our RV has leaped into the year from an unmarked speed bump, rattled along corrugated road and cattle guards, and slammed heavily into potholes. Because of this, the full-length mirror that we'd attached to the back of the bathroom door would occasionally slide off, and we'd have to slide it back on. It didn't help that the door isn't solid, as it's made from thin particle board. Well, after repeatedly trying to slide it back onto its hooks, it had finally slid so far that upon opening the bathroom door, the mirror showed a massive crack at the top, where it had hit the sink area. What a bummer, as Lisette loves her full-length mirror! But we didn't want to risk it shattering further and had to get rid of it, and Lisette will have to do with the 1/2 length bathroom mirror for the rest of the trip.
Whataburger was a Nothing Burger
We didn't feel like cooking and heating up the RV, so while Lisette had a salad, Michael ordered from Whataburger, a fast food chain that we've been seeing across a lot of states that seems to be particularly popular in Texas. After a long, long wait, he finally got his burger, fries and drink. Michael's review? It's a very average burger with nothing special about it (no incredible sauce, fantastic burger bun or anything of the sort), the fries were average, and the drink was in a non-recyclable styrofoam container. Plus there were no vegetarian burger options for Lisette to try. In short, we won't be ordering from here again, and are still befuddled as to why it's so popular. Maybe because they're open 24 hours? *Shrugs*
In the evening, we found a side street right near the San Antonio River Walk. It was still over 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) outside at 9pm but cooking in our RV; we were going to have another hot night's sleep.
Route Map
