Day Four: Remember the Alamo!

The day began with Keegan and I finding a place to attend church. I found some interesting churches and beliefs in the San Antonio area, but God led me to a Presbyterian church within walking distance. They are very service oriented, and they received us very kindly. The pastor even promoted the congregation shouting "Yay!" after he said "Hosanna." Then he mocked the fact that they should shout even though they were Presbyterian. I enjoyed the service very much.

While walking the three blocks back to our hotel, we stopped to visit the Alamo.


Here is the main front.


This is Keegan in one of the courtyard gates.

Here's another gate.

They wouldn't allow picture taking inside of the building, but I enjoyed reading the history and marveling at the tremendous sacrifice some two hundred men made so that Texas could be a part of the United States. Keegan enjoyed looking at the rifles, Bowie knives, and cannons. He also enjoyed repeating over and over, "When are we going to leave?"

After that reminiscence of history, we watched a movie in the local theater about the Alamo. Keegan seemed to enjoy the movie better than actually walking through the actual Alamo.

Jeff was able to join us for the end of Sunday. We visited the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. There were several sections of this museum, including thousands of taxidermied animals from all over the world, the Texas Ranger memorial, and the State of Texas history section. Both boys drooled over weapons and dead animals until our feet hurt.


Here's cowboy Keegan with two authentic Texans.


Revolvers


looking straight up at an elephant

Keegan and his favorite Rhino

scary

another elephant with giant tusks

Keegan with two brown bears

rifles, revolvers, and other cool weapons

more weapons

more revolvers! (Keegan loves them all!)

western wagon

Keegan behind bars (he's smiling too much for that to be real!)

an old fashioned player piano

Keegan using the spittoon!

he's a little short for the bar

that's a giant rattlesnake skin over my right shoulder

...and more rifles

the bucking bronco

the big cat over Keegan

Keegan in the wax museum section with Colonel Travis, Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie!

This was one of the more weird sections of the museum. This lamb had eight legs, three ears, and two faces. It lived three days.

siamese calfs

two headed baby

one giant sword fish

sharks

lots o' fish

one big alligator

Keegan is small compared to a moose.

two wolves

pretending to be scared by a polar bear

weird deer that died in battle

more weird deer

Please, take my picture next to everything in the museum, mom!

Texas long horns!

Elephant tusks are huge!

They never stop!

This picture was entirely made of rattlesnake rattles.

more animals

a Texas long horn

another cool rifle

Finally, we went on the river walk. The river walk is a great walkway one story below the street surface that follows the river underneath the city. There are several restaurants along the river and some shops. We decided to eat at the Republic of Texas. Jeff and I had some great Mexican food. Keegan had a hamburger. A Mariachi band came over and played us a familiar song. I have to research what song it was.


After supper, we followed the river walk for quite a distance. Later, we stopped at The Lone Star to eat dessert. Yum! Soon after, we collapsed at the hotel.