Remember the Alamo, and the donuts, and the pecan, and the…

Day 5 of Vacation and I had to ask Mike “Where did we start today?” LOL

We started this morning earlier than we’ve been used to because we had timed entry tickets to the Alamo. Walking along the Riverwalk in the morning was gorgeous.

The Battle of the Alamo in 1836 was a turning point in Texas Revolution, especially because of the brutality of Santa Anna. He only left women, children and a former slave alive after the 13 day seige, with instructions to tell of what he had done. The only remaining original structures are free to visit but the audio tour is well worth the extra cost.

Inside the audio tour walks you through each part of the Battle. The boys were surprisingly into this story. Of course, it helped to have the individual audio devices so they could listen at their own speed/style.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather or crowd. They loved the outside portion of the tour and now are ready to visit Puerto Rico 🤷🏻‍♀️ because that’s what this reminded them of? It was gorgeous, but I’m just not sure where the Puerto Rico reference developed?

Michael gets photo credit for most of these

But they were happy together and not wrestling so I’ll definitely “Remember the Alamo!”

Couldn’t resist the chance to photo bomb Michael’s pictures!

The live re-enactments were interesting. The soliders didn’t use regular playing cards – no one wanted the good cards to be anything about a king or queen, so the best card was George Washington. It would be disrespectful to have a card with a real woman on it so they created one with greek goddess. The cards from the decks played another role beyond entertainment. Supporters of Texas were told to put a card in their hat so soldiers would know who NOT to shoot.

Our own Daniel Boone ♥️

This came up as my memory today… and when noticed the photo from today… They’ve changed a bit since taking this picture one year ago in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

We came, we toured, we’ll remember the Alamo!

We left our car at the hotel while we explored San Antonio. The city reminds us of Charleston, with some delicious conveniences, like a Voodoo Donuts – Yum! The VooDoo dozen has some crazy combinations (one of them had Capt Crunch cereal on it). But after snacking on a few, we thought they would travel well to Galveston for a few breakfasts when we dont have a buffet waiting 😉

We left San Antonio and meandered our way to Galveston… Meander means I’m absolutely going to find some random stuff to see… how about the World’s Oldest Largest Pecan in Seguin, Texas? What does Oldest Largest mean… well, this WAS the World’s Largest Pecan from 1962 to 1982 when a larger pecan was made in Brunswick Missouri. So, since 2nd largest pecan doesn’t sound nearly as good, this is the Oldest Largest Pecan. And now you know 🤣

As we traveled on, we needed gas and decided we’d stop at another Buc-ee’s.

This one isn’t as large (still size of small grocery store) BUT according to the sign out front and construction going on, this will be the world’s largest Buc-ee’s in 2024. We may have to come back to check. But seriously, look at the jerky counter… over 15 varieties… OF JERKY! Is there this much of a market for jerky?

We traveled on munching on our brisket sandwiches and beaver nuggets, and came across more Texas interchanges… we’ve become slightly obsessed with these. We’re going to be so depressed taking regular ‘ol exits off the interstate 😐

Finally, we made it to Houston – we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to travel.

We decided to see the Alamo story through to the end and visit the Memorial to the Battle of San Jacinto where the Texan army, still angered by the brutality of Santa Ana, defeated the Mexican Army in April of 1836 – the first victory for the Republic of Texas. The Monument is 567 feet tall (for comparison the Washington Monument is 554 feet tall)… there is also a rectangular pool to the right of the monument, which really makes it appear to be mimicking the Washington Monument reflecting pool BUT that wasn’t on a plaque so it’s truthfulness is questionable 😂

We rented a VRBO in Galveston for the next three nights, and were greeted with quite the surprise when we arrived. The Kitchen was dirty, the beds had piles of sheets on them, trash still in can, washer and dryer are running… Michael asked if we were in the right house?! I kept thinking “man, we’ve had the best luck with VRBO, and now where are we going to go?” So I called Mark, the owner, and politely asked for help. He was fantastic. He called the cleaning company. Turns out there was just a mix-up. The cleaning company thought we were coming Wednesday, so there weren’t in a rush to finish cleaning here. Mark venmo’d us $150 for dinner and gave some great suggestions. He told us to come back at 8pm unless we heard from him earlier. Again, we pointed out to boys how asking politely for help versus screaming about issues had actually worked everything out even better than we planned.

Now let me just say what a stroke of luck this turned out to be…because Mark suggested we have dinner at Katie’s Seafood House. We have eaten some great meals all across the country and this meal was easily in the top 5! And then the giant banana pudding! Only thing that could make it better was a great waiter, oh wait… we had the best waiter named Jimmy Ray!