The Alamo

As I said, when we got to the Alamo on Saturday night, it was closed because it was after 5:00. We wandered around the square and looked at the tribute statue in the middle of the road.

It was hard to get a good angle of this statue because the parade-goers were EVERYWHERE, but I love the way Travis, Bowie, Crockett and the other men look so staunch and ready for what's coming. I wonder if that's the way it really was?

There were so many beautiful live oak trees around the Alamo. A lot of them were incredibly old and cabled together to keep them from falling on people. The shade was so nice!

Very little of the Alamo that was there during the battle in 1836 remains today. The church itself and the above "long barracks" are pretty much it. We saw some really cool maps inside that have the old Alamo superimposed over the downtown area, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the buildings, so you'll have to visit yourself to see it.

Since it was closed Saturday night, we decided to go back Sunday to see the inside. We really enjoyed wandering around looking at the artifacts in the museum (sorry, no pictures allowed). It was interesting and very sad to see all of the flattened musket balls recovered from the walls and grounds of the Alamo and other battles for Texas independence. One of our favorite displays was of several different types of guns that the men would have had inside the Alamo. One gun was donated by Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett in the Disney movies. There were also tons of different types of Bowie knives--one was as long as your arm!

Several buildings have been built inside the Alamo complex by the Daughters of the Texas Revolution and other groups. I wasn't sure what this one is used for, but I thought it was really pretty. My favorite building was built in 1936 for the hundred-year anniversary of the battle. It was currently being used as the gift shop and had SO many people around it that taking a picture of it was a major challenge.

I think my favorite thing about the Alamo ground was that even though it was the site of a long-fought siege and almost 200 men died there, it was so quiet and peaceful inside. I have noticed the same thing about the war monuments in Washington DC as well, and I think that's incredibly appropriate. Men who die in violent ways should be honored with peace and green trees and beauty, and that's definitely the setting inside the Alamo.

DTR library that housed lots of Texas historical documents. I really wanted to go in, but it's only open from Monday to Friday.

We did get to go inside the Alamo "sanctuary" itself and it was really interesting. They were currently going over all the walls looking for things they might have missed before--musket balls, names carved, etc. It was pretty cool. There were lots of wreaths set up from various military and historical groups as well, and I thought that was interesting, that the Alamo is really being remembered and the men who fought and died there are continually being honored.

(I promise my neck isn't that fat in real life...at least I hope not!)

After we finished up our Alamo tour, we went back to the river walk for an early lunch at an amazing Italian restaurant, then headed home to pick up Jed. It was a good reunion. We had such a great vacation and I'm really glad we took the opportunity to go. Definitely the R&R we needed to get through the next little while!