Galveston

Weather:

Sunny
High - 94
Low - 48

 Even though we're back in Tucson, I decided to do a blog on Galveston.  It's such a neat place.

For those of you who don't know, Galveston is actually a long, narrow island off the far eastern end of the coast of Texas.  It's less than an hour away from Houston.  There are many wonderful old homes in Galveston.  I've included photos of just a few.

 

 

You'll notice that many houses have steps going up to the first floor.  This is because Galveston has a history of being hit with hurricanes.  The last one, Ike, was devastating.  The house my cousins grew up in had 56" of water in it.

This is the beautiful Sacred Heart Catholic Church.  It was originally built in 1892 but was destroyed in the 1900 hurricane.  It was rebuilt in 1903.

 This is the house that my grandparents lived in.  They had the upstairs apartment.

We stayed in the Tremont House, which is a hotel in a restored building in a part of Galveston called the Strand.  It was very elegant.

Tomorrow we'll spend the day packing and doing lots of closing-up chores.  Then we'll leave for Oregon on Monday morning.

Back to Tucson

Weather:

Sunny
High - 89
Low - 44

We arrived back in Tucson this afternoon after an interesting trip.  Driving through western Texas and New Mexico was a bit of an adventure.  It was very windy, with lots of signs warning about dust storms. There was a lot of dust in the air, but we didn't have any difficulty driving, other than having to dodge the occasional tumbleweed.

In Texas we stopped at the Guadalupe rest area (actually, we stop at ALL rest areas!) and found it to be very nice.  It actually had a half-mile nature trail out back, so we figured we'd go for a short walk.  There were lots of birds, but the really amazing one was a Crested Caracara on a fence post in a field just behind the trail.  This is a bird we had hoped to see in Texas and had pretty much given up on finding it.  It was very exciting
 
Last night we stayed in Van Horn, Texas, again, this time staying at the historic El Capitan Hotel, where we had had dinner on our way east last week. 

Driving through El Paso is interesting because it is right across the river from Juarez, Mexico.  It's an odd feeling to look across and see the city which is obviously much less prosperous than El Paso.  I can just imagine how frustrating it must be for those people to see prosperity and not be able to enjoy it.  This photo isn't very good, as I had to take it from our moving car, but it gives an idea of what it looks like.

Cousins

Weather:

Sunny

High - 77
Low - 66

One of the reasons for this trip to Texas was to reconnect with three of my cousins, whom I have not seen in anywhere from 10 to 35 years.  On Sunday afternoon we stopped in Huntsville, Texas, to visit with my cousin Judith MacDonald and her mother, my mother's sister Agnes.  We had lunch with Judith and then went to her mom's house.  Both Ag and her husband, Bill, are in their 90s and have multiple health issues.  But Ag is still very sharp mentally, so we had a nice visit.

On Monday we went to San Jacinto College in Houston to attend a rehearsal of the chorus which Eddie Moore directs.  The kids were wonderful.  Eddie has done a marvelous job of directing this group of young people.

Later that day, we had dinner with Eddie and his wife, Gretchen.

On Tuesday we spent the day birding at several spots on Galveston Island.  This is a development called Lafitte's Cove, which has a wonderful nature preserve.

In the evening we visited with cousin Mike Moore in Galveston.  He showed us around the house that he grew up in and which he is restoring.  It dates back to the 1870s.  It was in pretty bad shape, but he is doing a beautiful job returning it to its former glory.

Tomorrow morning we leave Galveston and head back to Tucson.  It's been a wonderful trip.  I enjoyed the time spent with family, and we've racked up an impressive list of new birds.

More San Antonio

Weather:

Still hot and humid

Here are a few more photos from San Antonio. 

There were ducks all along the river.  I don't know how the babies survive with the water taxis and tourist boats zooming through.

At one end of the Riverwalk is the King William Historic District.  We walked through the neighborhood, keeping an eye out for birds, of course.

 

 

Some decorations for Fiesta.

Here's a statue of Sam Houston, presumably larger than he actually was.  They do things BIG in Texas.

San Antonio

Weather:

Sunny, hot, muggy

We started our road trip on Wednesday, April 6.  We went to Sierra Vista with the Jones family, who are visiting us in Arizona for a couple of days.  After a day of birding we had dinner with them.  The next morning we left Sierra Vista and headed for Texas. 

We spent our first night in Van Horn, Texas, which is just one of many tiny towns in western Texas.  We had dinner at the historic Hotel El Capitan, which has just been restored and reopened.

The most remarkable thing in Van Horn is the nightly roosting of a couple hundred turkey vultures on the water tower in town.  It was fun to watch them come in.

The next day we traveled through the Texas hill country, toward San Antonio.  We stopped for lunch in Ozona, Texas, another tiny town, but very nice.  This is the courthouse.

We arrived in San Antonio late in the afternoon.  After checking in to our hotel room, we took a walk along the river.  The San Antonio River runs through the city.  And after a serious flood in 1921, it was decided to put in flood controls and make a pedestrian walk along the banks.  It was opened in 1941, with restaurants and shops along both sides.  It was designed to remind walkers of Venice. 

We also visited the Alamo.

As it happens, it's Fiesta time here.  From what I can tell, it's kind of like a ten-day Mardi Gras.  We'll spend another night here and then tomorrow head for Galveston.

Tohono Chul Park

Weather:

Sunny
High - 86
Low - 50

This morning we took a trip out to Tohono Chul Park, which is on the northwest side of Tucson.  We had never been there, although we kept hearing about it from friends.  What a treasure!  It's a privately run botanical garden on 49 acres of desert.  There is a lot of natural habitat, plus a portion that is planted with lots of native flowers and trees. 

There is also a lot of art and artistic structures in the park. 

 

It's a great spot for hummingbirds, as well as lots of other birds.

The cactus and yucca have started to bloom.

 

We ran out of time before we could see everything,  but we signed up for a membership, so we'll definitely be back.

Market Day

Weather:

Sunny
High - 96
Low - 56

One of our favorite things about life here in our little village is that we can walk to so many things.  One of the things we regularly walk to is the Friday morning farmers' market.  It's in a park about a mile from here.  It's small, but has a nice variety of things to buy.

They have grass-fed beef, salmon, eggs, and several stands with local produce.  We can also buy herbs, flowers, snack foods, soup, fresh salsa, honey, soaps, preserves, and the best tamales.  There's a strawberry grower who comes from Oxnard, California, with the most amazing organic strawberries.

  

These are not only the biggest strawberries I've ever seen, but they actually taste fantastic, unlike those awful tasteless Driscoll strawberries we get at home.  Here's a photo of the box I bought.  The coin in the photo is a QUARTER!

 

 

A lot of the produce, including these tomatoes, comes from Willcox, in the southeast corner of the state. 

We'll certainly miss all this wonderful fresh local food.