December 31, 2018
We spent the day in San Antonio, Texas.
Started by visiting the Missions. There are four of them and the fifth and last is the Alamo. It is amazing to think that some of these are 300 years old. We started with the one the furthest south, Mission Espada. It is the one that is in the most ruins.
You can read more here.and here.
The missions were started by the Spanish. They came to “christianize” the Mexican Indians. 
They became places where food and supplies were stored and the people there could trade and buy things.
The church still holds services and people live in the buildings. It is a simple church. Nothing ornate or particularly fancy.
Next stop was Mission San Juan
The church in this mission was not open to the public.
Then Mission San Jose. This one has many of the buildings still standing. You could get a feel of how it may have felt living inside the mission.
This church was a little more ornate.
Got a kick out of this sign on the piano….guess it is ok to put a sign on the piano, it doesn’t count as “anything”.
There were quarters in the mission that Indians lived in.
These ovens were set outside of the living quarters.
If you look closely, there are Roman Numerals scratched into the doors.
This is a giant grape vine!!
There was a grain mill on the grounds at this mission.
Mission Concepcion
Quarry where they had dug out rocks to build the various missions.
Here we decided to eat our picnic lunch. They had picnic tables near the van. It was a very nice day to eat outdoors.
After lunch we drove into San Antonio to the Alamo.
Here is the only known place to have original damage from the Alamo fight…a chunk missing from under the “bowl”.
We watched a movie on the history of the Alamo, listened to a historian relive it’s history in the courtyard, and visited the church (they didn’t allow photography in the church).
Then we took a walk on the River. There are shops, restaurants and lots of people! Took a 40 minute narrated boat ride as the sun was setting.
We decided that we were going to remain in the city for the midnight fireworks. Since we hadn’t brought along enough food for lunch and dinner, we had to find somewhere to eat.
Closest to the parking lot was a McDonald’s. It was a 2 story McDonald’s (we hadn’t seen one of those). Fancy New Year’s Eve meal (0:
When we finished eating, it was about 9pm. We were pretty beat already and in order to last ’til the new year, we decided to rest a few hours in the van in the parking lot. We had been listening to an audio drama on our drive into the city so listened some more.
At 11:15 we emerged to the city. We had parked very close to the Alamo as that was where we wanted to watch. There was a good view of the Tower of the Americas right over the Alamo. We walked the short distance there and awaited the fireworks.
The Tower had 2018 lit up which changed to 2019 at midnight, then the fireworks started.
The city was alive as though it was noontime. People throwing around footballs, others getting rides in horse-drawn carriages.
This hotel had its balconies lit in such a way that it spelled LOVE around a green Christmas tree.
We were definitely not disappointed. The fireworks were great! The echo was awesome as it bounced off the tall hotel that was behind us.
After the show, we walked the five minute walk to the van and were seriously out of town in 10 minutes. No traffic to deal with. Suppose most people were going to hang out in the city for some more partying.
We had another hour ride to the campground. I think we finally crashed at 2am!!
Happy New Year!