The Lone Star State
I finally made it back to texas after a 36 year hiatus. While I planned to visit the alamo again (it's practically a state law!), we were going to see and do some new things too.
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day 1: wednesday, march 31
We arrived at the dallas fort worth airport, had lunch at a whataburger, and headed to the northern outskirts of town. Our first stop was a visit to the famous southfork ranch from the TV series "dallas". You remember who shot JR? It's all a bit of a tourist trap, but still I couldn't stop humming that song to myself. Then we headed to the stockyards hotel in the fort worth stockyards national historic district, and checked into the "davey crockett suite". The district is a couple of blocks that give you the flavor of the old west (see my fort worth pics). We had a nice steak dinner at the cattlemen's steakhouse and then went to billy bob's texas (the world't biggest honky tonk!) for some country music. What's the big beer in texas? Everybody is drinking shiner bock.
day 2: thursday, april 1
Before heading off to dallas for most of the day, we just had to witness the daily cattle drive down the main street of the stockyards district. Then we headed for dallas and the somber the 6th floor museum at dealey plaza , which has lots of history from that fateful day in our country's history (see my dallas pics). After lunch at the hoffbrau steak house, we toured around dallas until it was time for the dallas mavericks' game at the american airlines arena (see my mavericks pics). A great stadium and a great game, but I couldn't find my favorite sports owner, Mark Cuban, anywhere!
day 3: friday, april 2
We headed south out of the dallas - fort worth area to austin, the state capital and a well known music town. After the three hour drive, we stopped for lunch in a cool seafood restaurant named trulucks, and then checked into the funky austin motel. At night we saw the nightly flight of the world's largest urban bat population, which takes off from under the south congress avenue bridge (see my austin pics). You simply stand or sit near the river at the base of the bridge and wait. When the bats start coming out, it's just fantastic and was probably the highlight of our trip!
day 4: saturday, april 3
After morning coffee next door at jo's coffee shop outside the hotel san jose, we drove about an hour west into the hill country to johnson city and the LBJ ranch. This was a pleasant tour of the way texas used to be about 50 years ago. Some places don't change much. The ranch was big, and it includes the house where LBJ was born and the family cemetary. They say lady bird still lives there part time (see my around texas pics). We headed back to austin and had lunch at guero's taco bar, which was a fun place not far from our motel. I got a cowboy hat at sheplers, which is a western wear department store. We also stopped in at the art on 5th exhibit of peter max paintings. Of course I got his autograph!
day 5: sunday, april 4
We packed our bags again and headed an hour south to san antonio. Our first stop was a palm sunday mariachi mass at mission san jose, one of the original spanish missions and still an active parish. This was well worth the hour wait beforehand to get a seat in the small church. Then we headed into downtown to check into the crockett hotel, which is right behind the alamo. We had lunch at a great mexican restaurant, the casa rio, on the famous river walk. There was lots of ticket activity for tomorrow's ncaa final, but we weren't buying!
day 6: monday, april 5
We got off to an early start at the alamo, probably the most famous place in texas. It's not a national historic site or anything like that, because it's under the private ownership of the daughters of the republic of texas. It's very much a shrine (no pictures allowed inside), where a few hundred brave souls fought valiantly against santa ana's troops. Afterwards, we headed back over to the river walk. I stopped by the hard rock cafe to get a picture and an autograph with dick vitale, and then we had lunch at an italian restaurant. After lunch we took the rio san antonio cruise, a slow boat tour of the river walk (see my san antonio pics). At night it was time to watch the connecticut - georgia tech final at champions sports bar.day 7: tuesday, april 6
Today was a long drive eastward to houston and beyond. Our first stop was the famous kemah boardwalk. Landry's has built quite an operation here, with shops, restaurants, and some amusement rides. We had lunch at the aquarium restaurant, which features a large floor to ceiling fish tank right next to our table. There was even a diver in the tank feeding the fish! After this late lunch, we headed into downtown houston and minute maid park, for a houston astros game vs. my giants (see my astros pics). Former yankee andy pettite was on the mound!
day 8: wednesday, april 7
We checked out of our motel near the astrodome and headed over to space center houston I had high hopes for this tour, since I've been a space nut especially since all the mars talk last year. Unfortunately, this was very disappointing. We're riding in the tram passing a building, and the guide tells us that's the building where they store the moon rocks. I want to see the rocks! They showed us the old mission control, which is a room with lots of tables, chairs, and equipment. I want to see the actual mission control where everything is going on. Oh well. Before we left the houston area, we stopped for some good old fashioned barbeque at goode company barbeque. The ribs were good, but don't forget to try the pecan pie. Mmmm! Then we headed south along the coast to corpus christi, our stop for the night.day 9: thursday, april 8
We had breakfast at the very retro city diner and oyster bar in corpus christi, and then we took a quick one hour tour of the uss lexington, the famous "blue ghost" aircraft carrier that the japanese couldn't sink in WWII. Another hour or so south brought us to south padre island, the final destination of our trip. We had reservations to ride horses on the beach, something I've been wanting to do for years (see my south padre pics). This was a lot of fun! Our hotel, the bahia mar, had a nice big heated pool for late afternoon relaxation. Our excellent dinner was at louie's backyard on the bayside of the island. I had the surf n turf (blackened red snapper and baby back ribs).day 10: friday, april 9
Our final full day was spent mostly on the beach, with lunch at padre island brewing company and a movie to wrap things up. Since it was opening night for the new alamo movie, it was a natural. The movie, however, was only average. Where's john wayne when you need him?
day 11: saturday, april 10
We hit the airport in harlingen for a short flight to houston, and then transferred to another flight back to philadelphia and home. Another great trip was complete!
