"ohmygod texas is unbelievably bright..." sophie at the alamo (a.k.a. mission san antonio de valero)in this installment...sophie and i are still in san antonio! we spent a day doing the san antonio missions trail; sophie endured it but just barely (it was a triple digit heat day). i love the mission trail, but it is so poorly marked that you've got to allow an extra 1 to 2 hours just to find everything. if anyone's interested, the best map (if you are GPS-free, like me) is here--it is a wonderful architectural tour and well worth the effort. i miss san antonio...anyway, pictures!
"mom i'm tiiiiiiiirrrrrred"--sophie as we got out of the car at the first mission (san josé y san miguel de aguayo)
"and HHHHHHHOT!"--sophie as we walked in
cloister ruins at mission san josé
sophie bunny seeking shade inside the church
front door detail
side door detail--i love the scallop shell detail but it confuses me a bit because the shell usually represents st. james (santiago, or san diego), not st. joseph (san josé) or st. michael (san miguel). it can be used to represent a pilgrimage, but that's usually reserved for santiago de compostela...i'll figure it out eventually.
prickly pear growing on top of a roof at the mission's barracks
sophie's wondering if she throws herself down the well, would that then put an end to mommy's evil mission visiting...?
next mission: mission concepción (mission nuestra señora de la purisma concepción de acuña)
super-solid construction
i love this archway--you can totally see the moorish (islamic) influences on spanish architecture in the upper part of the arch. lovely.
pretty little wilderness next to espada dam (between missions san josé and san juan)
espada dam--check out the massive colocasias (elephant's ear) growing wild along the banks!
next mission: mission san juan capistrano
side view of mission san juan
"why am i looking at this pile of rocks...?"
a roman numeral four for a four-year old girl
final mission: mission san francisco de la espada (and look how happy sophie is about that!)
i think mission espada may be my favorite--it is so peaceful, so bucolic, and just so green and lovely
i think it was sophie's favorite, too (no shaded benches at any of the others...)
again, note the moorish influences on the arches and also in the door carving
she made it! no more missions to see! and sophie didn't even have to throw herself down a well.
big smile at the san antonio river
a much-needed rest on a riverwalk boat tour with my favorite girl
sophie bunny enjoying the boat tour--this is the hilton palacio del rio, which i stayed at every summer, after camp closing, for about a decade. factoid alert: it was the first hotel (building?) to be built out of concrete sections, meaning that the rectangular rooms were cast in concrete then stacked up like legos. cool.
the riverwalk is truly quite lovely
we even found a playground (back at brackenridge park) to play off that last little bit of daylight
sleepy girl was so worn out that she couldn't even lie down in the right direction on her bed
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