Time to play catch up in blog land. I have been neglectful in writing for a few months. So here goes...
The Mission Reach of the River Walk in San Antonio has three different Volksmarches: two of which start at Mission San Jose. Today we chose to do the walk from Mission San Juan to Mission Espada, the southernmost of San Antonio's five missions. The walk starts out at Mission San Juan so we drive to the start point.
We walk the grounds
and walk the Yanaguana Trail behind the mission. Along the trail, we see
a portion of the San Antonio River as it looked when the Native
Americans lived there. It is much more overgrown and smaller than the
tamed portion of the River Walk in its current configuration.
We
continue from Mission San Juan to the historic acequia (aqueduct system)
Indians used to irrigate crops grown for missions. The old rock work of
the acequia is still in pretty good shape.
As we walk along the river, we can be assured we will see bird life in abundance. Today was no exception.
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| Neotropic cormorants |
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| Great white egret |
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| Snowy egret |
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| Great blue heron |
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| Two osprey fishing |
As we head south to Mission Espada, we go under I-410 on the bike path. Just before Mission Espada there is an area of historic markers explaining mission life and Spanish ranching.
We also passed a rack of B-cycles, rental bicycles you can ride all over the city and return at any of the other B-cycle racks.
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| B-cycle rental bikes |
Mission Espada is the least restored of the five missions. There are partial walls around the outside edge of where the mission stood. The chapel is the nicest part of this mission. The front entryway has a unique keyhole door, unlike any of the other missions in this area.
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| Mission Espada Chapel |
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| Keyhole door on the chapel |
When we finished looking around Mission Espada, we hoofed it back to our cars, hoping to catch a movie. We were running late.
When we got to the theater, there was a long line and we said, "Enough." We went to the Mexican restaurant near the theater and had breakfast. Inside the restaurant was an awesome, colorful mural. It's one of the prettiest I've seen.
After lunch we each headed home and decided to see the movie another day. It was a gorgeous south Texas day, not a cloud in the sky.
Travel Bug out.
