San Antonio is home to five Spanish frontier missions, built to convert the natives to Catholicism in the 1700's, and are now part of the National Historic Parks. The park itself spreads across eight miles of San Antonio and follows the river; trails wind their way through the city and visitors can walk or bike from one mission to another; in fact they have bike rental stations at each mission for guests to pick up, so you can ride and enjoy the scenic route and take in a little more of what San Antonio has to offer.
Ethel was welcome at all of the mission sights, except for inside the churches and then Tom and I would just take turns running in and taking a look at the architecture and cathedrals; all of which still hold mass and weddings to this day, except for the Alamo.
Every time we would roll up on one of these missions the primary song "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission," would pop into my head, oh the irony coming from me, but you know, those Mormons make some catchy tunes and I still know it (even though I defected close to twenty years ago!) Now don't get your hopes up my LDS friends, each time I order Mexican food and server asks if I want rice and beans a little "Baby Got Back" pops in my head. Oh the wasted brain power I have on song lyrics. Enough of my side rant and back on point, look at these gems!
Ethel was welcome at all of the mission sights, except for inside the churches and then Tom and I would just take turns running in and taking a look at the architecture and cathedrals; all of which still hold mass and weddings to this day, except for the Alamo.
Every time we would roll up on one of these missions the primary song "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission," would pop into my head, oh the irony coming from me, but you know, those Mormons make some catchy tunes and I still know it (even though I defected close to twenty years ago!) Now don't get your hopes up my LDS friends, each time I order Mexican food and server asks if I want rice and beans a little "Baby Got Back" pops in my head. Oh the wasted brain power I have on song lyrics. Enough of my side rant and back on point, look at these gems!
Mission Concepcion
Mission Espada
Mission San Jose
Mission San Juan
Aren't they gorgeous! San Juan was my absolute favorite, there was just something magical about that place. You also may have noticed that I didn't show the Alamo, that building and its iconic history will get its own post, even though out of all five of them it was my least favorite architecturally!
These four missions are often overlooked by tourists to San Antonio, if you saw the hoards of people at The Alamo versus these, you would know exactly what I am talking about. At some of them, it felt like Tom, Ethel and I were the only ones there, which of course only adds to the experience. I highly recommend breaking from the average tourist mode, renting a bike and checking out this National Park, all of it!
Gorgeous pictures - Mission Espada bell tower, AMAZE!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.