San Antonio:
San Antonio is always a favorite destination! We visited the Villa Finale in the King
William District (yes, another mansion). Mr. Mathis was quite the collector,
collecting such items as snuff boxes, religious paintings, antique tie pins,
calling card holders, music machines and whimsical pieces.
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| Villa Finale |
He even has an
entire room devoted to his collection of Napoleonic objects.
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| Napoleon Death Mask |
Mr. Mathis was also a preservationist. In addition to renovating the Villa Finale,
he also restored other properties in the King William District.
We visited the McNay Museum which has a lovely collection of
fine art and glass.
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| "Head of Christ" by El Greco |
Our favorite was the beautifully landscaped grounds
featuring a variety of sculpture.
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| "Untitled" by Joel Shapiro |
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| "Singer of Tales" by Jon Isherwood |
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| "Victoria" by Philip Grausman |
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| "Ascent" by Alexander Liberman |
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“Horizontal Column of Five Squares, Excentric II”
by George Rickey
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The house is a stunning Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion created by Marion Koogler McNay.
I especially fell in love with the beautiful mosaics featuring Don
Quixote, of course!
Most tourists to San Antonio think of the Alamo. This is a very important part of our Texas
history, but there are several wonderful missions in the San Antonio area that
should not be missed. These missions
tell the story before Texas was a state.
This history of our Native Americans and the missionaries that came to
this area are often overlooked.
I have already visited some of the missions and decided to check out
Mission San Juan Capistrano. This
mission was founded in 1731 by the Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order.
We all know that everything is bigger in Texas! Including these “World’s Largest”
attractions:
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| Cowboy Boots: 35 feet tall and 30 feet long |
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| Virgin Mary Mosaic Votive Candle: 40 feet tall |
Davis Mountains State Park:
We try not to drive more than 4 hours a day. Since we were headed north, we decided to
stop overnight in one of our favorite places, the historic Indian Lodge in
Davis Mountains State Park. The original
portion of this lodge was built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corp
(CCC).
We had a beautiful view of the
Davis Mountains from our room!
There is so much to see and do in this area! I’ll add a page about the Big Bend area in
the future. Our journey continues with
our last destination in Texas …
El Paso:
Welcome to El Paso – our gateway to the West!
The Scenic Drive and Overlook gave us an opportunity to
really see how large El Paso is! We
could also see the Rio Grande and Mexico from the overlook. See the red “X” shaped sculpture in the
distance (2nd picture)? That is actually in Juarez!
“The X” or “La Equis” was designed by Enrique
Carbajal Gonzalez and stands 200 feet tall.
The X symbolizes the blood spilled in the Juarez drug wars.
Houston has its Beer Can House and El Paso has its Casa de
Azucar. That means Sugar House. No this house isn’t really made of sugar, it's made of concrete -- but
the details do have a confectionery look! Rufino
Loya spent 25 years carving the decorations on this house because he wanted to
build something beautiful for his wife. And
he succeeded!
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| Casa de Azucar |
Once again we visit a cemetery – this time it’s the Concordia Cemetery which
was founded in the mid 1800’s. There are
several gunslingers and old west lawmen buried here, including the famous John
Wesley Hardin.
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| Concordia Cemetery |
Are any of you fans of Marty Robbins, the country and
western singer? If so, you may remember
his song “El
Paso”. Well, since we’re in El Paso,
we had to have lunch at the original Rosa’s Cantina!
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso I fell in love with a Mexican
girl.
Nighttime would fine me in Rosa's Cantina,
Music would play and Felina would whirl.
Nighttime would fine me in Rosa's Cantina,
Music would play and Felina would whirl.