Our first stop in Texas was at League City, about 25 miles from either downtown Houston or Galveston Island. With limited time, we decided to visit Galveston and were glad we did. Galveston has lots of history, including Jean Lafitte and his pirates living there in 1817 for a few years, and the worst natural disaster in US history, which was a hurricane in 1900 that took 6000 lives! Most recently, Galveston was damaged by Hurricane Ike and is still recovering from that. We took a pink train tour of the island, pulled by a jeep, and saw miles of beautiful beaches along Seawall Road, and many Victorian buildings and homes that have been restored, and are on the National Historic Register.
After Galveston, we were on to Texas Hill Country! We really enjoyed that area last year and decided to explore some towns we hadn't seen. New Braunfels, a city started by German immigrants, was our first destination. The town itself was like a trip to the past, with lots of historic buildings and antique shops. We visited the oldest bakery in Texas, and of course, had to sample some pastries! A town close by, that we enjoyed, was Gruene, pronounced "green". It is a small town with cute shops, restaurants, and B&B's, but most known for Gruene Hall, which is the oldest continually running dance hall in Texas. Many country stars have gotten their start there, including George Strait, and John Travolta did a famous dance scene there in his movie, "Michael". We didn't dance or sing, which was probably a good thing!!!!
We returned to Fredericksburg, one of our favorite places from last year. This time we were able to visit the "National Museum of the Pacific War". The museum was built in this town because Admiral Charles Nimitz was born there, and was the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. The museum was fantastic, and it took us 2 days to tour it. There was also an annex named after George Bush, who was a pilot during WWII, shot down, and the only survivor from his plane. In one area they had war equipment and a "Quonset Hut", a round metal building with 2 flat ends. Although this doesn't sound exciting, I spent the first 5 years of my life living in a Quonset hut, because there wasn't enough housing in Detroit after the war. It was fun to go inside! By the way, they got their name because they were manufactured in Quonset, Rhode Island, for use in the war. Didn't know that!
Las Cruces, New Mexico was our next stop after Texas. Old Mesilla is an historic area within Las Cruces, which was settled in 1848. There is a plaza in the middle of Mesilla with the beautiful Minor Basilica of San Albino. Around the plaza are also historic buildings, housing shops and restaurants. We ate at "La Posta", in an original building of the area, which has been a restaurant since 1939. They had a room-size cage with talking parrots and toucans in the lobby. While in Las Cruces, we visited the "White Sands National Monument". This is actually a national park, made up of 275 acres of white sand dunes. The white color is caused by gypsum, which is very rare, and there are only 4 places in the world that have this white color sand.
No comments:
Post a Comment