San Antonio Adventures

I'm sure my readers are tired of the endless monotony of the previous couple posts; however, I felt them necessary if I'm to maintain any vestige of continuity. On a more selfish note, I don't wanna look back later and see I've missed a chunk of time. This thing is for me too, you know, and as I do all the work, I can post anything my black and ill-intentioned heart desires...

FACT OF INTEREREST: Spanish missions were not churches. They were Indian towns with the church as the focus where, in the 1700s, the native people were learning to become Spanish citizens. In order to become a citizen, you had to be Catholic; that's why the King of Spain sent missionaries to acculturate (?) them.

Known as 'Queen of the Missions', San Jose is the largest of the series and was almost fully restored to its original design in the 1930s by the WPA (Works Projects Administration, a Depression-era money pit designed to mitigate Hoovervilles and suppress food riots). Mission San José is cool 'cause it shows the visitor how all the missions might have looked over 250 years ago. So, I chose this one to show you.

Mission San Jose; Allison's Dad Marion, Brother Josh, Fiancee Kellie


Cathedral Tower At Mission San Jose:


Wider View Of The Main Compound:


While in San Antonio, we stayed at a historic hotel, now called the Sheraton Gunter. AMAZING PLACE. We stayed on what they call the 'Club Floor'; it's got a facility, accessible only to that floor, that's essentially a 24-hour hospitality suite. It has food, beverages, a 60-inch plasma TV, and business services. I've not seen anything like it, but I LIKE IT.

The roots of the Sheraton Gunter Hotel date back to the first year of the Republic of Texas, and it holds a prominent place in the state’s history.

In 1837, just a year after the fall of the Alamo, the Frontier Inn lit its kerosene lamps and opened its doors on the corner of what was then El Rincon and El Paseo streets. It enjoyed the best location in the center of town, and quickly became a favorite among the waves of new settlers swarming in from the East.

The Frontier changed hands twice before becoming The Gunter Hotel at the turn of the century, when this intersection had become a vital part of San Antonio’s business center. It was then that Jot Gunter and a group of investors had decided that the state’s most progressive city needed a palatial new hotel. So they purchased the property and added six new stories in steel, concrete and buff brick, making it the largest building in San Antonio (at the time). The official opening was November 20, 1909.

The Sheraton Gunter San Antonio:


Our Room At The Sheraton Gunter:


Club Suite At The Gunter:


Sick of doing this for today. This post to be extended tomorrow.

Scotty

OK, I'm back, and again the term 'tomorrow' seems to have little or no specific link to my life. We have had several days of WAY above-normal daytime highs here on the Yellowstone, and I have been busy trying to make a photographic record of the convulsions the river is undergoing as a result of SERIOUS snowmelt about 60 miles west. More about that later, but while taking pictures this morning we witnessed a giant chunk of the east bluff fall thunderously about 500 feet into the river, creating a mini-tsunami. Sounded like a jet taking off, and it scared the hell outta Allison. Not unlike, by the way, what you see in nature programs about the Greenland ice cap, looked and sounded the same...

Last note about San Antonio, then we'll move on to the river system and the lake. We ate dinner in a restaurant, about a block away from the Alamo, called The Chart House, at the top of the Tower of the Americas. The Tower is a leftover from the 1963HemisFair, and is a soaring concrete structure 780 feet high. That's a full 200 feet taller than the famous Seattle Space Needle! The entire upper floor rotates once an hour, giving the most incredible panoramic view of the entire area. The service and cuisine are fantastic, and the waiters actually appear at your table in teams and deposit your order in an astoundingly choreographed manner, almost like a professionally-rehearsed dance.

Wide View Of The Tower Of The Americas:


Closeup At Night Of The Tower Crown:


Lastly, for a REALLY cool QuickTime presentation of what it's like at the top, go here:
http://www.toweroftheamericas.com/360.html