Texas State Aquarium

Another overcast, gray, periodically misty day.... I went to the Texas State Aquarium this morning and it was rather interesting. The aquarium focuses on animals/wildlife mostly in the Gulf of Mexico.

This Giant Sea Turtle was rescued in the gulf after being hit by a boat. It was brought here and is being treated for his injuries. When healed he will live here permanently.  They didn't say what his injuries were must be something that would prevent him from living in the wild. 

This strange creature is a Calico Crab and this is his face. 

This Roseate Spoonbill is really a pretty bird with his pink and white feathers. 

Stingrays aren't much to look at if you are looking at their back.  However, I think their face is so cute! This guy just kept coming up to the glass wall to look us over. 

I am always fascinated by watching jellyfish.  The aquarium here had 5 different kinds. This one is a Pacific Nettle which I'm sure you all knew. 

And now for what was the most interesting part of the aquarium to me!  They have a lot of displays including a replica of an average size Great White Shark  which is not a small guy. I have heard about sharks being tagged with a GPS device and then being tracked. The aquarium has a big display where you can bring up a particular shark and see where all it has been since it was tagged. The employee was telling me about the program and brought up the tracking for "Mary Lee" which is shown above. She is a female Great White that was tagged Sept 17, 2012 off Cape Cod. A shark is brought on board a research boat and the tagging process takes about 15 minutes.  During that time, a big hose with running water keeps flowing through their mouth and into their gills so as not to hurt the shark. Then it is released and swims away with it's own personal GPS tracking device attached to it. The arrow is pointing to where Mary Lee was at 8:12 a.m. this morning eastern time. All the little dots are where she has been over the last 3+ years she has been tracked. Every time she comes to the surface for at least 90 seconds, she pings and a dot appears. A computer then connects the dots. I was in awe to think that a shark would cover that much ocean on it's own. Fascinating!

I doubt if I will be able to stay up until midnight, but if I do, there is a fireworks display over the marina tonight. 

Another rainy day....

It's a good thing that I am a "glass half full" person or this weather would get depressing.... I think that when you schedule a trip more than 2 weeks out then you must be prepared for weather changes.  I have been lucky with weather and even this could be a lot worse. It isn't heavy rain, just drizzle or light showers. Anyway I can do anything about it.....

New Hotel: I arrived at my new hotel today and got an early check-in. I had booked a standard room but she upgraded me to a suite on the 20th floor which is the top floor. It has a very comfortable "living room", separate bedroom and large bath. Very comfortable for the 3 nights I will be here. 8-) 

The arrow points to my room on the 20th floor. The hotel is downtown on the bay. That is a bank building to the side of my hotel. 

This is the view from my balcony looking out at the yacht basin.

A seawall that is about 10 feet high runs all along the harbor. A sidewalk is on top of the seawall and steps lead down to the water. There is one of these little balcony things that are about every block along the seawall. 

Even this pelican is hunkered down trying to stay warm. 

Art Museum of South Texas: Before I got to the hotel, I went through the Art Museum. It is a little on the small side but nicely done. It was a bummer to me that I could not take any pictures in the museum so had to do some Internet research to find some pictures of what I saw. There were 2 special exhibits that were of interest to me: 

Exhibit: Chicanitas: Small Paintings from the Cheech Marin Collection
This exhibit features 70 paintings by 29 artists from the renowned Chicano art collection of Cheech Marin, well known for his work in movies, television and improvisational comedy. He is part of the Cheech and Chong comedy team. The collection, made up of paintings that average 16 square inches and smaller, includes a variety of styles such as photo-realism, abstractions, portraits and landscapes that offer the viewer a window into the life of the artists. Internet copy

Exhibit: Eloquent Objects: Georgia O’Keeffe and Still-Life Art in New Mexico
This exhibit is not being shown anyplace else in Texas.  The exhibition is focused on the still-life and, includes other important artists that were part of the Taos, NM artist colony of which O’Keefe was part of. The works are drawn from major museums and private collections across the country.

"Yellow Cactus" by Georgia O'Keeffe Internet copy

"A Million Aspen Leaves" by Joseph Henry Sharp. This was one of my favorites. Internet copy

Anyone remember me writing about the McNay Art Museum that I visited while in San Antonio? It was in that fabulous house that was built by Marion Koopler McNay.  Anyway, one of her 4 husbands was Victor Higgins, a painter from Taos, NM.  This painting titled "Petunias", and is one of his paintings. Internet copy

Tomorrow I am off to the Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry.....

Birds, Deer and a different hotel...

This morning I drove about 60 miles east to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, a 114,657 acre protected area situated on the southwest side of San Antonio Bay along the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Texas. The Refuge was established in December 1937 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. Bird life includes ducks, herons, egrets, ibises, roseate spoonbills, and the endangered whooping crane, whose population has recovered significantly since the 1940s. On this stretch of the Texas coast, the only wild flock of whooping cranes finds a winter home. Their trumpeting call can be heard across the far reaches of the marsh’s low-growing vegetation. The whooping crane is the rarest crane species and one of the rarest birds in North America. All of the whooping cranes alive today, both wild and captive, are descendants of the last 15 remaining cranes that were found wintering at the Aransas Refuge in 1941. The wild flock of whooping cranes nests in Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The whooping cranes will fly 2,500 miles from Wood Buffalo National Park to their wintering grounds on the Texas coast at Aransas Refuge. I didn't get any pictures of the cranes but did see a couple through the telescopes at the viewing areas - too far away to get a picture.  I also head them which is a remarkable sound. 

This Great Blue Heron looks like he is cold and wondering where the warm, sunny weather is that he came for. 

Not sure what species that this pair belongs to but they were moving right along....

There was about a dozen of these black ferrel pigs near one of the view points including some babies. 

This is a flock of Sand Hill cranes that were way, way out in the marsh. The Whopping Cranes I saw were between these guys and the water in the background. 

This is one of a pair of deer that was along the road. 

However, one of my favorite pictures was of a stuffed cardinal in a diorama at the visitor center. 

Now for changing hotels....  I am paying several pretty pennies for this location on the beach.  Yesterday it was beautiful and worth it even though the hotel is in dire need of updating and the walls are rather thin. However, the weather for the rest of the time I am here is to be in the 50's during the day plus with drizzle, mist and light rain. So I decided it wasn't worth the money if I couldn't enjoy the beach. Tomorrow I move to a Holiday Inn on the harbor in downtown Corpus Christi. This is the 8th hotel I have stayed at on this trip and the first one I have been disappointed in so that isn't bad. Also, I am going to head home on Saturday instead of Sunday like I originally planned. Again, weather is a factor plus my list will mostly be checked off. Yes, I have already been looking at the weather for when I head home. 8-)

1st Day in Corpus Christi, Texas

It was an easy 2 hour drive this morning from San Antonio to Corpus Christi. Because it was too early to check into my hotel when I got here, I started being a tourist right away by going to the USS Lexington Museum on the Bay. I have been to the USS Midway in Long Beach 2-3 times but this aircraft carrier museum was different. The Midway is totally focused on the Midway. The Lexington has some different exhibits that I found really interesting.

The USS Lexington was commissioned in 1943, and set more records than any other Essex Class carrier in the history of naval aviation. After training maneuvers and a shakedown cruise, LEXINGTON joined the Fifth Fleet at Pearl Harbor. During World War II, the carrier participated in nearly every major operation in the Pacific Theater and spent a total of 21 months in combat. Her planes destroyed 372 enemy aircraft in the air, and 475 more on the ground. She sank or destroyed 300,000 tons of enemy cargo and damaged an additional 600,000 tons. The ship’s guns shot down 15 planes and assisted in downing five more. After the war, she was based in Florida until in 1962 when she sailed to San Diego and was used as the carrier on which pilots trained on how to make landing and take-offs on aircraft carriers. The ship was the oldest working carrier in the United States Navy when decommissioned in 1991. During the period of active service from 1943 - 1991 the Lexington set a record for the number of landings performed on an aircraft carrier with 493,248 landings.  

The platform, at the back of the ship and out over the water, is where the Landing Signal Officer stood. He was the guy who directed the pilots in landing by using 2 paddles. Both paddles pointed up meant "OK,". If the paddles were crossed above his head, it meant he was waving the pilot off and not to land. Very interesting!

Medal of Honor that was awarded to a USS Lexington pilot. On May 7, 1942,  lieutenant, Junior Grade William E.Hall, was serving as a scout plane pilot with Scouting Squadron 2 based on the USS Lexington. On that day, over the Coral Sea, he dive bombed a Japanese aircraft carrier, contributing greatly to its destruction. The next day, he attacked a superior number of Japanese planes and shot down three. Although his craft was damaged and he was seriously wounded in this attack, he managed to land safely. For these actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

On Nov 5, 1944, a Japanese Kamikaze pilot flew into the Lexington and hit it where the arrow is pointing. There is a Japanese Rising Sun flag with black border around it marking the spot on the ship that was hit. The pilot was killed along with 49 soldiers aboard the Lexington and injured 132. 

My hotel is right on the beach.  This was sunset tonight with a pier in the background. Cold and rain are returning on Friday.. 8-(

Tower of America

COLD and rainy today but I managed to get the last item checked off my San Antonio list.

The Tower of the Americas is a 750-foot observation tower/restaurant located at HemisFair Park in downtown San Antonio. The Tower was the theme structure of the 1968 World's Fair that was held in San Antonio. The Tower was the tallest observation tower in the United States from 1968 until 1996, when the Las Vegas Stratosphere Tower was completed. It is the tallest building in San Antonio, the 27th tallest building in Texas, and the tallest building in Texas outside of Dallas or Houston. 

The fastest recorded time up the tower's 952 steps, or 75 stories, is 5 minutes 18 seconds on January 29, 1981. 

The Tower has an observation deck (tow row of windows right under the roof) that is accessible by elevator. In addition, there is also a lounge and revolving restaurant (bottom two rows of windows) at the top of the tower that provides panoramic views of the city and make a complete revolution every 1 hour and 15 minutes. There is no sensation of moving - the scenery just changes very, very slowly.  This is a photo from the Internet. 

The view of downtown from the restaurant where I had lunch. The red arrow is pointing to my hotel and the green arrow is pointing to the McDonald's that I talked about yesterday. The view was limited some because of it being cloudy and rainy at times. 

I am ready to get back on the road in the morning for the 2 hour drive to Corpus Christi. It will not exactly be "beach weather" but could be worse......

The Alamo and Monet

So far the rain held off today and I was able to visit The Alamo and saved the McNay Art Museum for the afternoon when the supposed rain didn't happen. It was overcast but 80 degrees today - not a great day for outdoor pictures but good for walking around.

The Alamo:

This is the picture we always see of the Alamo.  However, this was the church within a walled Mission. The Alamo Mission was originally known as Misión San Antonio de Valero. Founded in the 18th century as a Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, it was the site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836. It is much more commercial than it was when Larry and I were here in 2003 or 2004. 

This was barracks built as part of one wall around the Mission. 

McNay Art Museum: The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1954 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the U.S. State of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-room Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion that was built in 1927. The house sits on 23 acres and is landscaped with fountains, broad lawns and a Japanese-inspired garden and fishpond. McNay was born in Ohio but grew up in El Dorado, Kansas. She inherited a substantial oil fortune upon the death of her father from oil that was discovered on their Kansas farm. Upon her death, the house was bequeathed to the City of San Antonio to house the museum. The art was nice but I was fascinated by the house - it was beyond beautiful.

Main entrance of the home - not the art museum. 

This tile mural is on one wall of the interior courtyard. 

I loved this staircase that was in the courtyard. It was beautiful!!!!!

And now for some art....  This is one of the "Waterlilies" by Monet. I have now seen 3 of them - all different.  However, the other 2 were very similar while this one was different. The blooms looked like they were 3-dimensional but weren't. 

I'm not usually into modern stuff but I liked this picture by Cezanne. 

Renoir did this little number in 1882.....

And then there was this McDonalds that I found a few blocks from the Alamo. 

It is the ONLY McDonald's in downtown San Antonio. At 10 a.m., it was packed with a long waiting line to order. Dining is on 2 floors and people were waiting to get a table. I sure would like to have this franchise....

La Villita was an Native American settlement and then a collection of primitive brush huts, called jacales, for the Spanish soldiers (and their Indian wives and children) stationed nearby at the Mission San Antonio de Valero (an active mission from about 1718 to 1793, now better known as the Alamo).  After a flood in 1819 washed away most of the huts, more substantial adobe houses replaced them. Located on the south bank of the San Antonio River, La Villita was one of San Antonio's first neighborhoods. Today La Villita is an arts community in the original building with shops and restaurants. 

One of the shops in La Villita. 

The Little Church of La Villita was the first Protestant church in San Antonio established by a Methodist minister from Ohio. The inside was beautiful - small and simple with a beautiful large stained glass window. 

Tomorrow is my last day in San Antonio since I head for Corpus Christi on Monday. Time to get out the winter clothes again since the temp for the next few days will be in the upper 50's unless they miss it like they did today. Still hasn't rained.....

A Christmas Day in San Antonio

I'm resting my feet and back today - I have only walked 1.8 miles so far today and don't plan to do much more other than walking next door for dinner tonight. I went out earlier today for a walk along the River Walk. There were a lot of people out but not much open. I'm spending the day, other than taking a walk, catching up on emails, reading and working on my trip book on the computer. 

River Walk: The River Walk here is quite a feat. It is a network of walkways, one level down from the street, along the San Antonio river that runs through town. In September 1921, there was a disastrous flood along the San Antonio River took took 50 lives. Plans were then developed for flood control of the river.  Among the plans was to build an upstream dam and bypass a prominent bend of the river in the Downtown area, then to pave over the bend, and create a storm sewer. The San Antonio Conservation Society successfully protested the paved sewer option. Nothing happened until in 1938 when a plan was accepted to build the 2.5-mile-long River Walk. The project was built by the WPA and finished in 1946. There are locks upstream and downstream plus large doors that can be closed under streets to control water. The canal and walkway was added to for the 1968 World's Fair that was held in San Antonio. It is now approximately 5 miles long. The  is going to be drained on Jan 4-9, 2016 so it can be cleaned.  Needless to say, this does not happen very often but I agree that the water needs it. 

The boats were running on the River Walk when I went for a walk. The Christmas lights at night are beautiful. The strands are in the trees and hang down at least 20 feet - not wrapped around branches like in most places. There are 1.8 million LED lights hanging from trees.

Christmas Eve Mass: When I was at San Fernando Cathederal yesterday, I noticed that besides the Midnight Mass, they were having one at 7 p.m. How often do you get the chance to attend a service in a 365-year-old church so I decided to go. It was beautiful and standing room only.

By far, the best part was listening to the Christmas Carols being played on this huge pipe organ that is upstairs in the back of the church.

Misc items: And now for some tidbits of misc information.....

• The security here is amazing.  There are bicycle police on the River Walk and there were several in the Plaza last night near the church. I passed several bicycle police when I walked the 2 blocks to the church. In the hotel, the elevator won't go up without you putting your room key in it. 
• My hair is thrilled to bet back to soft water! All the curl and body is back...
• I am not one for sitting in a hotel room - never have been and probably never will at this age. When I was working and traveling, I never ordered room service. The only time I stayed in my room was to work in the evenings. Here, I take my camera and Kindle and go set along the River Walk or just set on the hotel's balcony. 

Two more days here and then I head down to Corpus Christi. I'm not looking forward to the rain tomorrow since that may cut into my tourist activities. We'll see....

Another day of tired feet.....

Botanical Gardens:  I'm still trying to get outdoor things done while the weather is still good.  This morning I headed out to the Botanical Gardens. I didn't expect to see a lot of flowers in bloom and I was correct although I still enjoyed it.

There were a lot of red flowers including poinsettias everywhere.  I have never seen an Amaryllis this big - it was at least 2 feet tall above the container it was in. 

This was different!  The "chess board" was made out of 3' squares. You could either play chess or checkers on it. 

Way back on the property, in some woods, was a "bird house". It was enclosed, the humans were in the house and there was a glass wall to watch the birds. The birds were loose and came and went. There were a couple of squares cut out in the wall so you could stick your camera through to take better pics. Don't know what species this guy is but he was pretty. 

The orange thing on the right is half an orange.  They had put the oranges out everywhere and the birds seemed to like them. 

This guy had just been chased by 3 other squirrels but hung onto his acorn. 

San Fernando Cathedral:

This cathedral is one of the oldest active cathedrals in the United States. It was build around 1738-1750 by Canary Island settlers. Over 5,000 people attend mass here every week.

Inside the cathedral looking towards the alter. 

The alter area is beyond beautiful. 

Just inside the door is this casket that contains the remains of 3 of the Alamo hero's - Travis, Crockett and Bowie. 

The cathedral is only about 2 blocks from my hotel and I can hear the carols they started playing around 4 p.m. today. Nice touch for Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas everyone!