The Terrible Catsafterme

Bob and I awoke on the morning of Tuesday, April 1 (he wished me happy birthday) in Kerrville, Texas at the Whitten Inn. This was not our intended destination, but because we had taken the wrong turning in San Antonio, this is where we parked ourselves and I immediately plotted our substitute course. It started with our continental breakfast at the Whitten which included waffles shaped like the state of Texas. From there we headed to Fredericksburg…

Fredericksburg was a neat looking town to start with. It was the kind of town you would expect to see in Texas, with a small main street much like Crawford, although this has more of a western feel – like you might walk right into a saloon. Instead we headed for the former Nimitz Hotel – which was originally purchased in 1855 by Charles Nimitz the father of WW2 hero Admiral Chester Nimitz. It had been restored on the outside to appear to be a historic hotel, while the inside was a shrine to Admiral Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet during World War 2. He signed for the United States when Japan surrendered onboard the Missouri in 1945.

I had no idea of what to expect here. The tribute to Nimitz inside the hotel was interesting but nothing major. Little did I realize that the museum actually encompassed the entire block and was actually a grand-scale museum dedicated to World War 2, specifically the war in the Pacific. There was a huge Memorial Wall and Veterans Walk of Honor, a Plaza of the Presidents who served in the war, a Japanese Garden of Peace, and a gigantic building which housed the 20,000 square feet of the National Museum of the Pacific War.

 Outside the Nimitz Hotel area of the Pacific War Museum

 The Plaza of the Presidents

Next to my buddy

This doesn’t look like a good idea

The exhibits were top-notch, complete with animatronic battle scenes, relics and artifacts, and enough photos, information, and tales from the war that it would be easy to spend an entire day there. They even had a midget Japanese submarine on display which was captured off the coast of Pearl Harbor. As we left, one of the workers told us that plans for the museum were to expand it three times its current size.

With the captured Japanese midget submarine

I picked a brochure on the way out that asked for interviews with WW2 vets and took it home to give to my Grandpa. I also purchased a paperweight with a small piece of the U.S.S. Missouri displayed inside. It was a great surprise and a place well worth visiting. I would recommend that anyone come to this little town off the beaten path.

We spent a little over an hour in Fredericksburg before heading about 45 minutes east toward Stonewall, site of the LBJ Unit of the Lyndon B. Johnson Historical Park. Upon exiting the car to pose with the sign immediately below, I was greeted with my first Texas snake.

 After the snake scare

Official NPS sign, just down the road from LBJ’s birth home and grave

Here we saw a film of LBJ giving a tour of his birth house and then boarded a bus which took us to said house, his final resting place, and a tour of his entire ranch including the exterior of the home in which he and Lady Bird resided until their respective death. Following this tour, we moved on a few miles down the road to Johnson City, site of Johnson’s boyhood home. These and all related LBJ sites can be seen here.

Entering Johnson City

We had spent about three and a half hours at all of the Johnson sites and then headed south back to San Antonio. It took about an hour to get there and we arrived at our final major destination of the day around 3:30pm. This was the irreverent and largely famous site of the Alamo.

With typical midwestern naivity, I assumed that the Alamo would be out in the middle of the desert. How surprised I was to find it smack dab in the middle of a thriving downtown city district! We started out with a verbal lecture on the events of the Alamo followed by a video presentation which was actually shown inside one of the remaining fort walls. I had never quite understood the layout of the Alamo, but the building (which was the Alamo) that you so often see is actually just a church which was located in the right rear of the fort. Most of the walls of the fort are now long gone but one major stretch of it still remains.

 Bob and me with the Six Flags of Texas outside the Alamo

 Typical Alamo cannon shenanigans

Yes, I’ll remember it…

Speaking of remains, I had hoped to see the burial site of the remains of Davy Crockett and the heroes of the Alamo. These were located in the San Fernando Cathedral. In truth it is unlikely that these were actually Crockett’s remains, but they were human remains that were found to have been cremated inside the church. But still, this represented the best marker for Crockett’s resting place, so I convinced Bob to walk the seven or eight blocks to the church.

Unfortunately, although we were assured that they would be open (and signs outside the church indicated so), all of the doors were locked. So I settled with a photo of me flipping off the lying, cheating sign. But in actuality, this worked out fine as it gave me an opprotunity to talk a walk around the Riverwalk area of San Antonio and even stop at the Hard Rock Cafe for a much-needed beer. Bob had a milkshake.

Sign on the outside of the San Fernando Cathedral. Unfortunately, we could not get in…

 …and I was eager to show my disdain

 A rare smile and proof that I visited the River Walk

 Overlooking the River Walk

 Hey! There’s me on the bridge

At the San Antonio Hard Rock

A toast, to our trip thus far – about half way done at this point

After returning to the Alamo to pose for photos (and trying to find a numbskull who could successfully snap it without any others in the background of our photo), we left San Antonio about 6:30pm. About an hour later, en route to Uvalde (finally!) we stopped at Hermann Sons Steakhouse in Hondo, Texas. There I enjoyed a lovely pecan-crusted chicken breast.

For a small, unknown town (which was both as far west and south as we got in Texas), Uvalde was exceptionally crowded. We ended up staying in the cheap but acceptable Amber Sky Motel. There would be more adventures the next day.

Greetings from the Alamo. Note the sign looming over the right side for the Crockett Hotel. I’m sure he would have approved.

To be continued in the Texas Capitol…

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 6:39 am and is filed under 2000's - Late, Famous Graves, Historical Locations, Restaurants, US Presidents, Vacations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.