Feeling The Heat!

Good Evening my friends!

Can somebody tell me why every time I complain about the clouds, and the rain, then the day after we get such a HOT day that it makes me regret what I said the day before? LOL

That's exactly what happened this morning, as when we left San Antonio it was 95F and humid.

Someone calls it Texas heat, now I know what they mean! Is this a prelude to what is waiting for us when we get back to Florida? Because I'm not looking forward to it! LOL

Can I please go back to Wyoming and play with the snow balls?

All right, all right, I know I can't, therefore I'll just leave it like this! After all, I'm somehow looking forward to getting back to Fort Lauderdale and my routine, especially the gym, because after eating out for so long, and not exercising, well, you can see the result in most of the pictures! ;-)

But let's get back to what happened today!

As I mentioned yesterday, we wanted to go back visit some of the five San Antonio Missions, and so we did.

We went back to "Mission Concepcion", the one that really fascinated me so much yesterday, and "Mission Espada", that apparently, Franciscan Friars still inhabit.

I was right about "Mission Concepcion", and allow me to play with words here when I say that this place was “simply beautiful in its simplicity”.

There has been some restoration work in the past, to try to bring the frescos on the walls back to their original splendor. It was certainly not the work of Michelangelo, nor Giotto, but still, I really appreciated the effort that these Franciscan Friars put into this magnificent project.

Inside the small rooms under the “Portico”, visitors are guided through a series of explanatory panels on how the Friars approached the natives, and how they tried to convert them to Catholicism. It was certainly not an easy task.

Overall, it’s a great feeling to step into the past (the mission was established in 1716 as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in East Texas, and then moved to San Antonio in 1731) and see what these courageous men have been able to achieve. Most of the buildings are original, that means, they haven’t been reconstructed, definitely a must of history buffs!

"Mission Espada" also revealed to be a masterpiece.

Originally called “Mission San Francisco de la Espada”, it was again a Roman Catholic mission established by Spain in 1731 to convert local Native Americans to Christianity and solidify Spanish territorial claims in the New World.

It's about 5 miles away from "Concepcion", and well worth the trip.

One interesting feature on the main façade of the Church is the “truncated” arch; some say it was actually a mistake made by the architect who wanted to build a bigger arch, but it’s only a supposition and nothing more.

And here is how the inside looks like:

Left the two Missions after sweating a lot under the Texan sun, we had a relatively easy ride from San Antonio to Austin; some heavy traffic leaving San Antonio on I-35N, but other than that, a pretty smooth ride into the Texas State Capitol.

Austin, TX is a beautiful city, and again, it has a river (which means water), and a lake, which is certainly a big plus for me.

The name of the lake is Lady Bird Lake (in honor of Lady Bird Johnson, former First Lady), and it’s a reservoir on the Colorado River formed in 1960 by the construction of the Longhorn Dam.

Our hotel is about 4 miles north of the city center, off I-35; I had done some research on this hotel, and we’ve been very happy with it, as it is relatively easy to commute back and forth to downtown.

Our first stop in Austin, TX for the day has been the Texas State Capitol!

Visitors only need to step into the front door and go to the left, where it says “State Treasury”. Tours start every 15 minutes from here, and lasts approximately 45 minutes.

The Texas State Capitol is the largest State Capitol building, after the National Capitol in D.C..
Our tour guide made a point in reminding us several times that in Texas everything is bigger, which made me think that maybe the male population here have what I would define as a “complex of inferiority” in the middle region of their body (anatomically speaking that is…!).

I’m just kidding, I just wanted to see how many people from Texas will get mad at me for what I wrote (Just to prove my theory, you know…!).

Construction of the Capitol building was funded through an article in the state constitution, which authorized the sale of public lands for the purpose. Considering that in Texas they might have a lack of “size” down there (always according to the “Theory”), but they don’t certainly lack land, they really come out with a fantastic deal!

The builders of the capitol were paid with three million acres (12,000 km²) of land in the Texas panhandle, for a comparable cost of $3.7 million for the original building.

I mentioned already the fact that the State Capitol here in Texas is smaller than the National Capitol in D.C., but I also have to mention that the Capitol here has more floor space than any other state capitol building, and it’s almost 15 feet (5 m) higher than the National Capitol! So, there you go, mission completed for Texas!

The tour guide took us through the two chambers of the Texas State Legislature, the upper house Texas Senate with 31 members, and the lower Texas House of Representatives with 150 members.

Here's another view of the Rotunda:

One thing that really got me curious about Texas is first of all, the size of the two chambers, I thought they had way more senators and representatives (considering they always like to make things bigger and better, right?), but also the fact that the legislature meets in regular session on the second Tuesday in January of each odd-numbered year, and that the Texas Constitution limits the regular session to 140 calendar days.

So, that means that they last met in 2007, and that the new session will be in 2009!

Of course, the Governor can call Senators and Representatives back to Austin, for as many session as he wants, lasting up to thirty days.

The tour guide then went on to tell us a little bit more about how the two chambers work (it was very interesting, but I don’t want to go on and on here with that), and then she took us to the new extension of the Capitol Building, that houses offices, meeting rooms, a gift shop, and a replica of the “Rotunda”, but this time without a ceiling, so that people can go out get some fresh air when they want to.

Overall, we had a great time visiting the State Capitol, and you can’t really beat the price (Zero Dollars!).

Left the Capitol, we went hunting for a Starbucks Coffee where to review the schedule for the rest of the afternoon, and enjoy a good cup of coffee in downtown Austin.

It was too hot to walk long distances, so we did 6th Street and the entertainment district with daylight driving down with the car, and then after that, we decided to give Mount Bonnell a try.

Mount Bonnell is also known as Covert Park, and it’s a prominent point alongside Lake Austin.

It has been a popular picnicking and tourist spot since the mid-1800s, as it provides a vista for admiring the city of Austin, Lake Austin, and the surrounding hills.

If you want to see nice expensive houses, that’s exactly the place where to go. Magnificent Victorian and Neoclassical style houses, are combined in these affluent neighborhoods with ultra modern style condos and big houses, making it for a huge melting pot.

Although it might seem like it would create some confusion, it actually adds in my opinion, a nice touch to it.

Visitors who want to admire the beautiful vista from up the top of the hill, need to climb 100 large steps (so much for not being willing to walk under the sun, right?), that I personally counted going down on the way back to the Parking Lot (I was too busy concentrating on my heart beat on the way up to count them!).

The evening was dedicated to a nice dinner, and again, a stroll down the Entertainment District on 6th Street.

Now we’re back to the Hotel, I’m writing the Journal, and trying to watch the Olympics at the same time, I don’t think it’s going to work!

Good night my friends, tomorrow we move to Houston, TX (that now I know was named after Sam Houston, a 19th century American statesman, politician, soldier, and unfortunately, slave-owner and opponent of abolitionism).

Nico