Texas - Part 1

We spent our time over Easter exploring the great state of Texas. As always, we jammed a fair bit in and saw some some fantastic sights, ate fabulous food and learnt more about US and Texas history. No guns were seen but lots of hats and boots were counted.

We flew into Houston and hired a car to drive our way up to Dallas/Fort Worth. The map shows our route map and we stayed one night each in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Waco and Fort Worth (Dallas).  The weather was warm, mid 20s C.

HOUSTON

We took the early morning flight into Houston and spent the day at the NASA Space Centre – this was 'a day for me' as Deb had seen enough space stuff in Florida at the Kennedy Space Centre. The Houston Space Centre was not as extensive as Kennedy but I still enjoyed it. The space center is very educational focused for kids so there were lots of activities and hands on things for kids to do. We looked around at the various exhibits and I can imagine how fantastic this would have been to see as a kid.

 

One highlight for me was seeing the shuttle on top of the shuttle carrier Boeing 747 aircraft. The shuttle is a replica of the Indepedence shuttle and together they are a huge couple of beasts. We climbed the stairs to walk through the aircraft and shuttle to read information about how they were designed and used. The aircraft carried the shuttles from its landing sites after space flight back to the Kennedy space centre and was also used to test the shuttles as they were being designed. I am always in awe of these achievements and love having the opportunity to see them.

The second highlight was taking the little tram trolley tour to see the former mission control center. This was used during the Gemini, Apollo and many space shuttle missions until 1992 when a new extension was built to control future space missions. The room was retrofitted back to the equipment used during the Apollo missions and it was cool to see the room where they controlled man landing on the moon and many other important space flights such as Apollo 13 "Hey Houston, we have a problem here". The memorabilia on the walls was impressive and again, I just looked at everything in awe.

We stopped by the Saturn V rocket display on the way back to the visitor centre. We saw this rocket in Florida and it is the biggest rocket made and was used for the Apollo missions and launching Skylab. This is a bloody HUGE rocket, massive. Pictures cannot justify its size that is overwhelming in real life.

We stayed the night with one of Deb’s work friends who lives in Houston. We enjoyed a Tex Mex dinner down the road from their house and it was the best mex food I’ve eaten so far. It was sensational and the guacamole was mmmm mmmmm. I love fajitas and these were the best ever. They say Tex Mex is the best Mexican food and that tastes pretty right to me so far. We didn’t see anything more of Houston and friends didn’t seem to rate it very high of interest so we just enjoyed the relax time.

SAN ANTONIO

It was about a three hour drive to San Antonio and our little car felt like the car ‘marker’ from the Monopoly game as we drove on the huge freeways amongst RVs, trucks and SUVs on steroids. We were in Texas after all - everything's big in Texas. We arrived late afternoon and walked around the Riverwalk area which was quite beautiful and unexpected. There were lots of cafes and shops and it was a nice few hours to browse around. We had an early Tex Mex dinner again but it was not a good as that in Houston. A margarita went down nicely and proved my inability to hold more than two sips of alcohol.

The key attraction in San Antonio is the Alamo. Note that Texas was not part of the US at this time - it was occupied by Mexicans and immigrants from the US at the time (Texians).

The Alamo is a former fortress and battle that played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. My brief summary is that the Alamo mission was first built by the Spanish as a mission to educate Amercian Indians after conversion to Christianity. Ten years later it became a fortress around 1803 and housed the Mexican para military. During the Texas Revolution the Mexicans surrendered the fort to the Texian Army in December 1835 following the siege of Bexar. The Mexicans were not happy and later attacked the fort in the six day Battle of Alamo (23 Feb – 6 Mar 1836). All 200 Texians defenders were vastly outnumbered and killed and the Mexican president was especially cruel. Famous names of those 200 Texians were beaver tail hat man Davy Crockett, James Bowie and William B Travis. 

In April, Texians were driven by revenge to drive all Mexicans out of Texas and joined the Texian Army to defeat the Mexicans. In April, the Texan Army attacked and defeated the Mexicans. The Texians were heard to yell ‘Remember the Alamo’ as they fought. The Mexican President was forced to order his troops out of Texas ending their control of the province. It’s been an interesting history lesson and I only have the learned the express version. But I finally appreciate who Davy Crockett is and what/why the Alamo is so important in Texas history.

We took the one hour guided tour throughout the Alamo and it was well worth it. There are lots of exhibits and information to read and look at and the grounds are quite big. The Alamo was a heroic struggle against overwhelming odds – a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

After the Alamo, we took one loop of the hop on/off bus around the city and it was not impressive. San Antonio doesn’t have much more to look at besides the Alamo and the Riverwalk. I didn’t feel like we were in Texas but more like Mexico as the cultural influence is quite strong.

The Alamo

SALTLICK BBQ

Some of our US friends kindly offered some tips for our Texas trip and one big recommendation was the Saltlick BBQ. This was a must-see. It was about half hour before Austin so we arrived late afternoon and planned this as our early dinner. Crikey, it was busy. It was in the middle of nowhere and the wait was 2 hours for a table, or, we could order takeaway and sit in the grassy picnic area – we chose the latter. It was about 45 minute before we got food but it passed quickly as we took in the atmosphere, smells and conversation with local Texans. Thankfully, the BBQ was excellent. I love Brisket, Deb loves ribs and we got our carb and protein overload in spades today. I’m glad we were told about this place cause it was pretty nice food. Texas BBQ is different to BBQ in the south but it was still nice.

AUSTIN

The capital of Texas. 

We were full from our BBQ feed but I was scratching to go out and explore. I noticed a trendy 24hr donut place called VooDoo Doughnuts. I was laughing at the donut names – Gay Bar Donut (coloured accordingly), Cock and Balls (shaped accordingly), old dirty bastard donut, dirty snowballs donut. I couldn’t decide which ‘one’ so I got a few and ate a bit of each. Total sugar rush but worth the experience. 

In the morning we will hit the segways for a city tour and explore a bit more ourselves before heading to Waco.

I'll continue the Texas report in my next post but here's a few pics to finish with.