texas – Crawford Family Sabbatical

January 26, 2014

On a Mission in San Antonio

Well we’d not been to a big city for awhile, and so we were excited to be both out of the desert and in a nice city for a bit. We didn’t have a ton planned, but we knew we wanted to see the Alamo, and the River Walk for sure. We had no idea we were in for such a treat with the weather. Also, I had Facebook messaged our old neighbors that we had not seen for 14 years or so… Craig and Christen Wilson. Luckily, they lived in Boerne (just outside San Antonio), and they were free for dinner one night.

We camped in a really nice RV park near SeaWorld. There were tons of seasonal campers there, and I can see why. Great service, nice people, great weather, landscaping etc. This meant any exploring in the city would be a 45 minute drive, but it worked out great.

Our first day, we headed downtown to hit the River Walk, the Alamo, and one of the other missions south of town. The weather was perfect for exploring the city on foot! We were all so happy, soaking up the glorious sunshine!

We had a great lunch at a Mexican restaurant right on the river, then we made our way over to the Alamo. The Alamo was really set up nice, and we enjoyed the movie, as well as the artifacts (weapons!) in the museum. Too bad there are no cameras allowed inside!

After that, we jumped back in the jeep and went south to one of 5 local missions, the San Jose mission, which is also a National Monument. We did the movie, and another Jr Ranger program there, and got to explore the old Mission. The Church was beautiful, and still in use. We lit candles and prayed for our friends and family back home in the midst of challenges.

The next day, we really just messed around. We did some school, Kim did some shopping, and I took the kids to the movie (Frozen… it was the best Disney film I’ve seen for years). Then that night, we met our old Neighbors for Dinner. It was so nice to catch up and hear about how their life has been over the last few years. It brought flooding back some great times living next door to them back in O’Fallon years ago.

No time to linger, we had a date set to get to Panama City Beach Florida for Christmas!

Kids at the River Walk. Kane must have been chilly in the shade, his arms are pulled inside his shirt!

The mexican restaurant where we ended up having lunch.

Boat tours like this come by periodically, and we tried to eavesdrop on the history of the area.

Waiting for girls to come back from restroom, and fighting off the birds!

Everybody loved the weather… sunny and high 60’s.

Kat had fun talking to the birds on the river. Pidgeons and Ducks!

This hat that Kat got for early Christmas present, will never again look this good!

Old cannons at the Alamo, not sure they really did much good against Santa Ana’s men.

Beautiful trees around here tell us we are not in the desert anymore!

More missions, more national monuments, more jr ranger badges!

January 9, 2014

Fort Davis & McDonald Observatory, Texas 12-11-13

Originally, we were going to head to Carlsbad Caverns after Albuquerque, but changed our plans with the temps being in the 20/30s and freezing fog. We decided to head to Big Bend, but stop in Fort Davis, Texas for 2 nights. We planned on trying to make it to McDonald Observatory(it has some of the darkest skies in the US) for the 7pm Star Party. The Star Party is a nighttime program where you learn about the constellations and they are pointed out, as well as, viewing through the telescopes. Sometimes you can even see Saturn’s rings! Oh, I wanted to go, unfortunately, we did not realize we would be moving into C.S.T. there, so we did not make the night program. It is only offered twice a week.

The next day we started at Fort Davis, which is a National Historical Site. Fort Davis was a key defense fort in west Texas. From 1854 to 1891, troops stationed at the post, protected emigrants, freighters, mail coaches and travelers on the San Antonio-El Paso Road. The San Antonio-El Paso road was the most southern route to the west and the gold fields of California. Primarily, they were protecting the travelers from the Comanche and Apaches. It is one the best remaining examples of a frontier military post.

Looking across the lawn to the Commanding Officer's Quarters from the Men's Barracks — Looking across the lawn to the Commanding Officer’s Quarters from the Men’s Barracks

Commanding Officer's Quarters — Commanding Officer’s Quarters

Cool game that you spin and move your wagon forward. It tells you something that might have happened to you on the trail.

That's the Commissary in the background. — That’s the Commissary in the background.

We ate lunch in the car on the way to the McDonald Observatory for the last tour of the day. We were the only ones on our tour, so it was like a private tour. We learned about the history of the Sun, its formation, and what they expect the Sun to do over its expected 5-6 billion year remaining “lifetime”. It was cloudy or we would have seen a live feed from the sun, but they showed us a still picture from the day before. We learned so much! Did you know the sun is 108 Earths wide?

After the sun presentation, we headed up the hill in a shuttle to the top of Mt. Locke to 107″ dome. We got to see the 107″ telescope and hear about its history. Then we headed over the the Hobby Eberly Telescope. They were working on it the day we visited, because they are going to start a 3 year project to search for dark energy. They will collect data on at least 1 million galaxies that are 9 billion to 11billion light years away, yielding the largest map of the universe ever produced! Isn’t that incredible and mind boggling?

mcdonaldobs1 — View from top of Mt. Locke

January 8, 2014

Big Fun @ Big Bend

There are a lot of factors that determine the quality of our experiences. In some cases, it’s not fair to rate a location purely based on our overall enjoyment. Oft times, the way we approach a place determines how much fun we have. Big Bend was a “perfect storm” of National Park enjoyment.

Part of this is the Park itself does have a ton to offer. At it’s core, it’s an incredible specimen of desert (the Chihuahuan Desert), but it also has a river, mountains and… access to whole other country!

On top of that, WE OWNED this place. I feel like we left no stone unturned at Big Bend, and I for one, had no expectations for the National Park, and it blew me away.

We did two great hikes (Boquillas Canyon and Lost Mine). We got “rowed” across the border by a Mexican, and rode Donkey’s into Boquillas for lunch. We built a tree swing at the campsite. We watched a meteor shower. We floated the Rio Grande in a guided raft. We backcountry camped in the middle of nowhere in 23 degree temps! We saw a wild rattlesnake and tarantula. It was amazing!

This is one place that we probably don’t need to visit again, not because it’s not great, but because we kind of maxed out our first visit.

Arrival – Boquillas Canyon – Boquillas Mexico