Presidio La Bahia "The Fort of the Bay"

This is a designated National Historic Landmark considered the world's finest example of a Spanish frontier fort. This is the most fought over fort in TX history, having seen participation in six National Revolutions for independence. The cattle industry got it's start in this area too. This is where the cowboys got started. The darkest day in Texas history was the Goliad massacre. There was twice as much loss of life than the Alamo. This Goliad Massacre more than any event in the Texan Revolution proved to the people of the US what manner of warfare confronted the Texans. The chapel here has been in use since 1700's. They still have mass every Sunday at 5:00 P M. At one time the people that came to TX had to join the Catholic church. The first declaration of independence of Texas was signed Dec 20, 1835 in this chapel. It was signed by 92 citizens. We enjoyed our trip to the fort and Goliad. But this was very hard to do a blog on and I don't feel I did it justice. The statue on the front of the chapel (blue), was made by the artist that did Mt Rushmore. She has been the large donor to restore the museum.
Last Sunday afternoon we had banana splits and that is about all our week was about. Oh almost forgot we went out to lunch with another couple to a new Mexican resturant in Portland and it was very good.
On a sad note we lost one of our residence here to brain cancer, She is greatly missed she was quite a worker and had a good time too.
On a sad note we lost one of our old timers (she was younger than us) that have been here every since we started coming here. She has been missed.

Presidio La Bahia

These paintings in the museum are self explanatory. This last picture shows them dancing. This one took my eye because when I was a kid I always heard about dancing the fandago, I had no idea how to do it, but the expression was "Dancing the Spanish Fandago". Low and behold it is a real dance and look how old it is. We always called it the Spanish Fandago.

Presidio La Bahia

This is a timeline showing you how old this old Spanish Fort really is. This cannon had to be left behind and they didn't want the enemy to be able to use it. They plugged it and loaded it and blew it apart. This is in the museum here.
The last picture is of the lady that saved several soldiers lives, by hiding them and giving them treatment. She was considered an angel.

Goliad Tx

This town nows has 1900 people and this is a beautiful old court house. All around the square is old time store fronts. The courthouse is really neat. Of course there is the Hangin Tree restruant. I'll bet it was busy on hangin days. Can you imagine coming from the trial and no second chance. Wonder how many innocent men were hung back then?

Goliad Texas

You'll have to double click on the sign I know it is hard to read but please read it. The sign gives you all the history on the Hangin tree. They showed you no mercy and they didn't give you a retrial like today. I was just thankful Lowell didn't have a rope. I know he has days with me. You know the old saying some things never change. That's me! Anyhow you came out of the courthouse with a rope the day of the trial and bingo.

Goliad TX

Pictures 1 & 2 are pictures of the mission in the state park west of Goliad. We took these on our way home. 3rd picture is a a live oak in the middle of the street. I love these kind of things. 4th picture is the old furniture store. Be sure and double click on this picture so you can see coffins and caskets advertised for sale. These stores were all around the courthouse square.

DISAPPOINTING TRIP

Another week gone out of our lives, just can't believe how fast our time goes. Doesn't matter whether we are here or home it is in fast gear.

Not much happening this week, Lowell went to the men's luncheon in Corpus Christie. I was glad he was able to go and wanted to go. I play cards all the time but you know him and card playing he doesn't unless the grandkids force him.

We decided to take a little trip and look for our whooping cranes. They were not there as you can see all we had was one white egret. Since I need a picture to do the blog, he was elected and that was why we had a disappointing trip.
We went to the civic center on the way home. There was supposed to be a big market type thingy there. Well there was but you talk about expensive whew to rich for our pockets. There was really nothing that we needed either. So home we came but we enjoyed looking at all the big boats on the way.

"Don't ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you are not willing to move your feet."

CONN BROWN HARBOR

Krackels in flight and krackels on the shore. It seems we have about as many krackels as sea gulls and they are full of poop if you know what I mean.

Reflecting on God's faithfulness in the past brings hope for the future.

CONN BROWN HARBOR

Conn Brown Harbor has changed since last year. We knew last year they were putting in the fancy dry stack building. We think Aransas Pass wasted their money building this. We could not see any boats using it. The 2 bottom pictures are boats in dry dock being repaired. There seems to be a lot of that going on. Big barges on the bank getting sand blasted and repaired too.

CONN BROWN HARBOR

I tried to wish everybody a Happy New Year last week but the blog wouldn't let me publish without pictures. Talk about frustrations this blog drives me banansas and I don't need any help. But we wish all of you a very Healthy, Happy and prosperous New Year. We didn't do anything New Years eve but have a quiet dinner the two of us at the Red Lobster. Since we had had a rough 3 months it was nice.