The Alamo

So, this one's pretty straight forward. When you move here, you just kind of feel obligated to go to The Alamo. Brandon kept remarking on how centrally located it is in downtown, I had to keep reminding him that that's backwards: The Alamo isn't at the center of San Antonio, San Antonio was built around The Alamo. San Antonio - and Texas, for that matter - exists because of The Alamo. 

 Brandon contemplates the battle of The Alamo

I went once before, when I flew down here with my dad to look at apartments. But we only did a brief walkthrough. This time, Brandon and I decided to really get the whole Alamo experience. We read the plaques, looked at the exhibits, walked around the courtyard, admired the trees (which are really part of the museum experience as well - a lot of them were donated to commemorate the event.)

Like most things in San Antonio, it's not a huge activity that will eat up your whole day, but it's definitely worth checking out. The story of The Alamo is nearing 200 years old. A lot of people since then have wanted to commemorate the event, so there are a lot of shrines, plaques and monuments around the courtyard, many of which have their own story.

For instance, there is a gigantic oak tree in one of the small courtyards. It was moved there over 100 years ago by a man who started the first tree transplantation company in Texas. The story cracks me up, because no one believed that adult trees could be transplanted, it was a new technology at the time. And the guy who introduced it decided to donate a tree to The Alamo. It's a really cool tree, its branches are over 50 feet long, they're all windey and need to be held up by poles and wire. Brandon took a few pictures.

Now that we've done the one truly quintessential San Antonio tourist activity, we're ready to start checking out the towny activities; the hole-in-the-wall restaurants no one knows about, the out-of-the-way super-cheap movie theaters, the locally owned thrift stores and bakeries.....

It should be a fun two years.