On A Mission.....

 Yesterday, Catherine and I were on a mission to visit the San Antonio Missions National Park.  We have been before but wanted to check out the new urban bike trail.  It had a "soft" opening in March.  We loaded up the bikes and headed for Mission Concepcion.


Mission Concepcion was  originally founded in east Texas to keep the French from Louisiana out of Spanish territory. It moved to San Antonio in 1731.  The church  took over 20 years to build. It was dedicated in 1755 and is the oldest "unrestored" stone church in America.  It was built directly on bedrock so the roof and walls have maintained their integrity.  

 After the mission, visit we headed out on the bike trail.  It is a great trail.  A very wide sidewalk with vegetation being planted on either side.  The river has been cleaned up and the bridges and trail side parks and benches are done with beautiful stonework.  On to Mission San Jose....

 Not so fast....  About 1/2 way there, we came to a fence.  It seems the trail is not quite extended all the way to the southern missions.  Currently, it runs from the Witte Museum which is north of downtown, along the river walk to just past Mission Concepcion.

 We stopped to read a little bit about the project.  It's mission is not just a recreational trail, but restoration of the river ecosystem.  The Mission Reach project is being managed by the San Antonio River Authority and funded by County, City and Army Corp of Engineers.  We pronounce it a good use of tax dollars. 

 We road the rest of the way to Mission San Jose on the "Mission Road" with all the cars, and past some of the less scenic parts of San Antonio.  Mission San Jose is the largest of the San Antonio Missions.

 The entire mission complex was restored in the 1930's by the "Works Project Administration". The missions were not just churches, but  communities and this one gives visitors the opportunity to see how people lived.  I am looking through the window of  one of the living quarters.  The living quarters and storage rooms are part of the wall that surrounds and protects the entire complex. 

 We walked around the mission, rode back to the trail and headed north towards downtown.  We rode to the Lone Star Brewery.  Lone Star was another of my favorite cheap beers in college. Pearl and Lone Star used to have puzzles on the underside of the bottle caps.  The more you drank the harder they were to solve :).  The brewery has been vacant since 1996.  It is used for special events now but is slated to become another mixed use urban renewal project.  Good things happening in San Antonio.

As we headed back to the car, we stopped to watch this cormorant in the river.  It caught a large fish - maybe too large.  It was still working on swallowing, when we decided to get going. It was uplifting to see what a great job is being done on cleaning up and restoring the river.  It was a great day. 
Today, we need to start packing up and reorganizing. Tonight we are having dinner on the river walk with Catherine's parents. See you down the road.....