Odds & ends from the mini-vacation

[mellicious]

I put pictures up on Flickr - they're the bulk of this set. As I said, I've been to the Alamo many times before but I don't know that I've ever taken pictures before. (Although there may well be some in my mom's pictures.)



There is one of these billboards every mile or two all the way from the edge of Houston to, um, wherever this Buc-ee's is - Luling, maybe. Wherever it is, it's 106 miles from Katy, where the signs start. I think every one of them are different, and I kept saying we ought to make a list of the funniest ones, but we never did. I know that one about 35 or 40 miles away said, "YOU CAN HOLD IT" - and one said something to the effect of "YOUR THRONE AWAITS." They do have really nice restrooms, I'll give them that. (We didn't stop there on the way but we did on the way back.) Oh, and one coming out of San Antonio said, "TWO WORDS: CHOCOLATE FUDGE" - and sure enough, we came out of there with fudge. It was awfully good, too - although admittedly fudge is a pretty hard thing not to do well. (I wonder if they actually had beaver nuggets. I didn't think to check.)

Also visible in that picture are some evening primroses - the wildflowers are really pretty this year. I know last year when we went that direction I was complaining about them. Maybe we were just too late for bluebonnets last year, or it was something about the weather, but this year they were everywhere. Unfortunately I never did get a decent picture.



"Baby ducks!!" You'll probably have to click over to really see much of the ducks, if you're interested, but not only was the duck family interesting, it was very interesting watching people react to them - in particular, two different tourist boats stopped dead in the water to make sure everybody got a good look. (Actually it was almost definitely more than one duck family, because not only were there an astounding nineteen chicks total - I only know this because the lady at the next table was counting - but they also did not appear to all be the same age.)



Also, have you ever actually paid attention to the architecture of the Alamo before? Well, I hadn't. But it's really quite nice, and they pointed out traces of some decorative frescoes on the interior walls that appear to match this scrollwork.

Comments

[maribou]

Ducks are SO CUTE (and yes, I clicked through for the closeup shots:) )

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey, Buc-ee's is still around!!

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

They are scattered all around in rural areas in Texas, as far as I can tell. That particular one is (as you might guess) really gigantic - sort of like the old Stuckey's stores, really, a combination convenience store/gift shop/restaurant. (Although I didn't pay much attention to what kind of food they had other than the fudge!)