SAN ANTONIO, April 26, 2011 Downtown Riverwalk.

I met my friend C.J. (from the Dallas area) who was staying downtown on business. While she worked, I strolled the riverwalk away from the shops and restaurants.

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An excellent mosaic depicting the city withe the Hemisfair Tower in the middle. What's the dog doing there? He's just enjoying the riverwalk.

This is the charming courtyard right outside our hotel room. It is the Omni La Mansion.

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The Nix Medical Building was right across the street from the hotel. It is the 3rd most photographed building in San Antonio after The Alamo and The Tower of Americas. Check out the little faces at the bottom of the picture. There is some great architecture in downtown S.A.!!

I LIKE THIS GUY'S GLASSES and ANOTHER ONE IS SMOKING A PIPE!

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Hotel La Mansion built in 1852 by 4 brothers of the Society of Mary, as a school. The river is on the other side.

SAN ANTONIO-APRIL 25, 2011 Witte Museum

Petrified wood. I've been visiting this museum since I was in Jr. High School. It's small and the exhibits don't always interest me...but I love it there. Just wandering around the grounds out back is a treat.

There are many different kinds of buildings out in the back area, mostly used for museum offices..so ya can't go inside.

Very neatly done and well maintained...now all they need is A/C and I'll move right in.

This little fellow said: "take my picture"...so I did.

A snakey wall sconce.

Their back gate is so beautiful...a true work of art. I'd be so proud if I had created this.

This is a little historical house where I used to attend summer art classes in 8th or 9th grade.

Since Fiesta had just ended they had on display some gowns from the 60's and 70's. They each have their own theme. I also really liked the black & white photos of old pictures of San Antonio from the 1890's-1950's.

TEXAS FIRES JUST WON'T QUIT!

These pictures are from Ft. Davis (in west Texas) with McDonald's Observatory in the foreground. Taken about 2 weeks ago.
Just in case somebody reads this (printed out) blog in 10 or 20 or 50 years...I wanted to record something about the wildfires.
They began in March and in the past few weeks have gotten so much worse. Texas has never had fires like this before.
This season 1.65 million acres have burned which is twice as much as usually burns in our state in a year.
Texas has had 30 to 40 fires and with the heat, low humidity and big winds...it's hard going getting them under control. 
Evacuations have taken place from Roatan up in the panhandle to central Texas near San Angelo.  Two firefighters have died.
We have bad...bad...bad..drought most all over the state.
UPDATE: The Forestry Dept. says that 2.1 million acres have burned now.
The fire nearest us is about 200 miles west of San Antonio near Ozona and Pandale. With a switch in the wind today they were hoping the fire would turn and go back over charred ground but that was not the case. The firewall is 30 feet high in some places making it impossible for manpower to fight it from the ground. We are depending on military helicopters and small planes. At least they have plenty of water to suck up from Lake Amistad..... to carry over to the fire.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS IN OUR YARD IN DEL RIO!

This bird is an Orange Oriole of some kind. It was BIG and on the hummingbird feeder. I think it's a Lichtenstein's Oriole also known as an Altamira.

A male Painted Bunting. All of the photos on this blog I had to get off the internet. My camera doesn't zoom that well and birds are fast critters. They are a member of the Cardinal family.

Another Oriole picture. Ours looked like this. We sure ain't in Pecos anymore! We also have tons of red finches, dove, hummingbirds, cardinals etc. We must be getting REALLY old if we are accidentally watching birds and then dragging out the bird book to identify. Only crispy critters do that.

MEXICAN FRITILLARY CATERPILLAR & BUTTERFLY.

This is an internet photo.

Also an internet photo...I put a picture on this blog last year that I took- asking "what is it?"...because I couldn't find it on the internet...after alot of looking and looking I found it. These are all over our yard every morning.

I took this picture last year..pretty good huh? You can see pollen on the butterfly's wings. (click on it to enlarge) At the time I did not know that it was what the caterpillar turns into. O.K....biology lesson over.

BATTER UP!!!!!!!!!!!

The Del Rio Rams Baseball Team is not doing very well. But it's Ol' Geno's favorite sport so he loves going out and supporting the team. I know he wishes HE was their coach!

THIS-N-THAT.....

I saw this bird this morning in the backyard. Looked it up in the ol' bird book. I didn't take this picture...got it off the internet. It is a Vermilion Flycatcher...not to be confused with the beautiful, yellow, screechy Kiskadee Flycatcher (of which we have many). Spring is really here. Trees green, hummingbirds arrived yesterday and I hung up my 2 feeders. They are already battling it out over the nectar. UPDATE: These birds are trying to drink out of the hummingbird feeders! Don't know if they are getting anything.

My snapdragons are sparse, but pretty colors.

The first gardenia of the season. This bud was on the bush for four months and hung on all winter. The plant is small but I can see TEN more buds coming!

An Odessa teacher and a Del Rio teacher trading classroom stories in Pecos. Alonzo taught with Gene at the TYC in Pyote. Gene's 'spring break' knee pads are so stylish.

Two Steve's-west Texas boys watching other west Texas boys find a gas leak in the alley in Pecos.