I've been hoping we could visit some of the missions to finish out our Texas History studies this year. Last week I started thinking that the weekend would be a great time since we didn't have anything going on. Unfortunately I stayed up very late and was worried one of the kids wasn't feeling well. But once I got out of bed at 10:00am (whoa), it seemed like it might be a good day for a drive after all.
(These first photos all taken by Mary Clare)
Goliad State Park holds Mission Espiritu Santo. Actually the official
title is "Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga" (Mission
of Our Lady of the Holy Spirit of Zuniga). It was founded on Lavaca Bay but moved to this location on the San Antonio River in 1749.
They have a small museum. Here's a fuzzy shot of a little diorama of the mission.
A stone for tortilla-making!
These are some of the original stone walls of what they believe was a sacristy (preparation room) for the Franciscan priests.
(Now photos taken by me)
The mission fell into ruin in 1830 and was restored in 1936-1939.
(I should've brought my other lens! The portrait lens isn't the best for architecture.)
But the stone walls are original. They used to be 10 feet high.
Ants!
We decided to go on the nature trail while we waited for our tour to begin.
Finally Tommy wakes up and joins our hike. (This trail is not ideal for strollers!)
Ellie finds coins wherever we go! But on this walk she found four dollar bills!
They were preparing for a big concert in the church, but we were able to take a little walk around.
The girls listening to the tour guide. They're obviously captivated ;-)
It was a nice little tour around the grounds. Lots of boy scouts there!
Little boys and sticks.
Some artifacts
Weaving looms
Ironically, we have a framed print of this mission that I bought at a small antique store when we were first married (or maybe even before). It now hangs in our bathroom, and I never knew what it was! Now we have a special memory to go with it.
After the tour, we drove down to see the river, but it was not the most kid-friendly spot. So we packed back up and were off on our last part of this adventure!
Presidio la Bahia coming next!
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