San Antonio Visit - The Alamo

These are pictures of The History Shop in San Antonia, Texas. We went here before touring The Alamo.

The History Shop is located at 713 E. Houston St., San Antonio TX.

It is worth the small admission to get in. If I remember correctly it was $3.00 per adult, children 12 and under were free, and ages 12 to 18 were $1.00.  They are open daily from 9:00 -5:30.

This is the diorama of the Alamo. There is a light and sound display that is narrated by Phil Collins. Phil Collins bought this display from the gentleman that built it. Mr. Collins is an avid Alamo collector. After purchasing it, he donated the Diorama to the History Shop and include the light and sound display. The admission is small because Mr. Collins wanted to give everyone the opportunity to visit the display.

This is the nice gentleman that runs the shop. He gave us lots of background info on the shop and the Alamo. Also, he was very patience and understanding of a certain 3year old's behavior - need I say more.

The owners of the shop have dug under the shop and have found artifacts from the late 1830's.

This is the best photo that we took of The Alamo.  During the day, there were lots of people in front of the building and we couldn't get a great photo.  The photo above was taken as were headed back to the car.  As I stood taking this photo, I had to take a minute and think about how the soldiers felt at night and what they must have thought about as they walked around the front of this building which served as a church, powder magazine, and quarters.

All of the children are learning extensively about Texas History, and  Native Americans, We learned that The Alamo was originally a mission that served the missionaries and Indians for close to 70 years. In the 1830's Mexican troops occupied The Alamo. Texan and Tejano (Texan by Mexican or Latin-American descent) volunteers defeated the Mexican troops and took over the fort.  Then in 1836, Santa Anna's (a Mexican General) army caught the volunteers by surprise. Close to 200 volunteer defenders of The Alamo held off General Santa Anna and his army for 13 days. The truth is that they were out numbered. Two of the most remembered defenders were Jim Bowie, knife fighter, and Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman from Tennessee.  We learned that all the defenders were killed during the battle including Bowie and Crockett. There were several women and children spared and allow to return to their homes along with a slave. The Alamo will always be remembered because it played an important part in Texas gaining their freedom from Mexico and ulimately becoming part of the United States after years of Independence.

For those of you who want a little history about The Alamo you can check out http://www.thealamo.org/

The children are standing in front of part of the Long Barrack facing Alamo St.  This building was used as Infantry and Artillery quarters.

We enjoyed our visit to San Antonio which is rich in history.