Welcome to the Park Avenue Photo Friday diary and open thread. Each Friday, people are encouraged to join us in sharing their pictures of the national parks, state parks and other major parks and to vote on which park will be the subject of our next Things to Know Before You Come column of travel advice and tips on visiting the parks.
The Park Avenue group has settled into a routine of three weekly diaries: our Tuesday column Things to Know Before You Come, our Thursday Park feature and our Photo Fridays Open Thread.
So far I've been caring the load in organizing and facilitating the diaries and would like to ask if anyone out there would be willing to help. My work schedule is going to be increasing in the next few weeks such that I won't have as much time to devote to blogging activities. I'd like it if one or more people could volunteer to help run the Things to Know Before You Come column. It would obviously be best if the person that facilitates that week's column has actually been to the park being discussed or has time to do some research for decent tips, time I'll be short of. I'd hate for it to have to go on hiatus due to my work schedule, especially since the first two have made the Rec List and generated a lot of attention for us. So if you are willing to take on some responsibility in helping with that column each week, I'd be grateful. If you'd like to be the leader/coordinator for it, even better. I'll still coordinate the weekly park feature scheduling the diaries and such. So if you are interested, send me a message. Thanks and without further ado, some pictures to get this Friday started...
Mission San Juan Church part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, San Antonio, Texas
Mission San Juan is one of the four old Spanish missions of San Antonio preserved through the National Park Service. Four of the five such missions plus several other Spanish era structures including the Espada Dam and Aqueduct make up the National Historical Park. The fifth mission complex, Mission San Antonio de Valero, is in private hands, namely the Daughters of the Texas Revolution, due to the mission's significance 175 years and two weeks ago. You see, Mission San Antonio de Valero is more commonly known by another name, the Alamo. The four missions that are part of the park also serve as living connections to the community. These weren't just churches to those living in the mission compounds 200 plus years ago. They are still churches today, actively used as parishes by the Archdiocese of San Antonio. While the structure and grounds are maintained by the NPS, the interiors are the domain of the Church in a relationship unique to this unit of the NPS.
The Pecos Mission Church at Pecos National Historical Park near Santa Fe, New Mexico
Built in the early 1700's, this is the second mission church that stood at this site replacing an earlier larger church built in the early 1600's that was destroyed by the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 that drove the Spanish from New Mexico for a time. It was constructed on the foundation of the prior church and served to forcibly convert the native people of the Pecos pueblos, numbering about 2,000 inhabitants, after the Spanish returned and exacted revenge upon the native peoples. Pecos was a major center for trade at the time, strategically located to facilitate commerce between the tribes of the Great Plains and those of the Southwest.
The Reconstructed Birthplace of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, near Stonewall, Texas
While the original home where LBJ was born was destroyed, this home preserves its character, rebuilt on the same site based upon pictures and the President's memory. Once rebuilt in the 1960's, LBJ used it as a guest house for visitors to his ranch, where he spent a significant portion of his Presidency. Today, it has been decorated with period furniture to look as it probably did 103 years ago when the President was born. The house has a dog trot design, two wings separated by a breezeway, but connected under the same roof. The front right part of the house was the room where LBJ was born and served as his parents bedroom. The front left room was the nursery where LBJ lived until the family moved into the town named for LBJ's ancestor, Johnson City. A living room and kitchen are also on the left side. The home is a long stones throw from the Johnson Family cemetery where the President and Ms Johnson and many of LBJ's ancestors and other family members are buried.