Independence

It's been a little while since I've blogged. I haven't had the energy, and I didn't have much adventuring to share. Sadly San Antonio has seen a huge surge in cases of the virus. Just a few stats to give perspective:

• June 1st- news headlines were touting a slow down in cases with a total of 9 new cases that day, and a total of about 2,800 for all of Bexar County.
• As mentioned in Alex's birthday blog post things were worsening so we decided not to take him out to eat for his birthday
• July 3rd- Total cases that day, just a month later, were 1,334. That was the second time that week we had over a thousand cases. Total in Bexar County right now is 14,212! Sadly I don't think it's getting any better any time soon.

It has kind of felt like we're back at the beginning of the pandemic when you were hearing news updates every day with new closures and changes. Since things had started to open back up we had made some fun and what we thought were responsible and socially distant getaway plans for the Fourth of July. Dan's niece, Denice, was going to come hang out with us, and we were going to camp on the beach at Padre National Seashore and watch the fireworks from the deck of the USS Lexington. As things worsened Denice felt it wouldn't be best to travel here, which we were bummed about, but totally understood. Then the fireworks were cancelled in Corpus. And then a few days later they closed the beaches! *sigh*  They even sent out an emergency alert to everyone's cell phones!

I'm not sure how others feel in other parts of the country, but for our family the past few weeks have really kept the pandemic fresh in our minds. It weighs on our moods and keeps affecting our daily lives. I try not to let my mind wander to the future because there is so much uncertainty, but school is just around the corner and we still don't know what that will look like for the boys. Also I feel like the media is always trying to find someone or something to blame for the rise in cases. I know there was definitely a desire to try to return to some sort of normalcy, but why all the blame. What if everyone was really doing their best and the rise was inevitable? This thing is way more serious than we can really comprehend and I think we're all just doing the best we can.

Here's an image that captures how we've been feeling!

Anyways, I'm really not trying to be a drag, but want to accurately document this unique time in history and how it affected our family. 

While most of our days run together and involve us staying home, we have picked a few adventures. Last weekend we drove to Gonzales, TX to check out a few historic sites Dan had previously come across on a motorcycle ride.  

We stopped at Buc-ees, a popular gas station/convenience store in Texas. Had to get a picture of their mascot wearing his mask! 

First up was the jail museum! Sounds a little weird, but we've been to prison museums in Korea, Colorado and now TX. They're pretty interesting!

This jail was built in 1885.

The first system used to help create a sketch of supposed criminals

I loved all the markings on the walls of the prison. There was something striking about it, and for the most part they weren't vulgar like today's graffiti is in bathrooms. 

Ceiling

Original steel doors

Kitchen cupboard

Gallows used for executions. It used to be in the town square but it caused too much of a public problem, so they but it on the second floor of the prison. The last time it was used was in 1921.

This was the key the tour guide was using to open different parts of the prison, and it's the original key!

These next few pics are on the second floor and you could see inside the cells.

This is a picture of the clocktower on the building next to the prison. Legend has it that the last man who was hung on the gallows predicted that the clocks on each side of the tower would never work right again. Apparently right after he died they stopped working, and after multiple tries to fix them they would never sync- some ran fast, some ran slow, etc. Cursed??

After touring the jail we hit a Whataburger drive through and ate our fast food out in the field of the next museum we were going to take a look at, the Gonzalez Memorial Museum.

This musem had a lot of pretty interesting pieces in it, including the actual cannon that Texans know as the "Come and Take it" cannon.

I thought this old newspaper press was neat

Glass marbles

I liked this map hanging above the glass curios

There's the cannon! Funnily enough they built a replica of the cannon right before the uncovered the original cannon in the Guadalupe River. The replica sits outside the museum.

War weapons are neat, but this WWI bomb from a wrecked plane is pretty cool!

Alex liked the walls of the memorial museum because of the shell imprints

This statue in front of the memorial museum honors those who helped defend the Alamo

It's interesting that even driving an hour and half each way to Gonzalez and doing a little touring was a nice break to the monotony of being home all day every day. Sometimes you just need to get out for a bit.

As for our Independence Day we did a small BBQ and swimming with a good friend, outside, and then did an escape room. Covid-19 regulations allow us to do escape rooms privately, so no fear of the strangers messing it up for us. We did a room at Great Room Escape called Anubis, and escaped with one minute to spare! It was a fun room with clues that were hard but made sense and required some teamwork to get through. Yay! 

And it's not fourth of july without some sort of fireworks, so we bought a few at a local stand and had a 'blast' setting them off. 

I hope you've all found a way to 'escape' your worries and keep searching for meaningful ways to use your time! 

Oh, and I keep meaning to mention. Cade has started his own blog, which you can check out here!