A Texas Road Trip 2.9 - Bexar County Courthouse - Revisited (Texas No. 42)

The second day of the trip concluded in San Antonio.  My daughter and I spent last Christmas there and we had very gray, washed-out days.  I vowed to return to get a better shot of one of the largest and most beautiful courthouses in Texas, the Bexar (pronounced "bear") County Courthouse.  I made a reservation at a downtown hotel and I was afraid of the traffic conditions coming in at 5:30 in the afternoon, but downtown was quiet and peaceful, nothing like what we experienced the week of Christmas.  I checked in, headed back out, found a free parking place a short two blocks away and walked over for a second chance at this beauty.

Constructed:  1892-1896
Architectural style:  Romanesque with Spanish influences
Materials:  Pecos red sandstone and Burnet pink granite with red and green tiles
Architect:  James Riely Gordon, Texas's master courthouse architect
Original construction cost:  $621,000

The original post can be found HERE.

Another repeat of the December trip was a meal at Mi Tierra Cafe Y Panaderia, the oldest restaurant in San Antonio located in Market Square.  My hotel was directly across the street and I wanted another opportunity to see the ever evolving mural of folks associated with San Antonio.  Here are two panels from the huge mural which wraps around two walls of the inner portion of the restaurant, which opened in 1941 and has the capability of seating 500 guests.  It never closes and it celebrates Christmas every day with decorations of Christmas trees, lights, and tinsel all over the place.

This was a long, hard day.  And I have failed to tell you of all my troubles on this trip.  The first day I experienced GPS problems  Someone (no doubt me!) put in an erroneous setting when I updated the maps before I left and every time I went through a town it had me going to the strangest places.  I experienced delays of a couple of hours wandering around country roads until I finally discovered the problem and reprogrammed the device.

On this second day at lunchtime I noticed when I visited the ladies room that my face appeared to be sunburned.  I've lived in Texas and Arizona my entire life and I've never experienced a sunburn to this degree.  I actually purchased sun screen and a big floppy hat but by the end of the day my face was red enough that people were staring.  And although I made ten stops during the day, my usual exposure was no more than about five minutes with the exception of my second stop of the day when I was probably in the sun about 10 minutes before noon.  That evening I checked to see if perhaps any of my medications might be to blame, although none were particularly new.  That's when I discovered that there was a recent warning that, although rare, photosensitivity issues with one medication could be severe.  I would have to see what the next day would bring.